Tip Toe Through The Bongos
Who didn’t love the late great Tiny Tim. Quiet possibly the sweetest pop star of all time? Tiny Tim was viewed as Alice Cooper with a ukelele instead of a guillotine, but he was actually an old time vaudevillian dressed up as a hippie eccentric.
I read this story yesterday and its a doozy. When Richard Barone, formerly of NY 80s pop group the Bongos, was sixteen years old, he was trying to get into a club to see Tiny Tim but underage he couldn’t get in to the club. So hanging in the lobby with his pals ge met Tiny Tim. Barone told New York Post’s Mary Huhn (she is a terrific writer by the way) “He was really friendly and offered to do the whole show in his hotel room.” Barone taped the songs and promised to release them.
Tiny Tim died in 1996 but Richard held on to the recordings and released them last week as I’ve Never Seen A Straight Banana.
Richard is MCing a night of Tiny Tim music on Friday October 30th at Joe’s Pub.
