Hokey cokey

The hokey cokey (United Kingdom), New Zealand, or hokey pokey (United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, the Caribbean, ((Mexico))) is a participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well known in English-speaking countries. It originates in a British folk dance, with variants attested as early as 1826. The song and accompanying dance peaked in popularity as a music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in Britain and Ireland. Then song was a chart hit twice in the 1980s - first by Snowmen which peaked at UK #18 in 1981, and then Black Lace who reached #31 in 1985.

Origins and meaning

Despite several claims of a recent invention, numerous variants of the song exist going back centuries. Some scholars found similar dances and lyrics dating back to the 17th century. One of the earlier variants, with a very similar dance to the modern one, is found in Robert Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scotland from 1826; the words there are given as:

Fal de ral la, fal de ral la:

Hinkumbooby, round about;

Right hands in, and left hands out,

Hinkumbooby, round about;

Fal de ral la, fal de ral la.^[1]

A later variant of this song is the Shaker song "Hinkum-Booby", which had more similar lyrics to the modern song and was published in Edward Deming Andrews' A gift to be simple in 1940: (p. 42).^[2]

A song rendered ("with appropriate gestures") by two Canterbury sisters while on a visit to Bridgewater, N.H. in 1857 starts thus:

I put my right hand in,

I put my right hand out,

In out, in out.

shake it all about.

As the song continues, the "left hand" is put in, then the "right foot," then the "left foot," then "my whole head."

...Newell gave it the title, "Right Elbow In", and said that it was danced " deliberately and decorously...with slow rhythmical motion."

A version from c. 1891 from the town of Golspie in Scotland was published by Edward W. B. Nicholson:

Hilli ballu ballai!

Hilli ballu ballight!

Hilli ballu ballai!

Upon a Saturday night.

Put all your right feet out,

Put all your left feet in,

Turn them a little, a little,

And turn yourselves about.^[3]

In the book English Folk-Rhymes, published 1892, a version of the song originating from Sheffield is given:

Can you dance looby, looby,

Can you dance looby, looby,

Can you dance looby, looby,

All on a Friday night?

You put your right foot in;

And then you take it out,

And wag it, and wag it, and wag it,

Then turn and turn about.^[4]

In the book Charming Talks about People and Places, published circa 1900,^[5] there is a song with music on page 163 entitled "Turn The Right Hand In". It has 9 verses, which run thus: "Turn the right hand in, turn the right hand out, give your hands a very good shake, and turn your body around." Additional verses include v2. left hand...; v3. both hands...; v4. right foot...; v5. left foot...; v6. both feet...; v7. right cheek...; v8. left cheek...; and, v9. both cheeks... The tune is not the same as the later popular version of the Hokey Pokey but the verse is more similar as it states to "turn your body around." No author or composer was credited.

In recent times various other claims about the origins of the song have arisen, though they are all contradicted by the publication history. According to one such account,^[6] in 1940, during the Blitz in London, a Canadian officer suggested to Al Tabor, a British bandleader of the 1920s-1940s, that he write a party song with actions similar to "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree". The inspiration for the song's title that resulted, "The Hokey Pokey", supposedly came from an ice cream vendor whom Tabor had heard as a boy, calling out, "Hokey pokey penny a lump. Have a lick make you jump". A well known lyricist/songwriter/music publisher of the time, Jimmy Kennedy, reneged on a financial agreement to promote and publish it, and finally Tabor settled out of court, giving up all rights to the number.

Controversy

An Anglican cleric, Canon Matthew Damon, Provost of Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire, has claimed that the dance as well comes from the traditional Catholic Latin Mass.^[7] The priest would perform his movements with his back to the congregation, who could not hear well the words, nor understand the Latin, nor clearly see his movements. This theory led Scottish politician Michael Matheson in 2008 to urge police action "against individuals who use it to taunt Catholics". This claim by Matheson was deemed ridiculous by fans from both sides of the Old Firm (the Glasgow football teams Celtic and Rangers) and calls were put out on fans' forums for both sides to join together to sing the song on 27 December 2008 at Ibrox Stadium.^[8]

Close relatives of Jimmy Kennedy and Al Tabor have publicly stated their recollections of its origin and its meaning and denied its connection to the mass.^[9][10] These accounts differ, and they are all contradicted by the fact that the song existed and was published decades before the supposed originators.

