This song was controversial at the time because it was about a mine cave-in in which the two survivors might possibly have eaten Timothy, their companion. It's generic late 1960s pop, and I didn't see a need to finish it - I wasn't particularly concerned about what happened to poor fictional Timothy.
"Timothy" was apparently written to deliberately stir up controversy, as The Buoys were being asked to release their first single without support from their record company. Given no other means of obtaining publicity, songwriter Rupert Holmes chose the theme of cannibalism in order to draw attention. When the song unexpectedly became popular, its record company attempted to defuse the situation by claiming that Timothy was a mule; Holmes, who played piano on the song, refused to go along with this deception.
The Buoys were from near Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. "Timothy" eventually reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band had difficulty coming up with a followup and disbanded after one other minor hit.
Holmes went on to have a hit in 1980 with "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)"; it's a one-hit wonder, and I'll probably write it up when or if I start doing songs from the 1980s. He later became a successful dramatist and author, winning a Tony Award for the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1985.
Created August 17, 2026.