Channelzine

How Much Is That Doggy In The Window by Lita Roza

Somehow, I almost can’t believe that this was ever a single.  It’s like a nursery rhyme, so tacked onto the public consciousness that one cannot see a Dog behind glass without thinking of this.  Listening to it as music is difficult – how do you separate the history, the jokes , the popular culture references (Newman singing it in Seinfeld! It being played to death in Eastenders!) from the song itself?  Well, you do it like this, I suppose: This song is awful. It’s horrendously repetitive, the barking is irritating, the delivery patronising.  Is that what you wanted to hear? Of course not! Even as I listen to this I actually hear my mother singing it to me when I was a little boy, and I can’t be angry at that.  I can only really smile a bit, and file it under a tab marked as ‘Affectionate Memories’.