Origins: Senor Don Gato

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 02:22 PM

I'm still intrigued by the possibility that this song has Sephardic/Ladino origins. Has anybody come across more information on that?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 05:36 PM

Joe, go to www.sephardifolklit.org/flsj/. Click on explore the archive. Click on 'View the List of Identified Ballad Titles.' Scroll down to "Don Gato." There are eight transcriptions that you can look at. Some have audio. I thought I posted this great website somewhere above.

Sephardic Folk Literature
The whole archive is worth exploring- or, for ballad transcripts, go directly to Ballad Search

This is a large archive and occasionally I have found it slow.
Here is one from Tetuán, Ladino, provided with realaudio.

CANCIÓN
Estábase Señor Gato
(CMP W1, audio file re27a-2)

Estábase Señor gato, !miramiau-miau-miau-miau!
sentadito'n su tejado.
Por ahi pasara una gata, !miramiau-miau-miau-miau!
con los ojos relumbrando.
Y el gato, por darla un beso,
se ha caído y se ha matado, !maramiau-miau-miau!
Se ha partó cuatro costiyas.
cuatro costiyas y un braso, !miramiau-miau-miau!
Ya mandan por los doctores
doctores y sirujanos, !miramiau-miau-miau-miau!
doctores y sirujanos.
Ya mandan por el doctor,
el doctor de don [se corrige] señor Carlos, !miramiau-miau-miau!
este doctor de señor Carlos.
Ya le mandan gayinas,
que le hisieran un buen caldo, !miramiau-miau-miau!
Y el dia siguiente
señor gato ya s'ha muerto, !miramiau-miau-miau-miau!
señor gato ya s'ha muerto.

Las gatas visten de luto,
los ga...[repite] los gatos, capote largo, !Miramiau-miau!
los gatos capote largo.
Las ratitas, de alegria, !miramiau-miau!
[....]
Los ratones, de alegria
se visten de colorado, !miramiau-miau-miau!
se visten de colorado.
Ya se yevan a enterrar
por la plasa del pescado, !miramiau-miau-miau!
Y el olor de las sardina[s], !miramiau-miau!,
señor gato ha resusitado.
Por esto suelen desir:
"Los gatodh tienen sien almas", !miramiau-miau!
"Los gatodh tienen sien almas".

Added later- ["Siete vidas tiene un gato. !Miramiau- miau!"]
Sung by Luna Elaluf Farache, Tetuán, Morocco, 1962.
A Hebraic version from Alcazarquivir also has realaudio.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Clayton
Date: 28 Mar 05 - 12:45 AM

I learned Senor Don Gato in elementary school in San Diego. Mid 80's. To this day I find myself singing what I could remember. My friend has heard me sing the song many times. Last November she was in Balize and recognized it being sung by street musicians. She couldn't wait to tell me.
This is a great site. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Drew
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 09:28 AM

Hey there folks! A few weeks ago a memory of Don Gato from childhood popped into my head for no apparent reason and wouldn't leave. I jumped on the net to look it up and found this thread - WOAH! Don Gato lives!

I'm 26, from Sydney, Australia, and when I was a kid I learned Don Gato from the "Lion Sleeps Tonight" record that some others have mentioned here. So after a call to my parents, an interstate trip, and a rummage through their record collection, I have now recovered my Don Gato! And here is an MP3 of the version from that record.

I'm sure that will bring back some memories for those who knew that version - It did for me, tonight is the first time I have heard the record for about 20 years! For those who are interested the record is a 45 released by Peter Pan Records (F1256A), don't know what year - I would guess late 70's, it has The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Don Gato, Kookaburra, and Come To My Farm.

Thanks everyone for sharing their gato-memories, they were fun to read...

Drew

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Don Gato Eats Pineapples
Date: 26 May 05 - 11:23 PM

I can't believe this thread is alive! This has been incredibly helpful to me! I was searching for the words to the Don Gato song, because I'd heard it at a camp and wanted to know if it was real. Seems it was! I'm thinking of making a website devoted to Don Gato and it's origins.

