Herbert Butros Khaury (April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996), also known as Herbert Buckingham Khaury, and known professionally as Tiny Tim, was an American singer, songwriter, and musical archivist. He is especially known for his 1968 hit cover of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", a song from the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway. "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight", which
was featured and popularized in the SpongeBob SquarePants pilot episode, "Help Wanted" in 1999, was rated as best song at "Top 10 Tiny Tim Songs". Tiny Tim was renowned for his wide vocal range, in particular his far-reaching falsetto.
Herbert Butros Khaury was born in Manhattan, New York City, on April 12, 1932. His mother Tillie (née Staff), a Polish-Jewish garment worker, was the daughter of a rabbi. She had emigrated from Brest-Litovsk, present-day Belarus, as a teen in 1914. His father, Butros Khaury, was a textile worker from Beirut, present-day Lebanon, and the son of a Maronite Catholic priest. Tiny Tim himself was a Roman Catholic.
Khaury displayed an interest in music at a very young age. At the age of five, his father gave him a vintage wind-up gramophone and a 78-RPM record of "Beautiful Ohio" by Henry Burr. Khaury has passionately praised Burr, telling Johnny Carson that "the wonderful Henry Burr's" circa-1915 records inspired his own singing style. He would sit for hours listening to the record. At the age of six, he began teaching himself guitar. By his pre-teen years, he developed a passion for records, specifically those from the 1900s through the 1930s. He began spending most of his free time at the New York Public Library, reading about the history of the phonograph industry. He researched sheet music, often making photographic copies to take home to learn, a hobby he continued for his entire life. He grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, where he attended George Washington High School.
In 1945, while recovering from appendix removal, Khaury read the Bible and listened to music on the radio. After his recovery, he rarely left his room except to go to school, where he was described as a mediocre student. He dropped out of high school after continuously repeating his sophomore year.
Khaury claimed to have discovered his high voice in 1949. According to Justin Martell, Khaury had decided to seek a "unique vocal quality", having noticed how performers such as Rudy Vallée used their voices on records. He taught himself to play ukulele using an Arthur Godfrey method book. Khaury would later describe this period of his life as a "religious experience".
In March 1951, Khaury landed a job as a messenger at the Loew's State Theatre, where he became ever more fascinated with the entertainment industry, and collected autographs from movie stars. Khaury continued to pursue his singing career, appearing in "amateur singing contests", as well as performing at the Loew's Christmas party. Khaury was discovered by Bud Friar, who became his manager and received "half of every award" Khaury won at talent shows. Friar remained his manager until December 1957. Khaury worked at the Loew's State Theatre for a year and a half before quitting and taking up various menial jobs, where he usually lasted anywhere from one day, to in one case, an hour, before quitting. In 1953, Khaury made his debut television appearance on the All-Night Show, hosted by Fred Robbins. Khaury performed "You Belong to Me" on the program, using his falsetto voice. He later entered a local talent show and sang "You Are My Sunshine" in falsetto, placing second. Afterwards, Khaury started performing at dance club amateur nights under different names, such as "Texarcana Tex", "Judas K. Foxglove", and "Emmett Swink". To stand out as a performer, he grew his hair long and wore pasty white face makeup, partly inspired by Rudolph Valentino. Khaury's mother did not understand his change in appearance and was intending to take her now-twentysomething son to see a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital until his father stepped in.
Larry Love, Darry Dover, and Tiny Tim
In 1958, Khaury began performing the song that would later become his signature, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". The following year, he began performing as "Larry Love, the Singing Canary" at Hubert's Museum and Live Flea Circus in New York City's Times Square. Khaury was "committed to using his high voice exclusively" and chafed at the owner's suggestion that he alternate between his falsetto and natural speaking voice. He left Hubert's the following year, but began using both voices in performances under his new stage name, Darry Dover. Khaury also signed with manager George King. In 1962, King booked Khaury at the Cafe Bizarre, where he earned $20 a week during his engagement. King then booked Khaury at the Cafe Wha?, where he met Bob Dylan. Shortly after, King came up with the idea to have Khaury adopt a British persona and use the stage name Sir Timothy Tims. King later shortened Khaury's stage name to Tiny Tim, although King claimed, "The name had nothing to do with Dickens or any of that shit. It just happened to be close to Sir Timothy Tims. It made him easier to book."
In 1963, Tiny began performing at the Page Three, a club with a largely gay clientele on the corner of Charles Street and Seventh Avenue, playing six hours a night and six nights a week for $96 per month (equivalent to $1,010 per month in 2025). Tiny also performed with Hugh Romney and Moondog as part of The Phantom Cabaret, which initially opened at the Fat Black Pussycat club, before moving to the Living Theatre for a successful run. In 1964, The Page Three's owner, Kiki Hall, along with Ronnie Lyons, became Tiny's new managers. Tiny recorded a flexidisc, The Voices of Tiny Tim for producer Milton Glaser, which appeared in issue #45 of the Push Pin Graphic newsletter.
After the Page Three was closed by police in July 1965, Tiny briefly adopted the stage name Rollie Dell. In December, Tiny began performing at The Scene, which led to an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in March 1966, where he performed "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" and "People Will Think We're in Love". Although the studio audience "erupted in applause", viewer response to Tiny's appearance was negative, leading to the cancelation of a further six scheduled appearances. Tiny would return to the program in later years, and appeared in the pilot of Ironside after a talent agent saw Tiny's 1966 appearance. In August 1966, Tiny recorded a live album at "a Capitol Records studio" under the auspices of Ronnie Lyons. Richard Perry produced the sessions for Bob Booker and George Foster, while Artie Butler conducted "a forty-piece band". The planned album was never released. Perry then worked with Tiny to produce the single "April Showers". The single appeared on Blue Cat Records, but was unsuccessful.
God Bless Tiny Tim and peak of popularity
In early 1967, Tiny took part in a film Bob Dylan was making, which was ultimately never released. Shortly after, Lyons quit as Tiny's manager. In April, Tiny performed three songs at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada to a crowd of "around 8,000 people", who responded by throwing beer cans at him. In July, Tiny was discovered at The Scene by Mo Ostin of Reprise Records. Tiny signed with the label shortly after. In December, Tiny began recording God Bless Tiny Tim at TTG Studios. Perry returned to produce the album, as did Butler, who arranged and conducted orchestration.
In January 1968, Tiny appeared on the first regular broadcast of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Co-host Dan Rowan introduced Tiny Tim, who arrived on stage with a ukulele in a shopping bag and sang "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop" while an apparently genuinely dumbfounded Dick Martin watched. Tiny sang "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" on both his second and third appearances on the show. In April, he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Tiny went on to appear on the program 22 times between 1968 and 1974, and once more in 1979. He also signed with Campbell-Silver-Cosby Corporation, where he was managed by Ron DeBlasio and one of the company's co-founders, Roy Silver. God Bless Tiny Tim was released in April 1968 to positive reviews, and reached number 7 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, becoming Tiny's only charting album. "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was released as a single shortly before the album's release, and charted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.