How Tiny Tim shaped ‘The Lesson’ by The Lemon Twigs
The Lemon Twigs’ 2018 album Go To School has got to be the most outlandish LP of the 2010s. Inspired by classic musicals like Oklahoma!, it tells the story of Shane, a monkey raised by his parents (one of whom is Todd Rundgren) to believe he’s human. As well as detailing the chimp’s difficult school life, the album’s 16 tracks showcase The Lemon Twigs‘ astonishing ability to patch together disparate musical influences to create something cohesive, vibrant, and fresh.
The Lemon Twigs are brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario. Formed in Long Island, New York, they released their glittery power-pop debut, Do Hollywood, in 2016, and quickly developed a reputation for meticulous songwriting, inventive arrangments, and knowingly daft lyrics. Their second album, Go To School, arrived in 2018 and saw the band embrace the glitz and glamour of the Broadway musical.
Explaining why they decided to write Go To School, the duo told Billboard: “It had to do with trying to elevate the story into an area that wasn’t so steeped in our reality. I just find the constant bombardment of the problems of the world at all times sort of tiring. It does a number on your spirit. I think that everybody needs moments where they’re able to separate themselves from this reality to be able to charge themselves up to dealing with it. It’s very good to be aware of it and it’s very good to try to help with it. But I think everybody needs times to separate themselves from it, so that they can feel like life is worth living. We didn’t want it to be a topical story. We wanted it to be a timeless story. Both of those things played into it.”
The album was written, recorded, and mixed at The Lemon Twigs’ humble abode in Long Island, allowing the D’addario brothers complete control over their material. Discussing the influences behind the lead single ‘The Lesson’, Brian D’Addario revealed: “I was listening to a lot of ‘20s and ‘30s music when I wrote this one. On Tiny Tim’s first record, he covers a lot of songs originally done by people like Henry Burr and Billy Murray, so I started listening to them and I’d say I was trying my hand at that style of writing here.”
If you’re struggling to place Tiny Tim, Brian’s talking about the ukulele player who recorded that unforgettably eerie cover of ‘Tiptoe Thru’ the Tulips with Me’ for Reprise back in ’68. Featuring a high-pitched falsetto bound to send the shivers down even the sturdiest of spines, it was originally recorded by jazz crooner Nick Lucas, who performed it in the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway. Its composers were Joe Burke and Al Dubin, a Tin Pan Alley writing duo who won further hits with songs like ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’ and ‘For You’. Dubin would later team up with composer Harry Warren to pen ‘We’re In The Money’, ‘Lullaby of Broadway’ and ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, the latter of which was memorably recorded by The Flamingos, who made it a hit in 1959.
Now that we’ve made it to the bottom of that musical rabbit hole, check out ‘The Lesson’ below.
