Thunderpuss

Cox also found solo success for himself with his own 2000 single, "Phuture 2000". However, while playing "Tiptoe Thru the Tulips" at a concert in Minneapolis in November of that year, he suffered a further heart attack, and died. Harris mashed up songs by Billy Squier and Fischerspooner to create the song "Everybody Wants You To Emerge" for the Queer Eye For The Straight Guy soundtrack, and Cox recently remixed the Michelle Branch single "Breathe". In September 1996, he suffered a heart attack, but continued to play concerts when he was released from hospital. They split up in late 2003 and both men are pursuing DJ/remix/production work on their own. He also worked with a number of other artists, including Brave Combo (who were his backing band for Girl) and was championed by, and collaborated with, Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. Thunderpuss also put out several singles themselves as artists, including "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag", a fully electronic dance cover of the "Pigbag" song, "Stand Up" (with Latanza Waters), and "FMH" (under the artist name Harris & Cox). He began to release records again, including I Love Me (1995) and Girl (1996), as well as appearing frequently on the Howard Stern Radio Show and Stern's movie, "Private Parts" (1997) and occasional appearances on other TV programs.

They also produced original songs for various artists, including Abigail ("Let The Joy Rise And If It Don't Fit"), Amber ("Taste The Tears"), and Soluna. In the 1990s, interest in Tiny Tim seemed to pick up a little. Blige ("No More Drama" & "Rainy Dayz", with Ja Rule), Céline Dion ("I Want You To Need Me"), Stacie Orrico ("Stuck"), and Kim English ("Higher Things"), among others. He briefly lived in Australia, then moved to Des Moines, Iowa before marrying for the third time (his second marriage had lasted for just one month) and moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota. They also produced hit remixes of songs by Mary J. He continued to play around the United States, and got several lucrative gigs in Las Vegas before things got so bad that in 1985, he resorted to joining a circus for eight months. Their biggest remix success was a hit remix of "It's Not Right But It's Okay" by Whitney Houston. After that, however, the television appearances dried up, and he became rather more obscure.

Over the course of almost six years, Thunderpuss had a very successful career as remixers and producers. Also in 1969, he married Victoria May Budinger ("Miss Vicki") on the Johnny Carson show, a publicity stunt which attracted 40 million viewers (the two divorced eight years later). They also produced Engelbert Humperdinck's 1998 album The Dance Album, but did not use the name Thunderpuss. The following year, he recorded and released two more albums, Tiny Tim's Second Album, and For All My Little Friends, a collection of children's songs. Their first project as Thunderpuss was a cover of the song "I Just Wanna Be Your Everything", with Thea Austin, formerly of Snap! performing vocals. Another notable track was a cover of "Stay Down Here where You Belong," written by Irving Berlin in 1914 to protest the Great War. They didn't start working together as a production team until late 1997, though. "On the Old Front Porch" extends this to a trio, including a boy, the girl he is courting, and her father.

Harris & Cox originally met in the late '80s and remained friends for years, with Harris eventually joining Cox at Interhit. On one track, a version of "I Got You Babe", he sang a duet with himself, taking one part in falsetto, and the other in the baritone range. Cox, an openly straight musician and DJ, had also worked for years as a DJ and producer, producing a megamix of Paula Abdul songs, among other things, and started his own record label, Interhit Records, with Jeff Johnson. The other songs displayed his wide-ranging knowledge of the American songbook, and also allowed him to demonstrate his baritone voice, which was less often heard than his falsetto. Harris, an openly gay musician and DJ, had worked previously as part of several music groups, including Kon Kan, Top Kat, Killer Bunnies and Outta Control, and had also released several singles himself. It contained a version of what was his signature song, "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips", which was a hit when released as a single. Thunderpuss is the (mainly dance) remix/production team of music producers Barry Harris and Carl Cox. In 1968, his first album, God Bless Tiny Tim, was recorded.

As well as his extraordinarily high falsetto voice, his appearance - long curly hair, large nose, six foot one in height and clutching his relatively tiny ukulele - helped him in standing out from the crowd. Appearances on the shows of Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan and Jackie Gleason followed, and he made a name for himself as a novelty performer. This led to a booking on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which turned out to be his big break. Tiny Tim already had something of a cult following around New York when he appeared in the film You Are What You Eat.

He used a number of pseudonyms, but eventually settled on naming himself Tiny Tim, after the character from Dickens' A Christmas Carol (see above). Legend has it that he first sang in a lesbian cabaret bar; whatever the truth of this, he certainly went on to sing in a very wide variety of clubs and bars, as well as entering a large number of talent competitions in an attempt to be discovered. He was born in New York City, the son of a Lebanese father and Jewish mother. Tiny Tim's year of birth is unclear - he lied about his age on a number of occasions, and various sources give 1933, 1932, 1930, 1926, 1923, or 1922, although shortly before his death he said he was 64 years old, which would put his year of birth at 1932. According to www.tinytim.org, and photos taken of his passport and birth certificate, Tiny was born on April 12, 1932.

He was sometimes deridingly referred to as the master of the disturbing. He is generally thought of as a novelty act, though his records display a wide knowledge of American songs and genuine musical talent. He is most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" sung in his distinctive high falsetto. Herbert Khaury (April 12, probably 1923 or 1932 - November 30, 1996), better known by the pseudonym Tiny Tim, was an American singer and ukulele player.

Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips from his 1968 album, God Bless Tiny Tim (ogg format, 16 seconds, 84KB).