1953 Lita Roza: (How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window?

The second British number one (and the first from a solo female, '(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window'? is a step up in quality from The Stargazers but only insofar as it's better to get shot in one knee than both. Patti Page was the first to record this though her version has always struck me as far too sophisticated for what is essentially a song aimed at kids. Roza's vocal has far more of a smile about it and the 'ruff ruff' doggie noises are played more for laughs here too, all which makes it far more endearing that Page's cut. Roza herself had star qualities in spades - with a warm voice and looks falling in-between Judy Garland and Sophia Loren she should have been bigger. In any event, she deserves a better epitaph than this; for something so simplistic and trite the song has proved surprisingly durable, going on to become a standard of sorts and an albatross of little more than a statistic for Roza. There's always room at number one for a novelty tune and this is better than most but still, is all this really worth the wear of actually compiling these charts in the first place?

On a trivia note, this is by all accounts the rarest UK number one for collectors to track down in decent condition, allegedly because the children it was bought for were none too gentle in their handling of it.