"Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me," hit song from 1929 Hollywood film Gold Diggers of Broadway

From Gold Diggers of Broadway, the 1929 Hollywood musical film, which was one of the first full-length sound films and featured Technicolor sequences! Much of the film is lost, but Tip-toe Thru the Tulips survives! You can watch it yourself:    • Tip-toe Thru The Tulips (1929)   The song's music is by Joe Burke, a composer also known for "Moon Over Miami" and "Rambling Rose," and the lyric is by Al Dubin, a Hollywood lyricist best known for his collaborations with Harry Warren, including "Forty-Second Street." #1920smusic #oldhollywoodvibes #noveltysong Gold Diggers of Broadway is one of those films (like the Marx Brothers' The Coconuts) where everybody involved in the production process is still trying to figure out what a musical on film is supposed to be like (remember, the Jazz Singer, the first commercial film with sound sequences, premiered just a year prior in 1928). Like many film musicals of the time, Gold Diggers of Broadway was a backstager, which provided a plausible excuse for singing and dancing. Historian Richard Barrios in the book Dangerous Rhythm explains that the film's two hit songs, "Tip Toe Thru the Tulips" and "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine," were "sung by the pop balladeer Nick Lucas, whose sole duty in the film was to sing while strumming a guitar, and the sole function they served was to provide a musical with music and show off the Technicolor. Gold Diggers of Broadway was, then, something like a revue with a plot: an excuse, rather than a reason, for songs to exist and be performed." So, now we know we do not need to worry too much about the role the song may have had in the plot. Nonetheless, I think it's notable that there was a time when a novelty song could be as pleasant as this one with clever internal rhymes. The film was a hit, inspiring several followups (Gold Diggers of 1933, Gold Diggers of 1935, Gold Diggers of 1937, and Gold Diggers in Paris), which similarly featured backstage stories focusing on singers and dancers and big revue-like production numbers. "Tip-toe Thru The Tulips" became Nick Lucas's signature song, and he continued to perform it, accompanied by his own guitar playing, throughout his lengthy career, which lasted through the early 1980s. Tip-toe Thru The Tulips also became the signature song of novelty performer Tiny Tim, who was inspired by Lucas. I'm not imitating either of those performers in this video; but that’s the nice thing about music of the early 20th century—everyone could buy the sheet music and perform it in their own way! Lyric: Shades of night are creeping Willow trees are weeping Old folks and babies are sleeping Silver stars are gleaming All alone I'm scheming Scheming to get you out here, my dear - come, Tip-toe to the window, by the window That is where I'll be Come tip-toe through the tulips with me Tip-toe from your pillow To the shadow of a willow tree And tip-toe through the tulips with me Knee deep in flowers we'll stray We'll keep the showers away And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight Will you pardon me? Come tip-toe through the tulips with me Come on out and pet me, Come and "Juliet" me, Tease me and slyly "coquette" me Let me Romeo you, I just want to show you, How much I'm willing to do for you - come, Tip-toe to the window, by the window That is where I'll be Come tip-toe through the tulips with me Tip-toe from your pillow To the shadow of a willow tree And tip-toe through the tulips with me Knee deep in flowers we'll stray We'll keep the showers away And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight Will you pardon me? Come tip-toe through the tulips with me