From Pink Floyd to Bon Jovi: Five mind-bending covers by Tiny Tim
Whether or not you want to take it as a compliment or insult towards him, Tiny Tim has always been a maverick. Lambasted as a joke when he first came into the public eye with his rendition of ‘Tiptoe Through The Tulips’, his bizarrely high-pitched vocals and ukulele playing were seen as irritatingly kitschy, and any of his public appearances were met with derision from all angles. Tiny Tim was the antithesis of rock music, and this got under people’s skin.
Yet, the artist born Herbert Butros Khaury took all criticisms in his stride and unflinchingly stuck to his principles, continuing to move in his own lane when other artists were sticking to tried and tested routes to stardom. While not a success story in the traditional sense, he amassed a cult following throughout his career, with people beginning to realise that he was more than just a novelty act, but a true hero of outsider music.
He didn’t seem to care whether the attention he received was through a genuine admiration for his abilities or if people came to gawp at his outlandish one-man freak show; he was simply doing what he loved doing most – entertaining people. He would ultimately die doing what he loved as well, suffering a heart attack mid-performance in Minneapolis in 1996.
Tiny Tim was perhaps best known for his covers of other artist’s material, and his ability to shapeshift in both musical styles and vocally with a range unmatched by many of the greats was impeccable. That being said, his covers weren’t exactly all straightforward, and below, we have compiled five of the most off-the-wall versions of classic songs that the artist ever put in his repertoire.
Tiny Tim’s five best covers:
‘Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2’ by Pink Floyd
The Wall is one of the finest examples of a rock opera ever released as an album and sits proudly as one of Pink Floyd’s finest achievements in a storied career where concept albums were a speciality of theirs. As one of the album’s few hits, ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2’ is a dark exploration of childhood trauma and the struggles that the album’s protagonist, Pink, faced during his school days. In terms of its placement on the album, this is where he begins to acknowledge his fears and blocks them out within ‘the wall’, forming one of the pivotal moments in the album’s narrative.
Tim’s take on the track is one of the more straightforward covers he’s ever done, but it’s worth picking out for how it showcases some of his bizarre quirks as a performer in a slightly more palatable fashion. Beginning with a cheap keyboard interpretation of the outro to ‘The Happiest Days of Our Lives’ that runs into the track on the original album version, it launches into a relatively down-the-line cover in terms of the musical approach, but it’s the Leonard Cohen meets Iggy Pop old man voice that Tim adopts to sing Roger Waters’ part in verse one against his trademark falsetto for the children’s choir in verse two that make this particular cover stand out.
‘Great Balls of Fire’ by Jerry Lee Lewis
One of the best-selling rock and roll songs of all time, ‘Great Balls of Fire’ is an electric demonstration of just how rip-roaring popular music was becoming in the 1950s. The Jerry Lee Lewis original is packed with energy in its sub-two-minute runtime, and while Lewis isn’t the most technically gifted vocalist of all time, there’s a certain charm and charisma that is unshakeable, no matter how many times his crooning turns into a warble or his vocals crack.
On the other hand, Tiny Tim takes every aspect of the original and drives it to the extreme, pronouncing every vocal flaw as though it’s the most important feature of the song and amplifying every part of Lewis’ already theatrical performance. If you thought the 1957 version was full of energy, wait until it has its second or third coffee of the day and becomes this uncanny and zany shadow of its former self. It’s still far from the strangest cover Tim has ever done, but considering how unhinged it already feels, you’d better be prepared for the true depths of depravity.
‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ by Rod Stewart
When Rod Stewart asked the rhetorical question in the title of this 1978 hit, the answer was, for the most part, a yes. Stewart’s stage attire was known for attracting attention of a sexual nature, and while everyone didn’t totally appreciate this sudden stylistic pivot towards disco from his blues-rock roots, it didn’t detract from the British singer’s increasing popularity in the slightest. It’s usually hard to shake that plasticky synth sound created to emulate a string section from the brain once you’ve heard it, although someone was determined to change that earworm a few years later…
When Tiny Tim asked the very same question in 1983, the answer was a resounding no. If you were to take every element from the original that could be reasonably construed as sexy, Tim did his absolute best job of stripping them of all the allure they might have once had. Soft disco is swapped for cartoonish Dixieland jazz, speeding up the tempo of the song considerably to the point where a sensual slow dance becomes impossible, while Tim also bins Stewart’s gravelly tone in favour of some of his most bizarre vocal affectations. The vibrato is strong on this one.
‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ by Bon Jovi
Let’s be honest, butchering a Bon Jovi song isn’t exactly hard or a bad idea. The kings of blown-out stadium rock were inescapable during the ‘80s, and much like a bad case of the flu, they were difficult to shake off as they irritate you to the core with their leopard-print pastiche of what rock ought to be. When you think of Bon Jovi, you think of the worst wedding playlists you’ve ever heard, shitty compilations that are thinly disguised as good presents for Father’s Day (if you hate your father), and being stuck in the staff kitchen at a soulless job with Capital FM as your only source of company. ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ is not their worst hit, but my god, is it infuriating.
If anyone could rescue the song and turn it into surreal art, then it’s Tiny Tim. For his 1993 album Rock, which saw him cover a number of classic rock songs that could all have made this list – especially his 23-minute version of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell’ – he attempted the Bon Jovi hit and made all of its superfluousness even more exaggerated. The vocals are often so over-the-top that Tim often finds himself off-key and even out of time with the rest of the song, desperately trying to fit as many syllables into a short window as possible. It isn’t helped by the fact that the band are playing everything considerably quicker than the source material, and Tim and his band are often missing cues from one another. It’s so bad that it becomes genuinely incredible.
‘People Are Strange’ by The Doors
Closing things out with the weirdest cover of all, Jim Morrison’s famous song about alienation and depressive episodes is taken to the next level by Tiny Tim, and that’s saying something. When The Doors released the track in 1967, it was a morose affair that lyrically highlighted Morrison’s deteriorating mental state at the time but juxtaposed it with the whimsical tack piano of Ray Manzarek to provide emphasis on the episodes of mania he would experience. It’s a haunting track that highlights issues relating to mental illness and stands out as one of the best in the Doors’ sadly short-lived existence.
And then in comes Tiny Tim once more, ready to smash all sense out of the song. Leaving his finest cover until last, this version of ‘People Are Strange’ dials everything up to 11, and Tim introduces his trademark theatrics when you least expect them. Beginning with his wispy falsetto in the dreary verse section, he then erupts into a booming baritone voice before occasionally flitting back to his higher register and even throwing in a few other peculiar voices that move between ‘grandad without dentures’ to ‘frightened spectre’. The musical backing to this one is also bombastic as hell, making his version of this song about depression seem simply psychotic. This one is a must-listen.