VIVA DON GATO!!!!! *waves Don Gato flag*

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From:
Date: 25 Jun 05 - 01:26 AM

I've been teaching music since the early 70's and Don Gato was my favorite song to teach to my students !! It was always a HUGE hit with the kids. I had the old Silver Burdett making Music Your Own series. But then the song just vanished from later editions. Right now I'm looking for a recording of it. Would you believe that after all these years I still remembered almost the whole song ? Anyone out there know where I can get one or if it's in any current series ?

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Jun 05 - 02:33 PM

Very little seems to be available.
Kididdles has it on the cd El Patio de mi casa. May be too infantile.
www.kididdles.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=329
El Patio
There is a sound clip.

There is a rather nice one in Spanish, on the internet. I believe that it is linked above somewhere.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,alex, in s f, cali
Date: 07 Aug 05 - 04:00 AM

dude. i totally learned this song in middle school in 2000. don gato forever. definitely the funniest of the songs we sang in spainish. imagine my laughter when i went online to find the whole version and this is what i found. rock on.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,LadyEdge
Date: 09 Aug 05 - 08:40 PM

Oh my god. I am so happy to find out that this many people love this song too. I learned it in the late 70's, early 80's and never forgot about it. My aunt gave me handmade Spanish dolls when I was about 13 (I am 32 now) and I named the male one, Senor Don Gato! Long live that fiesty cat!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Kaleea
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 03:27 AM

In my earlier teaching years, some of the schools had 10-20 year old sets of Music books for the elementary kids. Truth is, I didn't mind so much cause of the abundance of wonderful folk songs like "Senor Don Gato." It was such a favorite of the children that I let them sing it in more than one grade. The beginning band kids in 5th & 6th grade one year wanted to include this in their concert. It was terrific!

Stranger thing is that in rural Minnesota I took my black Lab to the local vet (coincidentally of Italian/Swedish ancestry) & his name was-- no lie!!

       Dr. Donald Gatto!
      
He told me that I was the first person who ever said anything about understanding his name.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 05 - 01:27 PM

When I was in elementary school (around 1977) there was a local program on PBS. It was called Sound Go Round (obviously a program about music). Anyway, they used puppets a lot and did a version of Senor Don Gato on the show! It is great to see I am not the only adult who remembers and loves this song!!!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,guest-zookeeper082
Date: 22 Sep 05 - 03:45 PM

I actually have tears streaming down my face after reading thru much of this amazingly long thread! I've looked for these lyrics for sooo long, and my dd found your site today and emialed them to me! I also learned them in grade school, in the 70's....we were a military family, so I'm not sure which school, it was either in Ma. or in DODDS in Hanua Germany....I"m thinking the latter, as I recall a basement music class. Thanks soo much..for lyrics, and music links, and the joy in my heart over this silly old song.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,J.D. Roberson
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:27 AM

I just purchased the "Senor Don Gato" illustrated book by David Manders. Found it at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Manders did a very nice job depicting our favorite re-animated feline. This will be a keeper on my bookshelf for many years.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 19 Nov 05 - 09:17 PM

Don Gato is apparently not a fictional character. He is alive and well and running a restaurant in Uruguay. Check it out!

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Nov 05 - 12:09 AM

No, he is an illegal immigrant in the U. S.

Don Gato's
3308 Virginia Dare Trail
Nags Head, NC 27959

There is a bar and he takes Visa and Mastercard.

No, not illegal, a U.S. Citizen

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Eli
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 05:13 PM

Wow, I can't believe how many people know this song! I learned it in elementary school back in the 80's.

One day recently I was singing the beginning of this song but had trouble recalling the rest. So I went on line to see if I could find the lyrics and I stumbled across this thread.

It's simply amazing how long his song has lasted! *hehehe*

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Colorado
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 07:48 PM

I'm so happy I found a place that has these lyrics! My brother sang this song in his 4th grade elementary school choir in Colorado Springs, CO, and I fell in love with the song and made him sing it to me over and over until I learned it. I still get it stuck in my head every once in a while, and this time I figured I'd search to see if I could find lyrics to it ten years later. I'm going to send these to my brother now, he's shipped off in the Navy, and I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Scott
Date: 29 Dec 05 - 11:10 PM

I learned Don Gato in the 4th grade (1983) at Huntington Elementary in Chillicothe, OH (thanks Mrs. Uhrig). One day early this year, out of nowhere, this song popped into my head and it stuck there. Soon after, my son was born, and I was singing it to him but could only remember the first 3 verses. My mom started cracking up because she too remembered this from when I was a kid, and over the last couple of months has been asking me to find the lyrics. Thank goodness for this site and all who've kept this thread alive. Viva Don Gato!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Nitallica
Date: 26 Jan 06 - 05:20 PM

Oh my, I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers this song! I've been wanting to teach it to my 8 year old daughter, but couldn't remember all of the words and so started a search to see if it was "out there" on the web. :)

I learned it in a Jefferson County Public School, just north of Birmingham, Alabama in 1982-83.

