TINY TIM COLLECTION TO BE RERELEASED BY BLUE PIE

Blue Pie Records will be redeveloping and redistributing a number of the Grammy-Award nominee Tiny Tim’s recordings via digital distribution with the accompanied album art to be contributed by renowned artist Martin Sharp.

Working together with Martin Sharp’s ‘Tiny Tim’ Project Manager David Rowe, Blue Pie will be bringing back to life many of Tiny Tim’s popular songs and memories, echoing the talent that he once carried. His recordings will be digitally remastered and remixed by the best digital and production teams to ensure high quality recordings of each and every one of his past works. The redeveloped material will then be available online via iTunes, eMusic and other leading digital retailers.

Herbert Khaury, better known by his stage name Tiny Tim (April 1932 – November 1996), was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of Tiptoe Through the Tulips sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice (though other performances reveal a broader vocal range). While Tiny Tim was sometimes regarded as a novelty act, his recordings demonstrate a wide knowledge of American popular songs, particularly of the early 20th century.

To be release with the recordings, Australian artist and underground cartoonist, Martin Sharp will be providing the album artworks for said releases. He has a large and wealthy collection of artworks and cartoons, which he had worked on for Tiny Tim, and that reflect the pop-art culture of the 60s and 70s. His famous psychedelic posters of Bob Dylan, Donovan and others, rank as classics of the genre, alongside the work of Rick Griffin, Hapshash and the Coloured Coat and Milton Glaser. His covers, cartoons and illustrations were a central feature of Oz magazine, both in Australia and in London. Martin co-wrote one of Cream's most famous songs, Tales of Brave Ulysses, created the cover art for Cream's Disraeli Gears album, and in the 1970s, he became a champion of singer Tiny Tim, and of Sydney's embattled Luna Park.

For more information and updates, keep checking Blue Pie’s website, where you will hear it first: www.bluepie.com.au


ABOUT TINY TIM:
www.tinytim.org

Herbert Khaury began singing and playing the ukulele in his natural voice until discovering his ability to sing in an upper register: "I was listening to the radio and singing along as I was singing I said 'Gee, it's strange. I can go up high as well’." He then entered a local talent show and sang You Are My Sunshine in his newly discovered falsetto, and it brought the house down. After experimenting with different state names, he finally settled on Tiny Tim in 1962.

In 1968, his first album God Bless Tiny Tim was released. It contained an orchestrated version of Tiptoe Through the Tulips whilst the other songs displayed his wide-ranging knowledge of the American songbook. This then led to a series of albums from Tiny Tim, including: Tiny Tim's Second Album (1968), The Grammy Award nominated For All My Little Friends (1969), Wonderful World Of Romance (limited edition, 1980), Chameleon (limited edition, 1980), Tiny Tim: The Eternal Troubador (1986), Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips/Resurrection (1987), Tiny Tim Rock (1993), I Love Me (1993), Songs of an Impotent Troubadour (1994) and many, many more.

Sometime in the fall of 1968, Tiny Tim was invited by Beatle George Harrison to come to his hotel room in Manhattan. Tiny recounts: I said to him, it is a pleasure meeting you, a member of the greatest recording vocal group in the history of popular music." I said, "Do you mind if I sing you a song? He said, "No, go right ahead." (Tiny sings "Nowhere Man" in his high voice). He said, "Wait a minute, just say, 'Merry Christmas Beatles' and go into that song." The Beatles used this on their 1968 Fan Club Christmas message flexi-disc.

In August 1970, Tiny Tim performed at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 in front of a crowd of 600,000 people. His performance, which included English folk songs and rock and roll classics, was a huge hit with the multinational throng of hippies. At the climax of his set, he sang "There'll Always Be an England" through a megaphone which brought the huge crowd to its feet. This can be seen in the 1995 movie of the event, Message to Love.

In September 1996, he suffered a heart attack just as he began singing at a ukulele festival at the Montague Grange Hall in Montague, Massachusetts. He was hospitalized but shortly discharged with strong admonitions to no longer perform, due to his frail health and the difficulty of proper dietary needs for his diabetic and heart conditions. While playing at a Gala Benefit at The Woman's Club of Minneapolis on November 30, 1996, he suffered another heart attack on stage. He collapsed shortly thereafter and was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died after doctors tried to resuscitate him for an hour and fifteen minutes. He is interred in the mausoleum of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.


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