Participation dance
People doing the Hokey Cokey at an annual "Wartime Weekend" in the
United Kingdom
The Hokey Pokey, also known as 🌜 Hokey Cokey in some parts of Australia,
the United Kingdom and the Caribbean,[1] is a campfire song and 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 the UK. The song became a chart
hit twice in the 1980s. 🌜 The first UK hit was by the Snowmen, which peaked at UK No. 18
in 1981.
Origins and meaning [ edit 🌜 ]
Despite several claims of a recent invention,
numerous variants of the song exist with similar dances and lyrics dating back 🌜 to the
19th 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 1842.[2] 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.[3]
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).[4]
A song rendered ("with appropriate gestures") by 🌜 two sisters from
Canterbury, England while on a visit to Bridgewater, N.H. in 1857 start an
"English/Scottish ditty" 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." . . . [I]t 🌜 does not seem to
have been much used in Shaker societies.
A version known as "Ugly Mug" is described in
1872:[5]
I 🌜 put my right hand in
I put my right hand out
I give my right hand, shake,
shake, shake, and turn myself 🌜 about
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.[6]
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.
Here 🌜 we go,
Looby Loo.
Here we go, Looby light.
Here we go, Looby Loo.
All on a Saturday
night.
[7]
Some early versions of this 🌜 song thus show a marked resemblance to the
modern song Looby Loo, and the songs have been described as having 🌜 a common
origin.[8]
In the book Charming Talks about People and Places, published circa 1900,[9]
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 🌜 Cokey 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,[10] 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.
In 2008, an Anglican cleric, Canon Matthew 🌜 Damon,
Provost of Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire, claimed that the dance movements were a
parody of the traditional Catholic Latin 🌜 Mass.[11] Up until the reforms of Vatican II,
the priest performed his movements facing the altar rather than the congregation, 🌜 who
could not hear the words very well, nor understand the Latin, nor clearly see his
movements. At one point 🌜 the priest would say "Hoc est corpus meum" Latin for "This is
My body" (a phrase that has also been 🌜 suggested as the origin of the similar-sounding
stereotypical magician's phrase "hocus-pocus"). That theory led Scottish politician
Michael Matheson in 2008 🌜 to urge police action "against individuals who use it [the
song and dance] to taunt Catholics". Matheson's claim was deemed 🌜 ridiculous by fans
from both sides of the Old Firm (the rival Glasgow football teams Celtic and Rangers)
and calls 🌜 were made on fans' forums for both sides to join together to sing the song on
27 December 2008 at 🌜 Ibrox Stadium.[12] Close relatives of Jimmy Kennedy and Al Tabor
have publicly stated their recollections of the origin and meaning 🌜 of the Hokey Cokey,
and have denied its connection to the Mass.[13][14] Those accounts differ, but they are
all contradicted 🌜 by the fact that the song existed and was published decades before its
supposed composition in the 1940s.
Dance across the 🌜 world [ edit ]
Australia [ edit
]
In Australia, the dance may be called the "hokey pokey" or the "hokey cokey."[15] 🌜 It
was a hit for Johnny Chester & The Chessmen in 1961. [16]
Denmark [ edit ]
Mostly
performed in the British 🌜 style of the dance, it is known as the "boogie woogie"
(pronounced ).[17]
Germany [ edit ]
Performed mainly in the carnival 🌜 in a variation of
the British style of the dance, it is known as "Rucki-Zucki".
Mexico [ edit ]
Released
as a 🌜 commercial recording by Tatiana (singer) as "Hockey-Pockey".[18]
New Zealand [
edit ]
In the North Island, the dance is usually known as 🌜 the "hokey tokey",[19][20] or
the "hokey cokey" because hokey pokey is the usual term for honeycomb toffee.[21] In
the South 🌜 Island it's just The Hokey Pokey.
United Kingdom [ edit ]
Known as the "hokey
cokey" or the "hokey kokey", the song 🌜 and accompanying dance peaked in popularity as a
music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in Britain.
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".[22]
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.[23]
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
Christopher Green.
United States and Canada [ 🌜 edit ]
Known as the "hokey pokey", it
became popular in the US in the 1950s. Its originator in the US 🌜 is debatable:
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".)
In 1978, Mike Stanglin produced a "skating version"
of the Hokey Pokey, for use 🌜 in skating rinks.[26][27]
Dance moves [ edit ]
United
Kingdom, Australia and Ireland style of dance [ edit ]
The instruction set goes 🌜 as
follows:
You put your [left arm] in,
Your [left arm] out:
In, out, In, out
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 the 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 🌜 bend, arms stretch,
Rah,
rah, rah!
The first three lines of this chorus are sometimes rendered 'Whoa, the hokey
cokey', with the 🌜 'whoa' lasting three beats instead of two. It can also be said "Whoa,
the hokey cokey 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, and
then the 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 their knees then stretch their arms, as indicated, and on
🌜 "Rah, rah, rah!" they either clap in time or raise their 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.
Often, the final chorus is sung twice,
the second time even faster and 🌜 the song ends with the joyous chant, 'aye tiddly aye
tie, brown bread!'.
United States style of dance [ edit ]
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! Yeah!
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 🌜 foot", "left foot",
"right hand", "left hand", "head", "buttocks" (or "backside"), fingers, toes, hair,
lips, tongue 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! Yeah!
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 [ edit ]
In the United States, Sony/ATV Music Publishing controls 100%
of the publishing rights to the 🌜 "hokey pokey."[28]
In popular culture [ edit
]
Advertising [ edit ]
It was used in a 2005 Velveeta Salsa Dip commercial.
Salsa Dip
🌜 commercial. In a 1982 radio advert for Video 2000 by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, a
character refers to 🌜 a television called the "Hokey Cokey 2000". [29]
It was used in a
Marvel toy commercial with parody lyrics in the 🌜 mid-2010s.
It was used in a 2024 Apple
Watch commercial.
Comedy and humor [ edit ]
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. [30]
Comedian Bill Bailey
performed a Kraftwerk inspired version for his Part Troll tour.
There is 🌜 a joke about
when Larry LaPrise died, his family had trouble getting him into his coffin ("they put
his left 🌜 leg in, and that's where the tragedy began…").[ citation needed ]
Music [ edit
]
(Alphabetical by group)
Sports [ edit ]
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.
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.[35]
Television [ edit ]
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—
Film
[ edit ]
The 1947 British 🌜 film Frieda features a group of dancers in a dance hall
singing and performing the hokey cokey.
In the 1988 film 🌜 Cherry 2000, the Hokey Pokey
is performed by the fanatical followers of the film's antagonist Lester (Tim Thomerson)
after he 🌜 murders a tracker.
Video games [ edit ]
In the video game Constructor (1997),
the Thief in the Pawn Shop can be 🌜 heard mentioning a computer called the "Hokey Cokey
2000".
Other uses [ edit ]
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.[citation needed]
