God Bless Tiny Tim

Description

If you think, based on "Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips with Me" and his televised wedding to Miss Vicki on *The Tonight Show*, that Tiny Tim was merely a sideshow freak, think again. Behind his ukulele, his pallid makeup, his falsetto voice, and his prominent nose hid a true scholar of American music, perhaps the only artist of the 1960s (and certainly the only one of his generation) to carry on the tradition of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley songs. Tim (born Herbert Buckingham Khaury) also possessed an exceptional vocal range, from baritone to his famous falsetto, and mastered not only the ukulele but also the guitar, mandolin, and violin. Despite all this talent, if Tiny Tim had settled for a traditional 1920s jazz/pop/folk album for his first record, *God Bless Tiny Tim* would not have become the essential cult classic it is today. But the album married Tim's innate eccentricity with sumptuous production by Richard Perry, who had just worked on Captain Beefheart's first album, *Safe as Milk*, and would go on to produce artists as diverse as Diana Ross and Rod Stewart. Thanks to Perry's production and Artie Butler's arrangements, *God Bless Tiny Tim* featured an incredible variety of instruments, from the didgeridoo to the koto, the celesta, and timpani, with almost no ukulele on most tracks. Moreover, the album was steeped in the psychedelic vibe that was in the air at the time (1968), brimming with non-sequiturs, both verbal and musical (like the cover of Sonny Bono's "I Got You Babe"). The result: a timeless album, defying all categorization or description. Today, Real Gone Music reissues *God Bless Tiny Tim* on vinyl in a most fitting yellow and magenta "Tulip Splatter" edition. This record belongs in any record collection, serious or not!