Good to see this song has made it around all over!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Greta
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 01:55 AM

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I'm 41 and love this song and have been trying to find the lyrics for years.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Windsinger
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 09:34 AM

Hehehe!

I may be one of the only 'catters here who didn't pick this song up as a kid at school. First time I heard it was at an SCA campfire. Nearly peed with laughter all the same.

(Been meaning to steal this one for a long time...lately my busking repertoire doesn't include as much humorous stuff as I'd like.)

Slán,

~Fionn

www.geocities.com/children_of_lir

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,J.D. Roberson
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 01:01 PM

I never knew our beloved feline had so many levels! Read a Colorado senator's account of how Senor Don Gato has affected his life and his career:

http://www.knowledgemessenger.com/prod/ViewNewsletter.asp?id=1069&App=dangrossman

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Senator Dan Grossman
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 01:05 PM

Here's a direct link:

Senator Dan Grossman talks about Don Gato

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,GUEST, Kimberly M
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:54 AM

This tune popped into my head this evening while watching an episode of Seinfeld and to my amazement the lyrics are online! I've loved the song since childhood and look forward to sharing it with my 11 year old daughter.

Subject: Lyr Add: Senor Don Gato missing verse
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 09:56 PM

I believe a verse is missing before the last one you have listed about the funeral....

Then the doctors all came on the run,
just to see if something could be done,
and they held a consultation, meow, meow, weow,
about how to save their patient, meow, meow, meow,
how to save Senor Don Gato.

As the funeral passed.....

---

Message moved from another thread - we try to keep all the information on a song together, to avoid duplication and confusion.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 12:39 AM

There are many versions of this old song; with different endings, some happy, some sad. In some, Don Gato receives treatment from doctors (see Sephardic fragment posted above), in others no examination by physicians is mentioned.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Guest - Cynthia
Date: 21 Apr 06 - 02:19 AM

At last...at last...the memory is complete!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,J.D. Roberson
Date: 21 Apr 06 - 09:46 AM

The missing verse is the following:

But in spite of ev'rything they tried.
Poor Senor Don Gato up and died.
O it wasn't very merry, Meow, Meow Meow.
Going to the cemetery, Meow, Meow Meow.
For the ending of Don Gato

For some reason, the messages posted to this thread are out of order on the earlier portion of the page. All six verses of the standard English-language version can be found on a post from 9/15/98.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Apr 06 - 01:26 PM

There is no standard English language version. There are several translations in books and school songbooks current and past. Versions of the story have come to America from Spain, Latin America and Sephardic Jews. One of the more recent printings is by John Manders, "Senor Don Gato, A Traditional Song," Candlewick Press.
Scolastic Press offers a fine version, both Spanish and English, by Lucia Gonzales.
Also recommended is "Estaba El Senor Don Gato - Here is Mister Cat," illus. by Carmen Salvador.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,J.D. Roberson
Date: 24 Apr 06 - 03:13 PM

I stand corrected.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 25 Apr 06 - 09:28 AM

I'd never heard of Senor Don Gato outside this thread -- until this last weekend, when I was quite surprised to hear it performed at my kindergartner's school concert (in Santa Cruz, California).

Apparently it's the children's favorite and they demanded it be included in the program.

miao miao miao!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Apr 06 - 01:34 PM

Unconnected trivia-
I learned the other day that Italian cats say Niau! Or this just a dialect?

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Al
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 11:16 PM

My wife learned Don Gato in the Fillmore Central School (Alleghany County in NYS) in the late '60s. She sang it to me many years later and I was captivated! She and several of her classmates just attended their reunion--30th High School graduation anniversary--and guess what topic came up!?! Soon there were several of us singing what we could remember of our favorite song right there in the restaurant!

