Tiny & Dick

I borrowed a CD of novelty songs from the library a while ago, and it became part of the soundtrack of our drive through Kankakee and Grundy counties last week. Lilly took an unexpected liking to Tiny Tim's version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," and I have to say I gave it another listen myself. I don't think I really appreciated his preternatural falsetto before, or that he was trying to keep some fine old songs alive. Good for him.

Listening to just that song, Lilly was unpersuaded that Tiny Tim was a man. So I looked for something on YouTube. I'm happy to report that there's a lot of Tiny Tim on YouTube, including his breakthrough performance on Laugh-In, which I possibly saw in 1968, but have no memory of seeing.

So we watched it. Gender wasn't much of an issue by this point, but Lilly clearly thought he was a weirdo. Not so surprising an opinion for a nine-year-old. I enjoyed Dick Martin's reactions just as much as the song itself, whether they were contrived or real befuddlement at an act like Tiny Tim.