How a novelty singer made a puppy tune a number one hit and helped prime teens for rock & roll Show Incredible, but true. On April 4, 1953, singer Patti Page’s disarmingly soulful rendition of ”(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window” topped the nation’s pop music charts-and held on to the No. 1 spot for eight weeks. Punctuated by barks from Page’s arranger and violinist, the musical stray told the tale of a girl who desperately wanted to buy her sweetie a puppy before he took off for California. ”If he has a dog/He won’t be lonesome,” cooed Page. ”And the doggie will have a good home.” How could such a thing sell two million copies? Perhaps the success of ”Doggie” was inevitable, given Page’s Madonna-size popularity at the time. ”The Singing Rage-Miss Patti Page” was a regular on TV and had amassed a slew of hits, most notably 1950’s ”Tennessee Waltz.” Furthermore, the public had shown a voracious appetite for goofball ”novelty songs” since the ’30s, making hits out of the likes of Bing Crosby’s ”Pistol Packin’ Mama” and Merv Griffin’s ”I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts.” Just before he unleashed ”Doggie” on the world, composer Bob Merrill helped pen ”If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake.” But ”Doggie” was the biggest novelty. The song set school kids yipping; the record’s label, Mercury, was deluged with requests for free puppies; and the American Kennel Club’s annual registrations jumped an astonishing 8 percent. ”It was a charming little song,” recalls Page, 63, who shares homes in California and New Hampshire with husband Jerry Filiciotto, an aerospace engineering consultant. ”Up to that time it was mostly teens buying records, but this one spanned all age groups. It’s still the song I’m most known for.” Ditties like ”Doggie” actually led to teenagers’ ”fervent embrace of rock & roll” two years later, according to rock historian Michael Uslan. ”A lot of songs at that time were extremely bland, squeaky-clean stuff. The music field was ripe for something new, something vibrant to shake the rafters.” As the rock era dawned, novelty songs pretty much faded from the airwaves. Merrill headed for Broadway and in 1964 cowrote Funny Girl with Jule Styne. Today ”Doggie” rings nostalgic, evoking an era when buying a warm puppy for your beau could more than justify his love. Page, whose last top 10 hit was the folk ballad ”Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” in 1965, gladly performs ”Doggie” in nightclub appearances around the country (she’s at Harrah’s in Reno April 23-May 5). ”I usually put it in a medley with 10 or 12 other songs,” she says, ”except in the Orient. They want to hear the whole thing.” TIME CAPSULE: April 4, 1953 Singer Patti Page, whose smooth alto voice made hits of "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?", "Tennessee Waltz" and "Old Cape Cod," has died at 85, her manager confirmed to NBC News. She had a seven-decade musical career and sold more than 100 million records. Though some of her hits were considered novelty songs, she continued to perform into the 2000s, and briefly dabbled in television. Page died at the Seacrest Village nursing home in Encinitas, Calif. on Jan. 1. The Grammy Awards will honor Page, along with other artists -- including Carole King and the late Ravi Shankar -- with lifetime achievement awards at the ceremony Feb. 10. Born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma, she was the second of 11 children and told the New York Times she remembered living without electricity. She began singing on local radio as a teenager and was given her stage name because a sponsor of that show was the Page Milk Company. The biggest hit of her career, "Tennessee Waltz," about an old friend who steals the singer's lover while dancing, was No.1 for nine weeks in 1950 and 1951 and is one of seven official state songs for Tennessee. "How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?" was No.1 for eight weeks in 1953. In 2009, Page recorded a version using the same tune and different lyrics, called "Do You See That Doggie in the Shelter?" and gave the rights to the song to the Humane Society of the United States. "The original song asks the question: 'How much is that doggie in the window?' " Page told the Humane Society. "Today, the answer is 'too much.' And I don't just mean the price tag on the puppies in pet stores. The real cost is in the suffering of the mother dogs back at the puppy mill. That's where most pet store puppies come from. And that kind of cruelty is too high a price to pay." She also sang the theme to the 1964 Bette Davis thriller "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," which reached No. 8 on the charts. Page's other hits included "Old Cape Cod," "With My Eyes Open Wide, I'm Dreaming" and "I Went to Your Wedding." Her friends included Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley, and she attended the "Ed Sullivan Show" on the famed 1964 night when the Beatles were introduced to America. (Page thought they were "cute kids," The New York Times reported.) She also had numerous television specials and series, including "The Patti Page Show," which ran for just one season in 1955-1956, and "The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show" in 1958-1959. "What I like about singing is that, for me, it's a substitute for the psychiatrist's couch," Page told The New York Times in 2003. "I can tell it all in song: pathos, gladness, love, joy, unhappiness. Each song, you're telling a story and acting." Her music was sometimes criticized for its simplicity, but Page knew what the audiences of the 1950s wanted. "My music was called plastic, antiseptic, placid," she told The Times. "It was only five or so years after the war, a different time. A simpler time. The music was simpler, too." She was married three times and had a son and a daughter.  X00643 A look back at Whitney Houston, Davy Jones, Andy Griffith and others we lost this year. Do you remember Page and her music? Tell us on Facebook. Related content:
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Where did the song How much is that doggie in the window come from?The song was initially recorded on December 8, 1952, and was released the following year, January 1953 by Mercury Records. “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?” roots back to the folk tune, Carnival of Venice. In addition, the tune was based on the song “Oh, Where, Oh, Where Has My Little Dog Gone? “
Who sang How much is that doggie in the window UK?Lita Roza, the British singer who became famous for her hit How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?, has left £190,000 in her will to an animal charity. Roza, who became the first woman to top the UK charts, died aged 82 last August, leaving £992,836 in her will.
How much is that doggie in the window age?A new addition to Money as You Grow Bookshelf is "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" by Bob Merrill, for ages three and up.
How much is that doggie in the window story?It is a great story based on the song "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?" A little boy wants the doggie in the window, but he doesn't have enough money to buy him. So he decides to try to earn money with a lemonade stand.
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Who sang How much is that doggie in the window in the 50s?
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