Thanks for the link to the old thread

In partial answer to my own question found there.

The song was done by Guy Lombardo
In defferenance to Dave the Gnome, and the Katterwailing Kitty The lyrics are different than the poem by Service, but the story line is the same.

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up at the Malamut Cafe
The kid that handles the music box was hitting a tune that was gay

Picked it up on the old Napster system. Ripped a single-song disk for a friend and then discarded it since it wasn't trad. If he is at today's gathering I will post more, since it is also inside his head