Walkin' My Cat Named Dog

Norma Tanega was rather eclectic, even by the standards of 1966. "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" was her big hit, charting at #22 in both the US and UK. It's a true story: She lived in New York City and wasn't allowed to have a dog in her apartment, so she got a cat and named it dog. And took it for walks. There is a deeper meaning behind it: the song is about freedom and self-expression. People will stare when you put a cat on a leash and walk it down the street, but that's their problem.

Tanega didn't set out to be a singer. Born in 1939, she studied art and earned a degree from Claremont Graduate School in 1962 with plans to be a college professor. Instead she detoured to New York City and became part of the folk music community. Singing at a summer camp in the Catskills brought her to the attention of Bob Crewe, who wrote many hits for The Four Seasons. He signed her to his New Voice label and put out "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" as the first single. She ended up on a package tour with Gene Pitney, Bobby Goldsboro and a few other acts, where she performed her hit in a three-song set. "I just want to sing for people," she told a reporter for the Detroit Free Press "You might say it's mass love. It's not the money. I don't know what to do with money." Tanega's next single, "A Street That Rhymes At Six A.M.," reached #129 in the US and was her last chart showing. She moved to London, where she lived for five years before moving back to Claremont, California, where she opened an art gallery and started teaching at California State Polytechnic University. In 2014, her song "You're Dead," the first track on her 1966 debut album, Walkin' My Cat Named Dog, was used in the movie What We Do In The Shadows. It became the theme song to the TV adaptation in 2019, the same year Tanega died.

Barry McGuire of "Eve Of Destruction" fame covered this song, releasing it as a single in 1966. It was also covered in French by Les Surfs, a group from Madagascar.