O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone
DESCRIPTION: "Oh where Oh where is my little dog gone, Oh where Oh where can he be?..." The singer describes the dog, then his tastes... lager beer, the dog, and of course sausage -- but "Dey makes um mit dog und dey makes em mit horse, I guess dey makes em mit he."
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner (1826-1902)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by Sep Winner & Co, Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: dog death food humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 57-60, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #469, p. 31, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 reference)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 29 (fragments filed under "The Orphan Boys")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 139, "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #873, p. 326, "(Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 139, "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" (1 fragment)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 143, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 144-145, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 406, "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (Zu Lauterbach)"
Harbin-Parodology, #67, p. 22, "O Where, O Where?" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #30, pp. 23-24, "Little Wee Dog" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 256, "(Oh! where, oh! where)" (1 text)
DT, LITTLDOG*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 34-35, "Dutch Warbler" (1 text, 1 tune) (part III, pp. 46-47 in the 1876 edition)
ST RJ19057 (Full)
Roud #18955
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (Brunswick 187/Vocalion 5183 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dunderbeck" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Song of the Camel Pilot (File: WJL043)
The Jackarse Eat It on the Way (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 296-297)
Zu Lauterbach (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #184; English translation, "Lauterbach Maiden," Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #114)
NOTES [108 words]: Septimus Winner for some reason put his own name on this piece and used the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne for his other hits ("Listen to the Mocking Bird" and "Whispering Hope"). Using the tune of the German song "Lauterbach," ("Zu Lauterbach"; "Zu Lauterbach Hab' Ich Mein Strumpf Verloren"; first published 1847), he created this ode (?) to an unfortunate dog.
"Deitcher" is, I believe, dialect for "German" ("Deutscher").
The Opies have notes about the history of this song on college campuses, but somehow fail to note the link between Septimus Winner and Alice Hawthorne. For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: RJ19057
Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography
The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.