The Styrous® Viewfinder: Keeping My Troubles To Myself

April 12, 2021

45 RPMs 61: Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm front cover

cover photo by Willyoung

photo of record cover by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist of Tiptoe Through the Tulips fame, Herbert Buckingham Khaury aka professionally as Tiny Tim.

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm back cover

photo by Styrous®

Khaury displayed musical talent 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. He would sit for hours listening to the record. At the age of six, he began teaching himself guitar. When he was eleven years old, he began learning to play the violin and later, the mandolin and the ukulele.

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 and its first recording artists. He researched sheet music, often making photographic copies to take home to learn and became an aficionado of vaudeville and early twentieth century music and its singers, e. g. Rudy Vallée, a hobby he continued for his entire life.

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm back cover detail

detail photo by Styrous®

He was actually a baritone and did not have such a bad voice as witness his covers of the classic songs Highway to Hell by AC/DC, Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees and, somehow, it seems totally apporpirate that in 1988 he did a cover of the Frank Sinatra classic, My Way (links below).

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm back cover detail

detail photo by Styrous®

On September 28, 1996, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack just as he began singing at a ukulele festival at the Montague Grange Hall in Montague, Massachusetts. He had recorded a video interview earlier that same day at the Montague Bookmill). He was hospitalized at the nearby Franklin County Medical Center in Greenfield for approximately three weeks before being discharged with admonitions not to perform again because of his health, weight, and dietary needs for his diabetic and heart conditions. He ignored the advice.

On November 30, 1996, he was playing at a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis. He had let his third wife ("Miss Sue") know before the show that he was not feeling well, but did not want to disappoint the fans. Before the start of his performance, most of the audience had left. While performing his last number of the evening, he suffered another heart attack on stage in the middle of a rendition of his hit, Tiptoe Through the Tulips. His wife asked him if he was feeling all right, and he said he was not; she was helping him back to their table when he collapsed, and never regained consciousness. EMTs transported him to Hennepin County Medical Center, where after repeated revival attempts, he was pronounced dead at 11:20 pm. His remains are entombed in a mausoleum in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. A large mural of him with tulip themes by famous Australian artist Martin Sharp is in the Macquarie University Student Council in Sydney, Australia.

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm, side 1

detail photo by Styrous®

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm record label, side 1

detail photo by Styrous®

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm, side 2

detail photo by Styrous®

Tiny Tim ‎~ Keeping My Troubles To Myself

vinyl 12" 45 rpm record label, side 2

detail photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - The Bible My Mother Left For Me - 4:02
A2 - Forever Miss Dixie - 4:15

Side 2:

B1 - Keeping My Troubles To Myself - 4:15
B2 - The Last Mile Of The Way - 5:23

Companies, etc.

Pressed By – EMI Custom Records

Notes:

A Noive and Voive production for Street of Dreams.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Matrix / Runout: YPRX 2095A
Matrix / Runout: YPRX 2095B

Tiny Tim ‎– Keeping My Troubles To Myself
Label: Noive & Voive ‎– YPRX 2095
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Mini-Album
Country: Australia
Released: 1983
Genre: Pop
Style: Novelty

Viewfinder links:

AC/DC

Frank Sinatra

Rudy Vallée

Tiny Tim

Net links:

AP ~ Tiny Tim Dies of Heart Attack While Singing His Hit

NY Times ~ Tiny Tim Dies at 64 With Fame

Roger Ebert ~ The last days of Tiny Tim

RollingStone ~ Tiny Tim: His hard road to success interview

Tiny Tim website

Ukulele Magazine ~ The Strange and Improbable Rise of the Bizarre Tiny Tim

YouTube links:

The Bible My Mother Left For Me

Forever Miss Dixie