Overview

As Bing Crosby once put it, the rise of Tiny Tim represents 'one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business.' In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Frank Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me,' catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of his attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. While he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus access to Tiny's diaries, which have never before been made public, Eternal Troubadour tells the incredible true story of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in the history of popular music.

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9781908279873

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Reviews

...a heart-rending account of a tragic, inexplicable figure. --Record Collector Magazine I love this book. It's exactly the right feel. Tiny Tim had an almost magical power to destroy cynicism in every one he encountered from Bing Crosby to Howard Stern, from Lenny Bruce to John Lennon, from Sinatra and Carson to all the rest of us. This hardcore atheist says without irony, 'God Bless Tiny Tim.' --Penn Jillette (1/2 of Penn & Teller) It's the best book about Tiny Tim IMO, with far more info than the others, and what seems to me like a balanced attitude toward this complex and remarkable man, who was such a magnet for controversy. His story is all there, the depressing parts and the thrilling parts. I'll be referring to this a lot, and cursing the publishers every time for not including a %$&?% index! --Dr. Demento The authors are to be commended for handling the complexities of this complicated yet beautiful spirit...they've produced one of the most honest and revealing biographies of the year, one that tells its story well, warts and all. --The Recoup The story of Tiny Tim's life is alternately heartbreaking, infuriating, and head-scratching. And with scores of new interviews, and access to Tim's own personal (and very frank) diaries, this book makes for a compelling, if lengthy read for the non Tiny Head. --Houston Press

The story of Tiny Tim's life is alternately heartbreaking, infuriating, and head-scratching. And with scores of new interviews, and access to Tim's own personal (and very frank) diaries, this book makes for a compelling, if lengthy read for the non Tiny Head. - Houston Press The authors are to be commended for handling the complexities of this complicated yet beautiful spirit...they've produced one of the most honest and revealing biographies of the year, one that tells its story well, warts and all. - The Recoup I love this book. It's exactly the right feel. Tiny Tim had an almost magical power to destroy cynicism in every one he encountered from Bing Crosby to Howard Stern, from Lenny Bruce to John Lennon, from Sinatra and Carson to all the rest of us. This hardcore atheist says without irony, 'God Bless Tiny Tim.' - Penn Jillette (1/2 of Penn & Teller) ...a heart-rending account of a tragic, inexplicable figure. - Record Collector Magazine It's the best book about Tiny Tim IMO, with far more info than the others, and what seems to me like a balanced attitude toward this complex and remarkable man, who was such a magnet for controversy. His story is all there, the depressing parts and the thrilling parts. I'll be referring to this a lot, and cursing the publishers every time for not including a %$&?% index! - Dr. Demento

It's the best book about Tiny Tim IMO, with far more info than the others, and what seems to me like a balanced attitude toward this complex and remarkable man, who was such a magnet for controversy. His story is all there, the depressing parts and the thrilling parts. I'll be referring to this a lot, and cursing the publishers every time for not including a %$&?% index! - Dr. Demento

.. .a heart-rending account of a tragic, inexplicable figure. - Record Collector Magazine I love this book. It's exactly the right feel. Tiny Tim had an almost magical power to destroy cynicism in every one he encountered from Bing Crosby to Howard Stern, from Lenny Bruce to John Lennon, from Sinatra and Carson to all the rest of us. This hardcore atheist says without irony, 'God Bless Tiny Tim.' - Penn Jillette (1/2 of Penn & Teller) It's the best book about Tiny Tim IMO, with far more info than the others, and what seems to me like a balanced attitude toward this complex and remarkable man, who was such a magnet for controversy. His story is all there, the depressing parts and the thrilling parts. I'll be referring to this a lot, and cursing the publishers every time for not including a %$&?% index! - Dr. Demento The authors are to be commended for handling the complexities of this complicated yet beautiful spirit...they've produced one of the most honest and revealing biographies of the year, one that tells its story well, warts and all. - The Recoup The story of Tiny Tim's life is alternately heartbreaking, infuriating, and head-scratching. And with scores of new interviews, and access to Tim's own personal (and very frank) diaries, this book makes for a compelling, if lengthy read for the non Tiny Head. - Houston Press I love this book. It's exactly the right feel. Tiny Tim had an almost magical power to destroy cynicism in every one he encountered from Bing Crosby to Howard Stern, from Lenny Bruce to John Lennon, from Sinatra and Carson to all the rest of us. This hardcore atheist says without irony, 'God Bless Tiny Tim.' - Penn Jillette (1/2 of Penn & Teller) The authors are to be commended for handling the complexities of this complicated yet beautiful spirit...they've produced one of the most honest and revealing biographies of the year, one that tells its story well, warts and all. - The Recoup The story of Tiny Tim's life is alternately heartbreaking, infuriating, and head-scratching. And with scores of new interviews, and access to Tim's own personal (and very frank) diaries, this book makes for a compelling, if lengthy read for the non Tiny Head. - Houston Press .. .a heart-rending account of a tragic, inexplicable figure. - Record Collector Magazine It's the best book about Tiny Tim IMO, with far more info than the others, and what seems to me like a balanced attitude toward this complex and remarkable man, who was such a magnet for controversy. His story is all there, the depressing parts and the thrilling parts. I'll be referring to this a lot, and cursing the publishers every time for not including a %$&?% index! - Dr. Demento

Author Information

Justin Martell is an independent filmmaker and writer. Considered 'one of America's foremost experts' on Tiny Tim, he has consulted on and contributed liner notes to two posthumous Tiny Tim releases, I've Never Seen A Straight Banana (Collector's Choice, 2009) and Lost and Found: Volume 1 (Secret Seven Records, 2011). In 2013, he put out a previously unreleased Tiny Tim track on a limited-edition Edison wax cylinder, which Time.com dubbed the 'most retro record release ever'.

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