What The Hokey Pokey Is Really All About

#1 The Hockey Cokey

A popular children's song sung in schools, at parties, and even wedding receptions, the Hockey Pokey is a strange piece of history. There's no one definitive answer to where the Hokey Pokey (or Hokey Cokey) ultimately derives from. Even the modern history of it is somewhat convoluted. But as far as we can tell, here is what The Hockey Pokey is really all about.

#2 Started As A Catholic Taunt By Protestants

The Hokey Pokey is believed by some to have fairly sinister beginnings. There are those who insist the song originated with Scottish Puritans in the UK as an anti-Catholic taunt. The words "hokey cokey," which is how the song is sung in the UK, is supposedly derived from the magician's incantation "hocus pocus." Hocus Pocus popped up in the 17th century as a part of the conjuration phrase thought by some that this derived from the phrase spoken at Catholic Mass for evil magic.

#3 Until 2008 The Song Was Considered A Religious Hate Song

Thus, this "hokey cokey" origin theory is that it was supposed to be a jab at the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that the bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Christ during the Mass. As recently as 2008, a few Catholic Church officials have considered the "Hokey Pokey" as an example of "faith hate," but it doesn't seem most took these allegations all that seriously and there isn't much in the way of documented evidence to back up the "Catholic hate" origin theory.

#4 Two Girls From Britain Added The Words And Gestures

In 1857, two sisters from Canterbury, England who were visiting Bridgewater, NH, brought a little English/Scottish ditty with accompanying gestures across the pond. The song is thought to be based on the Scottish "Hinkum-Booby." ("Booby" here referring to the "stupid" definition, rather than the more modern alternative definition you might think of when shaking things about.)

The song arranged by the girls went a little something like this:

I put my right hand in,

I put my right hand out,

In out, in out.

shake it all about.

Followed by the rest of the body, feet, legs, head, etc. and shaking them all about.

#5 Al Tabor Of Canada Wrote The Hockey Cokey Song To Honor Ice Cream Vendors

Fast-forward to 1940 during the Blitz in London, a Canadian officer suggested writing an action party song to English bandleader Al Tabor. The song's title, "The Hokey Pokey," was supposedly in homage to an ice cream vendor from Tabor's childhood, who would call out "Hokey pokey penny a lump. Have a lick make you jump."

#6 He Combined The UK And Canadian Versions To Form One Song

In this case, "hokey pokey" was supposedly a slang at the time for ice cream and the ice cream seller was called the "hokey pokey man". Presumably borrowing from the aforementioned English ditty, Tabor put it together with "hokey pokey" and the song was almost, but not quite, complete; after all, it's called "Hokey Cokey" in the UK.

#7 "Cokey" Meant 'Crazy" In Canadian Slang

Tabor claimed he changed the name to "The Hokey Cokey" at the urging of the same Canadian officer, who informed him "cokey" was Canadian slang for "crazy." In 1942, the sheet music for "The Hokey Cokey" was finally published.

#8 Song Rights Turned Over To Jimmy Kennedy Who Claimed Ownership

Tabor, after a bit of a legal battle, eventually signed over all rights to the song to famed Irish songwriter and publisher Jimmy Kennedy as part of the settlement the two reached over a lawsuit concerning the song. It should also be noted here that Kennedy's son claimed that Jimmy Kennedy, not Al Tabor, was the primary author of the lyrics and it was Jimmy that made the decision to go with "cokey".

#9 Two Pennsylvania Men Adapted The Version We Often Hear Today

Supposedly independent of Tabor's or Kennedy's work, in 1944, two musicians from Scranton PA named Robert Degan and Joe Brier made a record of a song called wait for it "The Hokey Pokey Dance." This song was recorded for the entertainment of the summer crowds at Poconos resorts. The tune proved to be a regional favorite throughout the 1940s, but it's still not the version that we shake it all about to today.

#10 It Got Recorded And Spread Like Wild Fire

In 1949, Charles Mack, Taft Baker and Larry Laprise, "The Sun Valley Trio," made their own version of the song, which is closer to the version we all know and love today. The Sun Valley Trio also supposedly independently developed the song, but in reality probably learned it from vacationers who'd heard it at the Poconos resorts. The song was penned for the amusement of skiers at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho. It proved to be a big hit, so Laprise decided to record it.

#11 Judge Declares Final Version The Original

The problem with making such a record and playing it on the airwaves is that Degan and Brier got wind of it and sued Laprise for ripping off their "Hokey Pokey Dance." Laprise's lawyers must have been top-notch, because even though his version of the song was released after Degan and Brier's, Laprise walked away with the rights to the "Hokey Pokey Dance."

#12 It's Still Just About Ice Cream

Interestingly enough, despite the legal battles over the song, between Tabor and Kennedy in the UK and Laprise and Degan/Brier in the US, going on around the same time, the two pairs never sought to sue their counterparts across the pond. In the end, the ultimate origin of what it's all about seems to have been lost to history. If you choose to believe Al Tabor's anecdote, though, at least the recent derivation of it is about ice cream.