LITA ROZA - “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?”
(17th April 1953)
You have to wonder whether without the invention of the charts (and the creation of a market that might care about them) British pop wouldn’t have cycled round a selection of stock ditties forever, rocking contentedly between slop and whimsy. As whimsy goes “Doggie” is rather charming, especially with Lita Roza sounding so coquettish (as coquettish as one can sound on a song this twee). Animals and small children may prove ‘ I’m guessing here ‘ a bane of these stumbling new charts. This song was still being played on pre-school TV when I was very small, though the verses about the bandits and robbers are new to me and make me like the record a lot more than I might. 4
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FT's Doctor Mod on October 14th, 2006
My older sisters used to torment me with the Patti Page version of this song. I made me cry. I have no idea what it was about it–I mean, I was two years old! Still, the sibling traumatizing most have left its mark, as I still get very anxious whenever I hear it, which, thankfully, isn’t very often anymore.
intothefireuk on November 7th, 2007
A very familiar song though I’m not sure which version it would have been that I’d previously heard - I certainly don’t remember the fact that the doggy’s primary purpose seems to be chasing robbers off & protecting her ’sweetheart’ while the singer scoots off to California for reasons unknown. Of course it may just be that I only remember the first two lines. It would have helped the recording if they’d actually used a real ‘ruff ruff’ instead of the impersonated version we get here. Which also reminds me that Blackburn may well have played this during his Radio 1 JC stint, over-dubbing Arnold at the appropriate moments. No more than a passing novelty and future kids records stalwart.
wichita lineman on May 28th, 2008
Another dear old Bob Merrill number one, truly the Bill Martin of his day - novelties by the yard. I’ve already put this link on She Wears Red Feathers but it can’t hurt to stick it here as well. It’s a gem:
http://www.slate.com/id/2898/
wichita lineman on August 6th, 2008
Bob Merrill wrote this after a trip to Amsterdam. Think on…
The fierce dog sounds a lot fiercer (ie 4 times as loud as the vocal) on the Patti Page version.
Lita Roza is now quite frail (she’s been diabetic for 50 years), lives alone in a house on Wandsworth Common, and is haunted by the idea that when she goes this is what people will remember her for rather than her torch songs. Like Tom, I don’t remember the robber part at all which lends it a rather surreal air; How Much Is That Guard Dog In The Window probably wouldn’t have earned it so many spins from Stewpot.
DJ Punctum on August 15th, 2008
R.I.P.
wichita lineman on August 15th, 2008
So, sadly, I guess this is how she’ll be remembered. I feel obliged to dig out her - supposedly excellent - sultry torch song material; I may report back. In the meantime I can at least recommend Leave Me Alone, a Decca single from 1955 with a mink and smoke-ring atmosphere that must be on cd. It conjurs up the make-do-and-mend glamour of fifties Soho covered by Gordon Burn’s Alma Cogan - with its smudges of illegality and late-period ration cards - more vividly than Alma’s own chirrupy catalogue.
Patti Page had a similar dislike of Doggie In The window, but she also had Tennessee Waltz and Old Cape Cod up her sleeve for the obits, unlike poor Liverpool Lita.