Dance across the world

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia the dance is commonly known as the "hokey pokey".^[11] In New Zealand, however, where Hokey pokey (ice cream) is a popular sweet, it is usually known as the "hokey tokey".

Denmark

Mostly performed in the British style of the dance, it is known as the "boogie woogie" (pronounced /ˌbʊɡiː ˈwʊɡiː/).^[12]

Philippines

In Philippines the dance is commonly known as the "Boogie Boogie".

Put your [left foot] in
Put your [left foot] out
Put your [left foot] in
And shake it all about
And dance with boogie boogie
And turn around
That's what's all about!

United Kingdom and Ireland

Known as the "hokey cokey" or "okey cokey" ("hokey pokey" in Ireland), the song and accompanying dance peaked in popularity as a music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in Britain and Ireland.

There is a claim of authorship by the British/Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, responsible for the lyrics to popular songs such as the wartime "We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" and the children's song "Teddy Bears' Picnic". Sheet music copyrighted in 1942 and published by Campbell Connelly & Co Ltd, agents for Kennedy Music Co Ltd, styles the song as "the Cokey Cokey".^[13]

In the 1973 Thames Television documentary, 'May I have the Pleasure?', about the Hammersmith Palais de Danse, Lou Preager comments on how his was the first band to record the 'Okey Cokey'.

EMI Gold released a Monsta Mash CD featuring the "Monsta Hokey Cokey" written and produced by Steve Deakin-Davies of "The Ambition Company".

The song was used by comedian Bill Bailey during his "Part Troll" tour, however it was reworked by Bailey into a style of the German electronic group Kraftwerk, including quasi-German lyrics and Kraftwerk's signature robotic dance moves.^[14]

The comedy act Ida Barr, a fictional East End pensioner who mashes up music hall songs with rap numbers, almost always finishes her shows with the hokey cokey, performed over a thumping RnB backing. Ida Barr is performed by a British comedian called Christopher Green.

United States

The current United States English version of the song's lyrics are reminiscent of the then newly formed country's separation from England. One of the things that founding fathers placed in the U.S. Constitution was that :Bills of Attainder" were outlawed, which were common place within the English Common Law at the time. [15] A "Bill Of Attainder" may be defined as "a law which declares a person or a group of persons guilty of a serious crime and subjects them to punishment without the due process of a trial". [16] However, this would rest on interpreting the word "Pokey" to mean "Jail" or "Prison". The Word Pokey as a use for Jail, was first used in the early 20th century, and probably stems from the variant "pogey" meaning "a Poor House, a welfare hotel" dating from as early as the 19th Century.^[15]

Known as the "hokey pokey", it became popular in the US in the 1950s. Larry LaPrise, Charles Macak, and Tafit Baker of the musical group the Ram Trio, recorded the song in the late 1940s.^[16] They have generally been credited with creating this novelty dance as entertainment for the ski crowd at Idaho's Sun Valley resort. However, two club musicians from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Robert Degen and Joseph P. Brier, had previously copyrighted a very similar song, "The Hokey Pokey Dance", in 1944.^[16] (One account says that copyright was granted in 1946.)^[17] According to Degan's son in The New York Times, Degan and Brier wrote the song while playing for the summer at a resort near the Delaware Water Gap.^[16] Degan resided at Richmond Place Rehabilitation and Health Center in Lexington, Kentucky, until he died on November 23, 2009, aged 104.^[17] In 1953, Ray Anthony's big band recording of the song turned it into a nationwide sensation. The distinctive vocal was by singer Jo Ann Greer, who simultaneously sang with the Les Brown band and dubbed the singing voices for such film stars as Rita Hayworth, Kim Novak, June Allyson, and Esther Williams. (She also charted with Anthony later the same year with the song "Wild Horses".) Degen and Brier, who died in 1991, sued the members of the Ram Trio and several record companies and music publishers for copyright infringement, asking for $200,000 in damages and $1 for each record of the LaPrise "Hokey Pokey". The suit was settled out of court. LaPrise later sold the rights to his version to country-western music star Roy Acuff's Nashville publishing company, Acuff-Rose Music; that company was sold to Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2002.^[16]

