Tiny Tim

Tiny Tim (born Herbert Buckingham Khaury, 1932–1996) was an American singer, musician, and entertainer whose falsetto voice, long hair, ukulele playing, and deep knowledge of American popular song made him a singular figure in twentieth-century popular culture. Performing a repertoire drawn largely from vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, and early popular music, he embodied an archival and revivalist impulse that was simultaneously sincere and irreducibly strange. His 1968 hit Tiptoe Through the Tulips brought him to mainstream TV, but his practice was more complex than novelty suggested — musical archaeology combined with a flamboyant persona blurring sincere devotion and theatrical spectacle.