"Hamburger, cheeseburger, lettuce and tomato, pork chop sandwich and an alligator..."

Cafe Society
1

This was a song my dad (who grew up in north Florida) sung to me as a kid. It was basically a single verse:

Hamburger, cheeseburger, lettuce and tomato,
Pork chop sandwich and an alligator

With “alligator” rhyming with “tomato” (pronounced “tomat-er”). Was this an advertisement jingle, or a folk song, or something else?

2

I sang songs very much like that one to MY kids when they were small.

I’m sorry to break it to you, but it means your old man was a raving lunatic.

BbbbBBBBBbb bbBbbbbb

3

My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died-Roger Miller

4

Sounds to me like a take off on Jimmy Buffett.

I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes

5

It would be a fun restaurant jingle, and the alligator part could easily be an actual menu item in N. Florida, but my first thought was it’s just a fun silly song that everyone grows up hearing some version or another of. Like a less graphic version of

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy, gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Itty bitty birdie feet
All mixed up with vegitated vulture vomit
Swimming in eyeball soup (Innnnnnn eyyyyyyyye ballllllll sooooooup)

6

The tune doesn’t match my memory, but good guess!

7

I risk extreme embarrassment for the advancement of knowledge – here I sing the little tune, in case the actual melody jogs anyone’s memory: