"(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" is a popular novelty song written by Bob Merrill and first registered on September 25, 1952, as "The Doggie in the Window". On January 27, 1953, its sheet music was published in New York as "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window".
The best-known version of the song was the original, recorded by Patti Page on December 18, 1952, and released in January 1953 by Mercury Records as catalog numbers 70070 (78 rpm) and 70070X45 (45 rpm) under the title "The Doggie in the Window", with the flip side being "My Jealous Eyes". It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1953 and sold over two million copies. Mercury, however, had poor distribution in the United Kingdom and, for that reason, a recording by Lita Roza was the one most widely heard in that country, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1953, making Roza the first British woman to have a No. 1 hit on the UK charts. It was also the first song with a question in the title to reach the top spot.
Following the UK top ten debut of Lita Roza's cover version on March 19, 1953, the Patti Page version of the song was released in the UK on March 28, renamed "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window" (sans question mark), under Mercury's Oriole Records label. Given the delay getting to market in the UK, it was not as successful as the Roza version, entering the charts at No. 9 on April 2, before leaving the charts altogether five weeks later. The Roza version reached No. 1 on April 23, where it stayed for a single week. For five weeks between March 28, 1953, and April 25, 1953, there were two versions of "Doggie" in the UK's Top 12 singles chart.
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Chart (1953)
!Peak <br />position
|-
|Australian Singles Chart
|align="center"|1
|-
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|9
|-
|US Billboard Best Sellers in Stores
|align="center"|1
|}
Legacy
According to rock historian Michael Uslan, "novelty songs" like "Doggie" led to the "fervent embrace of rock & roll"
In 2009, Page recorded a version of the song with a new title ("Do You See That Doggie in the Shelter") together with new lyrics by Chris Gantry, with the hopes of emphasizing the adoption of homeless animals from animal shelters. The rights to that song were given exclusively to the Humane Society of the United States. Said Page: