Iko Iko - Dixie Cups, The / Belle Stars (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Iko Iko (Dixie Cups, The, 1965; Belle Stars, 1989). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2021-07-21. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"

"Iko Iko," also known as "Jock-A-Mo," was originally released in 1953 by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford and his Cane Cutters; however, the song did not chart. In 1965, the Dixie Cups' version rose to the #20 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart followed in 1972 with Dr. John's version (#71), and then Belle Stars' take in 1989 was the highest charted version hitting the #14 position on the chart. In an interview with Offbeat Magazine in 2002, James Crawford was asked where the song came from. He said it came from a couple of Indian chants that he put music to (K. Spera, nola.com, 2012). He was then asked what "Jock-A-Mo" means. He said: "I really don’t know (laughs). It wasn’t my idea to call the song “Jock-A-Mo”—Leonard Chess did that. . . . I’m singing C-H-O-C-K, as in Chockamo. Not J-O-C-K, as in Jock-A-Mo. When Leonard listened to the session in Chicago, he thought I said 'Jock-A-Mo.' When I saw the record for the first time I said, 'That’s not the title, it’s ‘Chock-A-Mo’” (musicandculture.blogspot.com, 2009). James Crawford died September 15, 2012, at the age of 77 (obits.nola.com, 2012). In the Dixie Cups' version, they only used "a chair, drumstick, Coke bottle, ashtray, and drums as accompaniment" (songfacts.com, 2021).

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