The story of a ‘cursed’ song

The song “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” is often described as “cursed” on the internet. The question is how an innocent love song earned such a label.

The song was composed by Joe Burke with lyrics written by Al Dubin. Nick Lucas popularized it by singing it in the 1929 film Gold Diggers of Broadway. Audiences were captivated by Lucas’s beautiful and sweet voice. At the time, it was simply a song about spring flowers, love and tender emotions. The song’s fate changed nearly four decades later.

In the 1960s, an unusual performer emerged at clubs in New York. He had long hair, an unusually large nose and a small four stringed musical instrument in his hands. His name was Tiny Tim. His real name was Herbert Khaury. In 1968, he recorded the song and became an overnight sensation after performing it on the television show Laugh In.

When people speak or sing normally, their vocal cords vibrate naturally. However, in falsetto, the vocal cords become stretched and thin, and mainly their edges vibrate. This raises the voice to a much higher pitch, making it sound light, thin and somewhat flute like. Tiny Tim sang almost the entire song in this voice.

When a man with a deep masculine voice suddenly produces a childlike and trembling melody, it can give listeners an unsettling shock. His unusual appearance and voice also sparked controversy. Some people liked him while others were frightened by him. This mixture of feelings planted the seeds of the song’s “cursed” reputation.

In September 1996, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack while performing at a small festival in Massachusetts. On November 30, he took the stage again at a charity event in Minneapolis and began singing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” He suffered another heart attack while singing! He was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Many people began claiming that the song possessed some mysterious power. Hollywood subsequently turned it into a full-fledged “cursed” song. In the 2010 film Insidious, the song was used in a way that suggests something evil lurking behind its sweet melody. In the scene where the song plays, a terrifying red-faced demon dances.

Since 2013, rumors about the song have spread dramatically across the internet. Countless videos and stories about it can be found on YouTube. Some people have reportedly had strange experiences because of the song. Some claim that if they listen to it alone in a dark room at midnight, they can hear someone breathing behind them. Others believe that when the song is played on an old record player, the melody changes on its own halfway through or the music suddenly stops.

According to a young YouTuber from New York, once you start listening to the song, you must hear it to the end. Stopping it halfway supposedly brings bad luck. It is also said that singing the song while walking through a tulip garden late at night can actually summon ghosts from another world.

A young woman named Emily Carter said:

“October 2019. I was living alone in an old two-story house that I had rented just outside Dayton, Ohio. About three weeks after moving in, I suddenly woke up one night to the sound of a song. But after listening for a while, I realized the sound was coming from downstairs. A very high pitched and strange male voice was singing ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips...’ It sounded exactly like the crackling and wavering sound of an old record playing. Yet there was no record player in my house.

I turned on my phone’s flashlight and started going downstairs. When I reached the middle of the staircase, the song suddenly stopped. The next day, I told the landlord what had happened. He said nothing at first. Then he asked, ‘Which song did you hear?’

I said, ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips.’

The man’s face suddenly turned pale. He told me that the elderly woman who had lived in the house before me used to play the song almost every night. She had died in that very house.

Three nights later, I woke up to the same song again. This time, the sound was coming from inside the wardrobe in my bedroom. I sat on the bed and listened for almost a minute. Then I gathered the courage to open the wardrobe door. There was no one inside. There was only a dried-up tulip flower that had turned black lying on the floor.

I left the house the very next day.”

 Translated by Al Eakram Mahmud Shoumik