A couple of days later, we came home and found a message from a classmate who now lives near Philadelphia, who had found this website and sang the verses we couldn't remember. Now all we have to do is teach our cat to sing along!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,J.D. Roberson
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:44 AM

Anyone know how to put these posts back in full chronological order?

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:10 PM

You may lose the links within the posts, but just go to the top of the thread, and select "Printer Friendly"

CHEERS
Nigel

---

(or click here)

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,GUEST: AVanLatte
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 01:58 AM

I learned this song in third grade in Sicklerville, New Jersey. For some reason it came to me the other day. My 14 year old daughter thought it was funny, so we set out to find all of the lyrics...I could only remember the first verse and something about solar plexus, and here you all were. What a blast from the past!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Allison From Australia
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 04:28 AM

Yah! My dad use to sing us three girls the senor song, and now i've found it! He has never left Australia and learnt the song when he was a young boy aged 7 years! We now have the song on our fridge!!
Cheers Don Gato

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 05:22 PM

I remember singing this song in elementary school in new jersey in the late 70's and early 80's. I always loved this song as well. I am doing a Spanish culture day show with my kindergarten class this spring and would like to find the song on a CD or tape. I was wondering if anyone has had any luck in finding it anywhere on CD or tape.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,GUEST karissa
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 11:06 PM

I saw that a couple people from previous posts years earlier had the origonal sheet music that they were willing to email, i was wondering if anyone still had it and would be willing to email it too me?

Subject: Gatoradee New
From: GUEST,TJ
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 07:02 PM

Has anyone seen the new Gatoradee ad which is out?

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Ted
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 11:13 AM

Senor Don Gato is one of those songs that has been trapped in my darned brain since elementary school (1970's, Hempfield Area Schools, outside of Pittsburgh, PA). The other sing is the Erie Canal Song. You remember that one, don't you? It starts "I got a mule her name is Sal / 15 years on the Erie Canal..."

But back to Don Gato. Not a month goes by that the Don Gato tune doesn't spontaneously pop into my head. I might be deep in thought at work when suddenly part of my brain starts singing:

-there is not a sweeter kitty, meow, meow, meow
-in the country or the city, meow, meow, meow
-and she said she'd wed Don Gato

Don't get me wrong though - I'm not annoyed by the song. On the contrary, I kind of like the nostalgic feeling I get when I think of it.

However, those few lines (and the line before that goes "She was fluffy, white, and nice and fat") were all I could remember. Thanks for posting the rest of the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 09:29 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to Senor Don Gato

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 10:18 PM

Guest, click on SENOR DON GATO at the top of this thread, or select from among several sets of lyrics in this thread.

Not sure what you are looking for.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,azenafly
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 05:43 PM

I have been singing this song to my 3rd 4rth and 5th graders for the last 5 years. It is their favorite song. I always teach it in the first week of school and then we sing it as a treat throughout the year. It's a great classroom managament tool. I have done some research on the song and have never found an author. Do you know who wrote it and when?

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 06:27 PM

The song is Spanish and Sephardic Jewish, possibly dating before the 17th century, as discussed in the material above. Time of origin and authors unknown.
Of course there are many modern revisions, some with known authors but most anon.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Just Me
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 10:12 PM

What a blast, reading all these reminiscences! I learned Don Gato in the 60's in Miami-Dade County public school. It has haunted me for years, so I'm thrilled to find this thread! Long live Don Gato!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Campbell
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 09:52 PM

Does anyone have a link to an mp3 of the english version. I tried the one above but it's a couple years old and no longer working. thanks.

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Guest Tina
Date: 06 May 07 - 09:07 PM

Wow I thought I was the only person who remembered this song!!! I learned it in 4th grade in Anaheim, Calif. in 71 or 72! Glad to know I am not the only one "haunted" by the ghost of Don Gato!!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 May 07 - 09:57 PM

Don Gato lives!

Subject: RE: Origins: Senor Don Gato
From: GUEST,Gotta Love the 70s
Date: 27 May 07 - 09:22 PM

Like everyone else on this page, that tune stuck in my head tonight; and I found myself singing what I could remember to my 5 year old. Unfortunately, could only remember 'til verse #3. So glad to find this and fill in the blanks! The tune does sound like it's a minor key. Good ole Silver Burdett-what would we have done w/o Don Gato?!