![]() VIDEO: Tiny Tim marries Miss Vicki on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 12/17/69īefore his death on stage in 1996, Tim became known and appreciated as highly knowledgeable about songs, singers, and musical history. His wife, known by Tim as “Miss Vicki,” was 17. An estimated 45 million viewers watched it live on December 17th, 1969. His wedding on the Tonight Show to the first of three wives became a significant reality TV event. He ended their meeting by perfectly imitating Dylan’s voice and phrasing style while singing Vallee’s 1929 hit song, “ My Time Is Your Time “. Tim then spoke to Dylan of the other golden age singers. Then he sang “ Like A Rolling Stone ,” but in the 1928 Rudy-Vallee-style, accompanying himself on his often out-of-tune Ukelele. According to interviews Tim has given, he hailed Dylan as the Rudy Vallee of our time. During the filming in Woodstock, NY, Tim was invited to Bob Dylan’s home. In 1967, folk singer Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary invited Tiny to sing “ Be My Baby ” in the cult movie Peter was producing, the eclectic You Are What You Eat. After being discovered, he became a frequent guest on popular network TV shows like Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Laugh-In and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Steve Paul’s The Scene began to book him as their opening act, figuring any band that followed Tiny Tim on stage would look and sound great. He was also a messenger boy for MGM Records. Tim’s career in Show Business began by singing at amateur nights around Manhattan, earning $5 to $10 if he won. VIDEO: Tiny Tim makes his TV debut on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In This article is but a tidbit of that story. The whole story of his “improbable life” appears within the remarkable 470 pages that Martell researched and crafted. After my two brief encounters with Tim, I realized he was always himself without the voice. Tiny Tim was, as his recent biographer, Justin Martell called him, “the Eternal Troubadour” (Jawbone Press ISBN 978-1-90). He even maintained that “falsetto voice” for the whole time we worked closely together, alone, and I was just an audience of one. The character Tiny Tim played all the time was his most remarkable performance. ![]() The kinda prissy, sissy, high-pitched performer that he showed the public. During that time, He never once dropped his “act”. Remember, I’d spent over an hour in a closed room teaching my song to this guy. He was barking in a deep, angry, and rough Washington Heights accent at someone letting Tim down. ![]() Anyway, what made that fascinating, was that the voice coming from “Tiny Tim” was no longer his traditional high-pitched falsetto. However, when I went to use the Loo, I passed a partially open bedroom door, and there on the side of the bed was Tiny Tim on the phone to someone, could have been his manager. That’s kind of because I didn’t travel in those exalted circles yet, being only a young songwriter from Queens. Not sure, but I think a meeting was going on with Pete Schekeryk and Melanie. I missed that, but everyone was talking it up.Īnother time, I went to Peter Yarrow’s apartment near Central Park South. Not finding any, one of their members allegedly pissed into a desk before leaving. Although uncertain, it seems that the FBI or some other law enforcement agency had come looking for illegal drugs. Carey.” During an odd and often frustrating hour, and while keeping a straight face, I showed Tim the chords, words, and melody, I heard a commotion in the main office. Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.Īnd so I was relegated to a side room alone with this strange man who only spoke with a falsetto voice and who kept calling me “Mr. Johnny wanted me to teach a song we’d written about a yellow canoe to Herbert Khaury, aka “Tiny Tim.” All I knew about Tiny Tim was his 1968 hit song: “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” Taken from his first album called God Bless Tiny Tim. In my teens and newly signed to a $50 a month songwriting job, I was in awe of visiting the offices of the Loving Spoonful’s record company. ![]() We were going to the offices of Buddha and Kama Sutra Records. Which was becoming an extension of the new Tin Pan Alley, now the center of Pop Music’s song publishing world, in the famous Brill Building, some two streets away off 49th street. My songwriting partner, the under-assistant east coast promotion man, Johnny Wonderling, brought me to New York’s famed “1650 Broadway”–the office building at the corner of 51st and Broadway. I first met Tiny Tim sometime in the late 1960s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |