Tiny Tim

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. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. In September 1996, he suffered a heart attack, but continued to play concerts when he was released from hospital. The group lost favor in the 1970s but various groupings of singers using the name of The Vogues continued to sing into the new century. 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. Also beginning in 1968, they had hits with recordings of three traditional pop music hits from the 1950s, "My Special Angel," "Till," and "No, Not Much". 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. As their sound was not in step with the trend in rock & roll, their fortunes dwindled, but in 1968, now signed with Reprise Records, they had another hit, "Turn Around, Look at Me," which reached #7 on the Billboard Charts.

In the 1990s, interest in Tiny Tim seemed to pick up a little. Two more hits, "Magic Town" and "The Land Of Milk and Honey," did not reach the same heights but still made Billboard's Top 40 in 1966. 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. Their first hit, "You're The One" (1965) rose to #4 on the Billboard charts and was followed by "Five O'Clock World" which reached the same #4 level. 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. Originally, the group was called "The Val-Airs." After recording one song for Coral Records, "Laurie, My Love," they adopted the name "The Vogues." They soon signed a contract with the small Co & Ce Records label, run by Herb Cohen and Nick Cenci. After that, however, the television appearances dried up, and he became rather more obscure. They consisted of Bill Burkette (lead baritone), Don Miller (baritone), Hugh Geyer (first tenor) and Chuck Blasko (second tenor).

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). The Vogues were a singing quartet from Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. 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. Another notable track was a cover of "Stay Down Here where You Belong," written by Irving Berlin in 1914 to protest the Great War. "On the Old Front Porch" extends this to a trio, including a boy, the girl he is courting, and her father.

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. 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. It contained a version of what was his signature song, "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips", which was a hit when released as a single. 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).