Track Listing

1. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
2. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
3. That's What I Want For Christmas
4. I Saw Mommy Kissin Santa Claus
5. White Christmas
6. The Christmas Song
7. O Holy Night
8. Silent Night
9. Medley: O Come All Ye Faithful/Hark The Herald Angels Sing/O Little Town Of Bethlehem/Amazing Grace/Throw Out The Lifeline
10. Rainbow On The River
11. Mission Bell
12. What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161363 in Music
• Released on: 1996-10-15
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Herbert Khaury, a.k.a. Tiny Tim, was by all accounts a lonely, romantic child who spent much of his youth trying to escape into a fantasy land of old 78 rpm records. He learned how to play the ukulele in 1954 from an Arthur Godfrey songbook and began toting his instrument to a series of musical auditions, using a paper sack as his instrument case. One audition in 1967 got him on TV's Laugh-In, and he had a meteoric rise and matching fall by the early '70s. He never gave up, though, and tried recording a handful of albums in hopes of a comeback. Recorded in Sydney, Australia, back in 1993, this CD features Tiny Tim performing a dozen Christmas tunes, including "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." An overproduced and mediocre rock band largely covers up his vocals and ukulele playing. Tim's strength was always his love and appreciation of old 1920s pop tunes, none of which are present here. He had an admittedly loony approach to his performances, but often his sincerity and connection to his material gave the tunes a charm and strength not present on this Christmas assortment. If you're looking for a silly Christmas novelty album, this might work--for the right occasion and with enough eggnog. If not, try some of his better efforts, such as Girl, on which he's backed up by Brave Combo. --Terry Zwigoff

Customer Reviews

Who's there?
This Christmas album was recorded by Tiny Tim in 1993. Tiny does Christmas songs in his unique style, backed by a band called His Majesty (although a few of songs are Tiny solo with his ukelele). A lot of the songs are rather sloppy, and some of the arrangements don't really work, but Tiny's singing is always heartfelt. The highlight is probably the epic "O Come All Ye Faithful Medley", which is unfortunately marred by Tiny having a coughing fit in the middle of the song. Still an amazing performance, though. If you are interested in Christmas music that is "different", this may be the CD for you.

Pure Soul
My pilgrimage to Tiny Tim consisted of 3 pivotal moments: A radio announcer followed a Karen Carpenter Christmas Song with Tiny's White Christmas, then had the effrontery to ridicule what was clearly the more heartfelt and moving of the two; I met Tiny toward the end of his career when he was working as a clown in a 3rd-rate circus playing the remote corners of the earth (my hometown of Kenosha, WI) and judged him utterly sincere; I discovered the melodramatic music of Bing Crosby in the early 30's along with an epiphany about the source of Tiny's musical inspiration.

I do agree with a previous viewer that having Tiny do "novelty" songs is at best redundant. But on serious material, he invites being taken as seriously as he takes the material. The style may be different, but as far as I'm concerned he's in the same league as Al Green and Wilson Pickett when it comes to the feeling.

Yuck
Tiny Tim was in my opinion a very talented individual but his talent seems sorely lacking in this rather sad collection of Christmas songs. The less serious songs are fun and entertaining but the more traditional songs are about as enjoyable as a root canal without painkillers.

If you want a Tiny Tim album get one of his better efforts such as Girl or the import God Bless Tiny Tim.