# Tiptoe through the Tulips song question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899 "2014-06-28T23:09:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/41 "2014-07-01T06:39:06Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > If he beat the “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” horse as the years wore on, I’m certain it’s because it was absolutely demanded of him on the rare occasions when he did appear in the national spotlight. I have a feeling that if he had had a choice, he would have preferred playing some other, more obscure song instead. I have all the Beatles Christmas records, and on one of them ('67 or '68) Tiny Tim appears and does a little bit of “Nowhere Man”. I wonder if part of his success was his difference from the normal rock and roller. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/42 "2014-07-01T13:14:19Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I have all the Beatles Christmas records, and on one of them ('67 or '68) Tiny Tim appears and does a little bit of “Nowhere Man”. > I wonder if part of his success was his difference from the normal rock and roller. That, and his naive persona fit in nicely with the “flower power” vibe of 1968. In fact, the cover design for his debut album played off of this. It was a time when it was OK to be different…in his case, radically so. Some posters here have weighed in with comments relating to Tim’s shtick, saying in effect that it was all a calculated put-on. However, a passage from his Wikipedia entry (taken from his obituary in the _New York Times_) gets closest to the truth, IMHO: > [@](#): > > When Tiny Tim first became well-known to the American public, pundits and journalists debated whether or not this character being presented was just an orchestrated act, or the real thing. “It quickly became clear that he was genuine,” however, and that he could probably be best described as “a lonely outcast intoxicated by fame” and “a romantic” always in pursuit of his ideal dream. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/43 "2014-07-02T00:51:47Z")
I think there are songs where he sings a duet with himself- falsetto and regular baritone voice. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/44 "2014-07-02T13:34:42Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I recall Pepé Le Pew singing “tiptoe dans les tulips, avec moi,” but I don’t know when this cartoon was made. > > ETA: I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a Mel Blanc improvisation. The man was a genius! BTW, IRL, there are no [skunks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk) in Europe, outside of zoos. But there are [polecats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polecats), and they do talk and very date-rapey. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/45 "2014-07-02T14:39:04Z")
Herbert “Tiny Tim” Khaury was a very strange guy… but he had some small genuine talent and an encyclopedic knowledge of the songs of Tin Pan Alley. In the early Sixties, when coffeehouses and folk music were still very popular in Greenwich Village, Khaury found a small, appreciative audience who loved his renditions of old vaudeville songs and early rock & roll tunes. MANY people regarded him as a mere joke… but sometimes people who saw him perform were pleasantly surprised. Of the 500,000 people who attended the 1970 Isle of Wight music festival, a huge percentage left raving about Tiny Tim’s performance (by many accounts, he outshone the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, ELP and the Who). Many accounts say that the highlight of that entire weekend was Tiny Tim singing “There’ll Always Be an England” through a megaphone. There’s no perfect comparison, but… to give you an idea of what I’m getting at: back around 1976, I saw Leon Redbone for the first time on _ **Saturday Night Live** _. He was wearing a seersucker suit and singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” I (and, I think, most of the audience) went through 3 phases as he sang. 1. First, we all thought, “This is a joke, obviously. He’s doing a comedy bit. He’s about to do something hilarious, right?” 2. Second, we thought, "What the…? This ISN’T a joke, is it? This idiot is really, actually singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” 3. Then, just as he was finishing up, we started thinking, “Hold it… am I imagining things, or was that, well, kinda GOOD? Maybe even VERY good?” Tiny Tim often had that effect on people. SOME thought he was a jerk or a joke and dismissed him immediately. But some listened a little longer and thought, “You know… he’s actually sort of okay.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/46 "2014-07-02T18:28:32Z")
Here’s a [version I remember from the Doctor Demento Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ_wkH4AUeM)…it’s the New Christy Minstrels, and apparently it predates Tiny Tim’s version (I didn’t know this! I thought they were riffing on Tiny Tim). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/47 "2014-07-02T18:41:14Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Herbert “Tiny Tim” Khaury was a very strange guy… but he had some small genuine talent and an encyclopedic knowledge of the songs of Tin Pan Alley. > > In the early Sixties, when coffeehouses and folk music were still very popular in Greenwich Village, Khaury found a small, appreciative audience who loved his renditions of old vaudeville songs and early rock & roll tunes. But did he always sing them falsetto? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/48 "2014-07-02T19:38:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Herbert “Tiny Tim” Khaury was a very strange guy… but he had some small genuine talent and an encyclopedic knowledge of the songs of Tin Pan Alley. I respectfully disagree with “small” genuine talent. The man could _sing_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/49 "2014-07-02T21:32:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But did he always sing them falsetto? Always? No, not at all. For instance, here’s the aforementioned rendition of “There’ll Always Be an England.” [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MV0O2Y9xto4/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGGUgUyhNMA8=&rs=AOn4CLA0Re8mT3EpFXKt8DOPztHzwDyLvA "Tiny Tim There'll Always Be an England") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV0O2Y9xto4) In the early days, he usually used his own baritone voice. I think after the unexpected success of “Tiptoe,” he was pigeonholed and audiences expected him to sing EVERYTHING in falsetto. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899/50 "2014-07-02T23:10:36Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > There’s no perfect comparison, but… to give you an idea of what I’m getting at: back around 1976, I saw Leon Redbone for the first time on _ **Saturday Night Live** _. He was wearing a seersucker suit and singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” I (and, I think, most of the audience) went through 3 phases as he sang. > > 1. First, we all thought, “This is a joke, obviously. He’s doing a comedy bit. He’s about to do something hilarious, right?” > > 2. Second, we thought, "What the…? This ISN’T a joke, is it? This idiot is really, actually singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” > > 3. Then, just as he was finishing up, we started thinking, “Hold it… am I imagining things, or was that, well, kinda GOOD? Maybe even VERY good?” > Tiny Tim often had that effect on people. SOME thought he was a jerk or a joke and dismissed him immediately. But some listened a little longer and thought, “You know… he’s actually sort of okay.” Wow good pull. And I think he had a tuba accompaniment for that number. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiptoe-through-the-tulips-song-question/691899.md?page=2)