A competing authorship claim is made by or on behalf of British bandleader Gerry Hoey from around 1940, under the title "The Hoey Oka".

A "skating version" of the Hokey Pokey was also produced by Mike Stanglin in 1978 for use in skating rinks.

Dance moves

United Kingdom and Ireland style of dance

The instruction set goes as follows:

You put your [left arm] in,
Your [left arm] out:
In, out, in, out.
You shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!

On "You do the hokey cokey", each participant joins their right and left hands at the fingertips to make a chevron and rocks the chevron from side to side. After that the participants separately, but in time with the others, turn around (usually clockwise when viewed from above – novices may go in the opposite direction to the main group, but this adds more hilarity to this joyous, novelty dance). The hands are either still joined together, or moved as in a jogging motion – dependent on local tradition or individual choice.

Each instruction set is followed by a chorus, entirely different from other parts of the world. There is either a caller, within or outside the group, or the instructions are called by the whole group – which can add to confusion and is laughed off as part of the dance's charm and amusement.

Whoa, hokey cokey, cokey
Whoa, hokey cokey, cokey
Whoa, hokey cokey, cokey
Knees bent arms stretch,
Ra! ra! ra!

The first three lines of this chorus are sometimes rendered 'Whoa, hokey cokey-cokey', with the 'whoa' lasting only two beats instead of three. It can also be said "Whoa, the hokey-cokey".

For this chorus all participants stand in a circle and hold hands: on each "Whoa" they raise their joined hands in the air and run in toward the centre of the circle, and on "…the hokey cokey" they run backwards out again. This instruction and chorus are repeated for the other limb, then for the upper right, then upper left arm. Either the upper or lower limbs may start first, and either left or right, depending on local tradition, or by random choice on the night. On the penultimate line they bend knees then stretch arms, as indicated, and on "Rah! rah! rah!" they either clap in time or raise arms above their heads and push upwards in time. Sometimes each subsequent verse and chorus is a little faster and louder, with the ultimate aim of making people chaotically run into each other in gleeful abandon. There is a final instruction set with "you put your whole self in, etc", cramming the centre of the dance floor.

United States style of dance

The dance follows the instructions given in the lyrics of the song, which may be prompted by a bandleader, a participant, or a recording. A sample instruction sequence would be:

You put your [right leg] in,
You put your [right leg] out;
You put your [right leg] in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

Participants stand in a circle. On "in" they put the appropriate body part in the circle, and on "out" they put it out of the circle. On "And you shake it all about", the body part is shaken three times (on "shake", "all", and "-bout", respectively). Throughout "You do the hokey pokey, / And you turn yourself around", the participants spin in a complete circle with the arms raised at 90° angles and the index fingers pointed up, shaking their arms up and down and their hips side to side seven times (on "do", "hoke-", "poke-", "and", "turn", "-self", and "-round" respectively). For the final "That's what it's all about", the participants clap with their hands out once on "that's" and "what" each, clap under the knee with the leg lifted up on "all", clap behind the back on "a-", and finally one more clap with the arms out on "-bout".

The body parts usually included are, in order, "right leg", "left leg", "right arm", "left arm", "head", "buttocks" (or "backside"), and "whole self"; the body parts "right elbow", "left elbow", "right hip", and "left hip" are often included as well.

The final verse goes:

You do the hokey pokey,
The hokey pokey,
The hokey pokey.
That's what it's all about!

On each "pokey", the participants again raise the arms at 90° angles with the index fingers pointed up, shaking their arms up and down and their hips side to side five times.

Copyright

In the United Kingdom the hokey cokey is regarded as a traditional song and is therefore free of copyright restrictions. In the United States, Sony/ATV Music Publishing controls 100% of the publishing rights to the "hokey pokey."^[18]

In popular culture

The BBC TV comedy series 'Allo 'Allo! showed one of its characters (Herr Otto Flick) demonstrating a variation of the hokey cokey in an episode from season 3. Being a Gestapo officer the lyrics are changed to reflect his sinister nature as follows:

You put your left boot in

You take your left boot out

You do a lot of shouting

And you shake your fist about

You light a little smokey

And you burn down the town

That's what it's all about

Heil!

Aah, Himmler Himmler Himmler—

In 1981 A band of uncredited musicians known as The Snowmen, had a #18 UK hit with the song, there have been persistent unsubstantiated rumours, that the vocalist was Ian Dury.

Bill Bailey performed a version of the Hokey Kokey in German and in the style of Kraftwerk on his Part Troll tour in 2004.

The University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, under coach Hayden Fry, used to perform the hokey pokey after particularly impressive victories, such as over Michigan and Ohio State. On September 3, 2010, a crowd of 7,384 – with Fry present – performed the hokey pokey in Coralville, Iowa, establishing a new world record.^[19]

The Marching Virginians of Virginia Tech play this song (known as the "Hokie Pokie" at Virginia Tech because of their mascot) between the third and fourth quarters at all Virginia Tech football games. Much of the crowd participates in the dance, as do the tubas during much of the song and the rest of the band during the tuba feature. The song is also generally used as the Marching Virginians' dance number in the first half-time field show of the year, and an abbreviated version is played as a "Spirit Spot" (short song used between plays during the football game) after a big play.

Alternative band The Three O'Clock used the roller skating version of the hokey cokey in the video for their song "Her Head's Revolving." The video opens and ends with them doing the hokey cokey. It is available at YouTube.

Pinkie Pie performs a variation of the hokey cokey, titled "The Pony Pokey," in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "The Best Night Ever".

The Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, Londo Mollari, refers to the song in perplexity (during part one of the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness") as further evidence of the incomprehensible nature of human culture.

In the Pee-wee's Playhouse episode, "Party", Pee-wee Herman and his playhouse visitors perform this dance.

In the episode "Chinga" (5×10) of the TV series The X-Files, the song is featured at multiple times during the episode.

The Washington Post has a weekly contest called the Style Invitational. One contest asked readers to submit "instructions" for something (anything), but written in the style of a famous person. The popular winning entry was "The Hokey Pokey (as written by William Shakespeare)" by Jeff Brechlin, Potomac Falls, and submitted by Katherine St. John.

Comedian Jim Breuer performs the hokey pokey as he imagines it would be interpreted by AC/DC, commenting on the band's ability to turn any song, no matter how mundane, into a rock anthem.

The horror-themed heavy metal band Haunted Garage recorded a humorous hardcore punk version of the hokey pokey on their 1991 album Possession Park.

In the 1997 video game Constructor, the Thief in the Pawn Shop can be heard mentioning a computer called the "Hokey Cokey 2000".

There is a joke about when LaPrise died, his family had trouble getting him into his coffin ("they put his left leg in, and that's where the tragedy began…").

It was used in a 2005 Velveeta Salsa Dip commercial.

References

External links

• Deezen, Eddie. "The Ambiguous Origins of the Hokey Pokey". Mental Floss. 
• NIEHS. "Hokey Pokey". National Institute of Environmental Health Services. U.S.  Printed lyrics with synthesized music (no sung lyrics), with U.S. copyright information (audio plays automatically).
• Padden, Kathy. "The Origin of the Hokey Pokey". Today I found Out.