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A charming collection

Tiny Tim's Christmas Album
Tiny Tim's Christmas Album
By Tiny Tim

Rounder Records: 1996


This review first appeared in the December 13, 1996 issue of the North County Times.

What could go together better than Tiny Tim and Christmas "God bless us all, every one" and all that? Scrooge and the three ghosts and ... what? Not that Tiny Tim? Ukulele and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"? Yikes – this could get ugly real fast.

And yet, this is a downright charming collection of Christmas music from the ukuleled one. When he dropped that high-pitched falsetto, the recently deceased Tiny Tim had a wonderful baritone voice with an incredibly dramatic delivery on the old classics: "Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him," "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Robert Goulet, eat your heart out.

Tiny Tim coupled that wonderful, sonorous voice with a true and honest religious passion and fervor, singing the religious Christmas songs with a mesmerizing intensity that will grab you whether you share his faith or not. Heck, the man just might convert you. He brings it all together on "Silent Night," where he thunders forth with a dramatic sermon on the Christian meaning of Christmas like an old-time country preacher.

To show he's up with the times, though, Tin Tim even raps on a couple songs here – and pulls it off quite well on "Mission Bell."

When you think about it, no matter which Tiny Tim you're talking about, it's a perfect match for Christmas.