Tiny Tim God Bless Tiny Tim LP (Tulip Yellow Vinyl)

If you think, based on "Tiptoe Thru' The Tulips With Me" and his nationally televised marriage to Miss Vicki on The Tonight Show, that Tiny Tim was a mere novelty act, think again. Behind that ukulele, pasty white make-up, falsetto, and prominent proboscis was a serious scholar of American music, perhaps the only performer of the '60s (and certainly the only performer of his age group) keeping the torch alive for songs from vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley.

Tim (born Herbert Buckingham Khaury) also was blessed with a stupendous vocal range, from baritone to his trademark falsetto, and was adept on not just ukulele but guitar, mandolin and violin. Even with all that talent, though, had Tiny Tim just made a straight '20s trad jazz/pop/folk album for his debut record, God Bless Tiny Tim would not be the stone-cold cult classic it is today. But the album married Tim's innate eccentricity with stupendously lush production from Richard Perry, who was fresh from working on Captain Beefheart's debut, Safe As Milk, and would go on to produce everybody from Diana Ross to Rod Stewart. With Perry's production, and Artie Butler's arrangements, God Bless Tiny Tim featured an incredible assortment of instruments, from didgeridoo to koto to celeste to tympani, with nary a ukulele to be found on many of the tracks.

Furthermore, the album was sprinkled with some of the psychedelic fairy dust that was in the air at the time (1968), full of non sequiturs both verbal and musical (like the cover of Sonny Bono's "I Got You Babe"). The result: an album that stands outside of time, defying categorization or description.

Now, Real Gone Music is releasing God Bless Tiny Tim on LP in an oh-so-appropriate yellow "tulip" vinyl edition limited to 700 copies. This record belongs in any serious - or not-so-serious! - record collection.

Then as now, Tiny Tim's falsetto is something of an acquired taste, and his willingness to play on an emotionally broad stage pushes numbers like 'Daddy, Daddy, What Is Heaven Like' into the saccharine red zone, but between Perry's quite lovely pop instincts and Tim's passionate and skillful vocal delivery (his 'normal' voice is far stronger than those who only know 'Tip-Toe Through the Tulips' would expect), this album is a one-of-a-kind treasure, and that rare long-player from a 'one-hit wonder' that has far more to offer than just the single."