Hokey-Pokey
With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the ninth anniversary of the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed. Larry LaPrise, the man who claims to have written "The Hokey Pokey," died peacefully at age 93 on April 4, 1996. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.
Actually the real trouble was reportedly copyright related:
"LaPrise wrote the Hokey Pokey song in the late 1940s for the apres-ski crowd at a club in Sun Valley Idaho. The song was first recorded by his group the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker) in 1949. They were awarded US copyright in 1950. After the group broke up in the 1960s, LaPrise worked for the Post Office in Ketchum.
"The authorship of the Hokey-Pokey is disputed, with Jimmy Kennedy claiming to have written the original entitled Cokey-Cokey, or Hokey-Cokey, or Okey-Cokey during WWII. Robert Degan sued LaPrise for copyright infringement of his 1946 The Hokey-Pokey Dance. They settled out of court.
"Some scholars attribute the origin to the Shaker song Hinkum-Booby which had similar lyrics and was published in Edward Deming's A gift to be simple in 1940:
"I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, I give my right hand a shake, And I turn it all about."
"The song was recorded as a novelty a couple of times but it didn't become a source of steady income for LaPrise until Roy Acuff bought the rights to it in the 60s.
"Alas, the Hokey Pokey turned out to be the high-water mark of LaPrise's musical career–in fact, the only water mark. LaPrise, by then a father of six, was working for the post office in Ketchum, Idaho.
"There followed a steady succession of recordings: Jack Johnson and the Hickory Dickory Singers, Warren Covington with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Cliffie Stone, Jerry Marks, Chubby Checker, Annette Funicello, the Champs. In no time, the Hokey Pokey was everywhere. Other versions include, "Hokey Pokey Cow Bell Blues," "Hokey Pokey Mama," and "Hokey Pokey Polka."
"By the early 1990s, it had even turned up on a heavy metal album by the band Haunted Garage, alongside such classics as "Party in the Graveyard" and "Torture Dungeon".
"The Hokey Pokey' is like a square dance, really,'' LaPrise said in 1992. "You turn around. You shake it all about. Everyone is in a circle, and it gets them all involved.''
"The tune became the official victory dance for the Iowa State Football team. ''''I guarantee you we never had a big victory where we were the underdog or won a championship game or had a bowl victory that we didn't do the Hokey Pokey and celebrate,'' Coach Hayden Fry said. I would have sent him a note. I'm sure he never dreamed that he made a contribution in athletics.'''
"But the really shocking part is that the song may have been stolen.
Lexington, KY resident Bob Degen claims the folk song is his.
Degen, 90, owns a 1944 copyright for "The Hokey-Pokey Dance," and claims to have written the words and music. His copyright predates LaPrise's by six years.
"He's a faker," Degen said of LaPrise. In fact, Degen sued LaPrise in 1956 in U.S. District Court in California. According to Degen, the two parties settled out of court to split 40 percent of the royalties. Degen is adamant that he wrote the song without any influences. The truth, unusually, seems to lie not in between but without: Pure Invention is rare.
"A December 1945 issue of Dance magazine contains an article about an English novelty song called "the Okey Cokey," which American GIs were said to have danced to in England during WWII.
You put your left arm in.
You put your left arm out,
And shake it all about.
You do the okey-cokey
And you turn about.
And that's what it's all about."
"In his 1940 book, The Gift to be Simple, Edward Deming Andrews described a song called "The Hinkum-Booby" that was sung by Shakers in Kentucky:
"I put my right hand in,
I put my right hand out,
I give my right hand a shake,
And I turn it all about."
"So everybody in the copyright dispute was stealing from the great well of traditional folksong. As are all who try to be original with materials we hope will find resonance."
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