"Mama Will Bark" is a

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...

written by

Dick Manning Dick Manning (born Samuel Medoff (Самуил Медов), June 12, 1912 – April 11, 1991) was a Russian-American songwriter, best known for his many collaborations with Al Hoffman. Manning composed the first full-length musical to be broad ...

and recorded as a

duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

between

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

and Dagmar in 1951. When buxom hostess Dagmar appeared on Sinatra's

CBS-TV CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

show on April 7, 1951,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

A&R head

Mitch Miller Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...

became intrigued by the comic chemistry he perceived between the unlikely duo. With that in mind, songwriter Dick Manning (who would later compose such hits as " Fascination") penned "Mama Will Bark", which featured off-key talking/singing by Dagmar and

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

s of

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

s barking. Miller produced the session on May 10, 1951, and the song was released the following month. "Mama Will Bark" is commonly cited as an emblematic low point in Sinatra's troubled later years at Columbia. Many Sinatra fans call it his worst recording ever, and place the blame for it squarely on the head of

. In Will Friedwald's book ''Sinatra! The Song is You'', Miller insisted that "nobody brings Sinatra in the studio o do somethingthat he doesn't want to do. Then, he had the right to okay its release." Sinatra himself later said of the song: "The only good it did me was with the dogs."Gay Talese, "Frank Sinatra has Cold", ''Esquire''
Nonetheless, the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

(which did not receive an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

release) was a hit, nearly reaching the Top 20 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

singles chart, peaking at #21. Many DJs "flipped over" the record in favor of the B-side, "I'm a Fool to Want You" (which reached #14 on the Billboard charts).

References

1951 singles Frank Sinatra songs Novelty songs Male–female vocal duets Songs about dogs {{1950s-pop-song-stub