{"id":15653,"date":"2022-04-05T13:51:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T13:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=15653"},"modified":"2025-12-13T07:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T07:33:13","slug":"has-anybody-seen-our-cat","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/has-anybody-seen-our-cat\/","title":{"rendered":"Has anybody seen our cat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Kitty Cat
Has anybody seen my Kitty<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1899<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>TW Connor <\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RNRN15708<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>George Beauchamp<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Pardon, Walter; England : Norfolk; 1987<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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As sung by George Beauchamp<\/strong>\n\nI'm upset now; let me tell you why,\nOur old tom cat has been and done a guy (run away)\nMy old gal declares that it's a sign\nSomebody's number's up and two to one it's mine\nI've been wondering why I am to blame\nFor sneaking the bacon and the brawn\nAnd the young man lodger's two-eyed steaks (bloater)\nWhen they're missing on a Sunday morn.\n\nHas anybody seen our cat?\nHas anybody seen our cat?\nHe's got a bit of black on the end of his tail\nAnd the skin's all off where he's been fighting\nLast Sunday morning we missed him from the mat\nPuss! Puss! Puss! Meat! Meat! Meat!\nHas anybody seen our cat?<\/em>\n\nHow we loved that cat nobody knows\nPut butter on his feet and pepper on his nose\nWhen he caught cold gave myself a job\nWhen the toothache troubled him so bad\nAnd I found little Tommy couldn't eat\nI tied up his face, put baccy in his ear\nAnd got another cat to chew his meat.\n\nI never thought he'd leave his happy home\nThough after the gals he often used to roam\nI've sent tripe hounds out upon his track\nI'm doing everything to try and get him back\nGot two cods heads stuck up on a pole\nAnd nailed up a kipper on the door\nAnd written underneath it \u2018Welcome home'\nAnd a promise not to kick him any more.\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song from the Halls of 1899 which crossed the Atlantic and was adapted by early country music pioneers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
English traditional singer Walter Pardon sang a fragment of this song for Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie in 1987, though its not clear whether his version was derived from the British or American sources. The original British song was written and composed by TW Connor<\/a> in 1899 for  George Beauchamp<\/a> – prob<\/strong>ably as a sequel to an earlier successful song Puss, Puss Puss<\/a><\/em> (1897). According to a contemporary advert, the 1899 song was also sung in productions of the pantomime Dick Whittington<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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[A song]<\/em> to suit any comedian, whether playing Dame, Baron, or any comedy part in any pantomime – but especially adapted for Whittington<\/em>  …  one of T. W. Connor’s Masterpieces. <\/p>\nAd for Mr George Beauchamp, The Era, 21 Oct 1899, p31<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It crossed the Atlantic in 1901 when American comic James T Powers wrote additional verses and incorporated it in his hit Broadway Musical The Messenger Boy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The British and US versions <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Broadway show may have provided the spark which led to an American song usually called  Anybody seen my Kitty <\/em>(RN 15708) collected several times in the USA. It first seems to appear in the late 1930s, credited to Asher Sizemore and sung by child radio star Little Jimmie. The song varies slightly, but the chorus from Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book <\/em>is fairly typical:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anybody seen my kitty?\nAnybody seen my cat? \nShe's got a crook at the end of her tale \nTo show that she's been fighting. \nDown in Dugan's alley \nUp in Finnegan's flat \nKitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty \nAnybody seen my cat?<\/em>\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This chorus seems to be directly derived from the original Music Hall\/Broadway song by TW Connor, though where the song is sung with verses these are different from those written by Connor or Powers. The American song later featured in the repertoire of country music pioneer Tex Ritter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither of the above should  be confused with the 1922 song Has anybody seen my kitty?<\/em> by HP Porter which nonetheless has certain similarities! ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burt Sheppard sings the original TW Connor song:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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