Norma Tanega

Norma Cecilia Tanega (January 30, 1939 – December 29, 2019) was an American folk and pop singer-songwriter, painter, and experimental musician.

She entered Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1952 and in her senior year directed the school's art gallery.

By age 16, she was exhibiting her paintings at both Long Beach's Public Library and its Municipal Art Center, playing Beethoven and Bartók at piano recitals, and writing poetry.

In the 1960s, she had a hit with the single "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" and wrote songs for Dusty Springfield and other prominent musicians.

In later decades, Tanega worked mostly as a percussionist, playing various styles of music in the bands Baboonz, hybridVigor, and Ceramic Ensemble.

She also wrote "You're Dead", which was used as the theme song of the film What We Do in the Shadows and the TV series of the same name.

Norma Tanega was born in Vallejo, California, near San Francisco, and moved to Long Beach at the age of two.

Her mother, Otilda Tanega, was Panamanian.

Her father, Tomas Tanega, was Filipino and worked as a bandmaster for 30 years in the United States Navy.

During that time, he served aboard the USS Hornet before eventually leading his own band.

Norma's older brother Rudy served in the United States Air Force.

Tanega began classical piano lessons at age nine.

At age 17, she entered Scripps College on a scholarship, graduating in 1960 before continuing her studies at Claremont Graduate School, earning an MFA in 1962.

Tanega spent a summer backpacking around Europe and moved to New York City to pursue her artistic career.

While living in Greenwich Village, she was involved in the folk music scene and political activism, including early opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

Tanega worked for a short time at a mental hospital, where she sang and played songs for patients.

She spent her summers working as a camp counselor upstate in the Catskill Mountains.

Brooklyn-based record producer Herb Bernstein saw Tanega performing while visiting the camp one summer.

Impressed by what he saw, Bernstein introduced her to Four Seasons songwriter Bob Crewe.

The two men produced a number of recordings that comprised Tanega's first album and singles to be released on Crewe's New Voice Records label in 1966.

Her first single, "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog", became an international hit in 1966, peaking at number 22 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Charts, and #3 in Canada.

Tanega's impetus for the song came from living in a New York City apartment building that did not allow dogs; instead she owned a cat which she named "Dog" and took for walks.

The single's success landed her appearances on American Bandstand and Where the Action Is, and a slot as the only woman on a North American tour with Gene Pitney, Bobby Goldsboro, Chad and Jeremy and The McCoys.

During the tour, Tanega was initially backed by members of the Outsiders.

Since they were unable to follow Tanega's more idiosyncratic music, the Outsiders were later replaced by session musicians accompanying her onstage.

While some of her songs riffed on traditional tunes like "Hey Girl", derived from Lead Belly's take on "In the Pines", many of her songs diverged from the structure of typical pop and folk music, such as her song "No Stranger Am I", set to a time signature.

While Tanega's next three singles had less commercial success than "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog", her debut album was named after its big hit and its popularity spawned several cover versions by contemporary artists.

A month after Tanega's single entered the charts, Barry McGuire cut a version on the heels of his number one hit "Eve of Destruction".

In 1966, Tanega traveled to England to promote her music.

Her tour included a performance on the ITV program Ready Steady Go!, where she met British pop singer Dusty Springfield.

After Tanega returned to the U.S., Springfield made many transatlantic calls to her and accrued a large phone bill.

On a visit to New York, Springfield entered a romantic relationship with Tanega.

They returned to England and lived together for five years.

The couple took up residence in London's Kensington district, where Tanega continued to paint and play music.

Springfield recorded many of Tanega's songs.

These included "No Stranger Am I", the number that originally appeared on Tanega's first album; "The Colour of Your Eyes", which Tanega wrote for Springfield in Venice, Los Angeles; "Earthbound Gypsy" and "Midnight Sounds", both co-written in New York with Tanega's high school friend Dan White; and "Come for a Dream", co-written with bossa nova musician Antônio Carlos Jobim.

Tanega also penned the English language lyrics for Springfield's version of "Morning", a cover of the song "Bom Dia" by Gilberto Gil and Nana Caymmi.

The T-Bones did an instrumental take on it later that year, and both the Jazz Crusaders and Art Blakey released jazz treatments of the song in 1967.

International versions adapted the song into other languages.

Madagascar yé-yé group Les Surfs translated it as "Mon Chat Qui S'Appelle Médor" for the French-speaking and African markets, Belgium's Lize Marke released it as "Wanneer Komt Het Geluk Voor Mij" ("When Comes This Happiness For Me") in Dutch, and Jytte Elga Olga interpreted it as "Min Kat – Herr Hund" ("My Cat, Mister Dog") on a Danish 45.