The Hokey Pokey is a participation dance that became popular in the USA in the 1950s. Larry LaPrise, Charles Macak and Tafit Baker were granted the copyright for the song in 1950. According to popular legend they created this novelty dance in 1949 as entertainment for the ski crowd at Idaho's Sun Valley resort. Ray Anthony's big band recording of the song turned it into a nationwide sensation by the mid-1950s. The "Hokey Pokey" appeared on the B side of Anthony's "Bunny Hop" single.) Its rights were purchased in the mid-1960s by country-western music star Roy Acuff's publishing company, Acuff-Rose.
It has virtually the same lyrics as the "Hokey-cokey", a song and novelty dance which has been popular in England since the mid-1940s. In additional to the lyrics, these two songs also share similar dance moves, as well as stringly similar names. "Hokey-cokey" is also known as "Okey-cokey".
Participants stand in a big ring formation during the dance. The dance follows the instructions given in the lyrics of the song, which may be prompted by a bandleader or another danceleader. Specific body parts are named, and these are then sequentially put into the ring, taken out of the ring, and finally wiggled around manically inside the ring. After this is done one raises one's hands up to the side of the head, wiggles them, and turns around in place until the next sequence begins, with a new named body part.
There are many theories and conjectures about the meaning of the words "Hokey Pokey", and of their origin.
See Novelty/Fad dance for a list of novelty and fad dances.
Hokey Pokey is also the name used in New Zealand for a kind of confectionary known elsewhere as honeycomb.
