Me and You and a Dog Named Boo

"Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" is the 1971 debut single by Lobo. Written by Lobo under his real name Kent LaVoie, it appears on the Introducing Lobo album.

"Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"
Single by Lobo
from the album Introducing Lobo
B-side	"Walk Away From It All"
Released	March 1971
Studio	Electric Lady Studios
Genre	Soft rock[1] pop[2] country[2]
Length	2:53
Label	Big Tree 112
Songwriter(s)	Kent LaVoie
Producer(s)	Phil Gernhard
Lobo singles chronology
"Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" (1971) "She Didn't Do Magic/I'm the Only One" (1971)

Composition

Lobo recalls: "I was working on several songs, including a tune about traveling around the country with this girl, and I was trying to rhyme 'you and me.' Now 'me and you' would have been easier, but I was trying to do it with proper grammar. I couldn’t find anything to rhyme that fit what I wanted to say in the song. Finally, after I got back home to Florida, I decided to turn the phrase around to 'me and you.' I was thinking about it, sitting in a room that had a big sliding glass door overlooking the back yard. My big German Shepherd dog: Boo, came running around the corner and looked in at me. I said: 'Well, now, that’s kinda freaky. How about putting 'a dog named Boo’ into the song?” That’s literally how it came about. All of a sudden the song really started coming together. I hadn’t been to any of the places mentioned in the song except Georgia, but I just kept putting in places that sounded far away like Minneapolis and L.A."^[3]

Impact

The single peaked at number 5 on the Hot 100 and was the first of four of his songs to hit number 1 on the Easy Listening chart, where it had a two-week stay at that top spot in May 1971.^[4] The song also reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1971^[5] and spent four weeks at number 1 in New Zealand.^[6]

Internationally, "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" was Lobo's second most successful song among more than 15 single releases, surpassed only by "I'd Love You to Want Me" the following year.

Chart history

Weekly charts Chart (1971) Peak position Australia KMR[7] 8 Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[8] 6 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[9] 6 Ireland (IRMA)[10] 6 New Zealand (Listener)[11] 1 South Africa (Springbok)[12] 6 UK Singles (OCC)[13] 4 US Billboard Hot 100[14] 5 US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[15] 1 US Cash Box Top 100 8

Year-end charts Chart (1971) Rank Australia [7][failed verification] 65 Canada [16] 98 UK 43 US Billboard Hot 100[17] 59 US Cash Box [18] 94

Cover versions

• Later in 1971, country artist Stonewall Jackson recorded the song, which was his final Top 40 hit on the US country chart, peaking at number 7.^[19]
• Perry Como recorded the song for his 1971 album I Think of You.^[20]
• In 1972, a version was sung by The Brady Kids in the episode "Who Was That Dog...?" on their Saturday morning cartoon show.
• Agnes Chan recorded the song for her 1972 album Original I (A New Beginning).^[21]

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1971 (U.S.)
• List of number-one singles in 1971 (New Zealand)

References

1. Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny (July 31, 1943). "Lobo | Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
2. Lanza, Joseph (February 1, 2005). "The Cake Out in the Rain: The Carpenters and the Sugar-Depression 1970s". Vanilla Pop: Sweet Sounds from Frankie Avalon to ABBA. Chicago Review Press. p. 181. ISBN 1-55652-543-5.
3. "Kent Kavoie ...The Singer Called Lobo". Mybestyears.com. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
4. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 148.
5. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 326. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
6. "Flavour of New Zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
7. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
8. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 5386." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
9. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5385." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
10. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Me and You and a Dog Named Boo". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
11. "Flavour of New Zealand, 26 February 1973". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
12. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Rock.co.za. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
13. "Lobo: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
14. "Lobo Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
15. "Lobo Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
16. "Top Singles of '71". RPM100. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012.
17. "Top 100 Hits of 1971/Top 100 Songs of 1971". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
18. "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 25, 1971". Archived from the original on October 6, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
19. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 170.
20. "Tracks on I Think of You - Perry Como (June 1971) | SecondHandSongs". SecondHandSongs.
21. "Tracks on Original I (A New Beginning) - Agnes Chan (1972) | SecondHandSongs". SecondHandSongs.