CKWX MAY 26, 1957

   The older generation has been saying for a long time that it was happening; but I never believed them before. It's true, though.
   The hit parade of America has finally and literally gone to the dogs. It's evident in the songs of the past couple of years, and this year especially.
   THE CANINE population is swiftly gaining control of the music business.
   Patti Page started the whole thing with her recording of "Doggie in the Window" that sold like 10-cent cotton candy at a fair.
   Bill Haley, seeing a good thing when he saw it, established a trend with "Two Hound Dogs." It sold well, so he followed it up with "Hot Dog, Buddy Buddy." Not much reference to man's best friend in the latter selection--but it's there nonetheless.
   IT WAS ELVIS Presley, though who really put the pooch in there to stay.
   His big contribution to the advancement of man's furriest friend was, of course, his "Hound Dog." By merely standing up, banging away on a guitar, and rotating his hips in the general manner of a flea-ridden terrier. Elvis immortalized for all and sundry the canines of America.
   And, like all good performers, with the "beat" number out of the way, the Pelvis brought in the "tear-jerker"--"Old Shep." I wish I had a penny for every tear shed over Elvis' faithful old sheep dog.
   ALL THIS DOG-worship was not the beginning, though; it is the end result of something that Frankie Laine started years ago.
   Looking for a tune that was a little different, Laine recorded "Mule Train"--and it became a hit in the worst way. The fact that he had a gold mine didn't occur to him st the time, but when he sang "The Call of the Wild Goose," he knew.
   It was nature that was doing it. One might even call it a "natural" evolution of the hit parade. Whatever it was, it was worth money.
   SONG WRITERS dug out their bird books and their encyclopedias in their search for new material. It was about this time that birdwatching became a fashionable enterprise. But back to the hit parade.
   Mary Ford's "Humming Bird" became a hit over night, and then Patti Page brought out "Doggie in the Window." That's when Mother Nature threw up her hands in disgust and let songsters do as they wished.
   Animals held the spotlight for awhile, with such as "The Average Giraffe," "Milk Cow Blues Boogie," and of course Bill Haley's "See You Later Alligator."
   WITH HALEY'S "Alligator" they had switched from straight bird-and-animal releases into the more varied forms of wildlife--and the thing bloomed past all expectations.
   Harry Belafonte and his calypso friends introduced tarantula spiders and bananas--both of them strides forward from the point of view of the naturalist. All restraints had been loosed with the arrival of insects and plants. Mother Nature hid her ancient head in shame.
   After that it was all over for anybody who didn't like nature.
   "Butterfly," "Tiger Lily," "The Flea Hop" -- the selection was endless. But what about the fishes? It seems the piscatorial element has been sadly (or possibly not-so-sadly) omitted.
   When they come out with a record called "That Golden Haired Goldfish of Mine," that's when I stop listening to records.