Yeah, we could have done a Top 10 list of songs about dogs but once you get past Me & You & A Dog Named Boo, where else is there to go? Even the classic Walkin’ The Dog ain’t about, well, walking the dog (if you know what we mean).
10. Bedouin Soundclash – Trinco Dog: We’re not entirely sure what a Trinco Dog is — perhaps one of those chotchkes you find hanging from the ceiling of a junk shop in Chinatown — but we love these reggae boys from north of the border.
9. Big Joe Turner – Low Down Dog: The world may think Elvis or Jerry Lee or Chuck B. were the fathers of rock and roll, but it was really Big Joe’s brand of “jump blues” that started it all.
8. Bobby “Blue” Bland – I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me): Dogs are popular topics in the blues and R&B and Bobby “Blue” Bland nailed this one (much more readily that Cher did, if you can picture that in your mind’s ear).
7. Cat Stevens – Was Dog a Doughnut?: The title typically metaphysical, the music weirdly, well, un-Cat-like. Maybe it’s the dog barking…
6. Pere Ubu – Use of a Dog: So entirely weird it’s hard to believe they’re from Ohio. Makes the aforementioned Cat Stevens cut sound like Natalie Cole. A classic slack dancer tune from college radio.
5. The Faces – You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog for a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away tThe Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Short Comings): We can’t find a place where you can hear this one but, hey, with a title like that, who can resist?
4. Sly & The Family Stone – Underdog: More than a great cartoon, this one (with Frere Jacques quoted in the opener) is the truly funkiest version of the Sly band.
3. Leon Russell & The Shelter People – The Ballad of Mad Dogs & Englishmen – It’s Leon Russell. We don’t really need to say anything else.
2. Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog: Big Mama died penniless so we could have Elvis: give her propers.
1. Aerosmith – Walkin’ The Dog – There are some great versions of this tune, including Rufus Thomas’ original, but this is Aerosmith at their grittiest.
