Iko Iko

The song was originally recorded by and released as a single in November 1953 by James Crawford as "Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters", on Checker Records (Checker 787). The single features Dave Lastie on tenor saxophone. Crawford's version of the song did not make the charts. The story tells of a "spy boy" (i.e. a lookout for one band of Indians) encountering the "flag boy" or guidon carrier for another "tribe". He threatens to "set the flag on fire". Crawford set phrases chanted by Mardi Gras Indians to music for the song. Crawford himself states that he has no idea what the words mean, and that he originally sang the phrase "Chock-a-mo", but the title was misheard by Chess Records and Checker Records president Leonard Chess, who misspelled it as "Jock-a-mo" for the record's release.[2]

James Crawford, gave a 2002 interview with OffBeat Magazine discussing the song's meaning:[2]

Interviewer: How did you construct 'Jock-A-Mo?'

Crawford: It came from two Indian chants that I put music to. "Iko Iko" was like a victory chant that the Indians would shout. "Jock-A-Mo" was a chant that was called when the Indians went into battle. I just put them together and made a song out of them. Really it was just like "Lawdy Miss Clawdy". That was a phrase everybody in New Orleans used. Lloyd Price just added music to it and it became a hit. I was just trying to write a catchy song....

Interviewer: Listeners wonder what 'Jock-A-Mo' means. Some music scholars say it translates in Mardi Gras Indian lingo as 'Kiss my ass,' and I've read where some think 'Jock-A-Mo' was a court jester. What does it mean?

Crawford: I really don't know. (laughs)

The Dixie Cups version was the result of an unplanned jam in a New York City recording studio where they began an impromptu version of "Iko Iko", accompanying themselves with drumsticks on an aluminum chair, a studio ashtray and a Coke bottle.[3] After their producers cleaned up the track and added the backup vocals, bass and drums to the song, the single was then released in March 1965.[4] The Dixie Cups scored an international hit single with "Iko Iko" in May 1965 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart where their version peaked at number 20 and spent 10 weeks on the Top 100.[5] The song also charted at number 23 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 20 on the R&B Chart.[6] In Canada "Iko Iko" reached number 26 on the RPM Chart.[7] It was the third single taken from their debut studio album Chapel of Love issued on Red Bird Records in August 1964.[8]

The Dixie Cups had learned "Iko, Iko" from hearing the Hawkins sisters' grandmother sing it,[3] but they knew little about the origin of the song and so the original authorship credit went to the members, Barbara Ann Hawkins, her sister Rosa Lee Hawkins, and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson.

The Dixie Cups' version was later included on the soundtrack to the 1987 film The Big Easy. This same version was also used on the soundtrack of the 2005 film The Skeleton Key. In 2009, a version based on The Dixie Cups' was used in an ad for Lipton Rainforest Alliance Ice Tea.

After the Dixie Cups version of "Iko Iko" was a hit in 1965, they and their record label, Red Bird Records, were sued by James Crawford, who claimed that "Iko Iko" was the same as his composition "Jock-a-mo".[9] Although The Dixie Cups denied that the two compositions were similar, the lawsuit resulted in a settlement in 1967 with Crawford making no claim to authorship or ownership of "Iko Iko",[10] but being credited 25% for public performances, such as on radio, of "Iko Iko" in the United States. A comparison of the two recordings demonstrates the shared lyric and melody between the two songs, though the arrangements are different in tempo, instrumentation and harmony. Crawford's rationale for the settlement was motivated by years of legal battles with no royalties. In the end, he stated, "I don't even know if I really am getting my just dues. I just figure 50 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing."[2]

In the 1990s, the Dixie Cups became aware that another group of people were claiming authorship of "Iko Iko". Their ex-manager Joe Jones and his family filed a copyright registration in 1991, alleging that they wrote the song in 1963.[11] Joe Jones successfully licensed "Iko Iko" outside of North America. The Dixie Cups filed a lawsuit against Joe Jones. The trial took place in New Orleans and the Dixie Cups were represented by well-known music attorney Oren Warshavsky before Senior Federal Judge Peter Beer.[12] The jury returned a unanimous verdict on March 6, 2002, affirming that the Dixie Cups were the only writers of "Iko Iko" and granting them more money than they were seeking.[12] The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the jury verdict and sanctioned Joe Jones.[13]

New Orleans singer and pianist Dr. John covered "Iko Iko" in 1972 for his fifth studio album Dr. John's Gumbo. Released as a single in March 1972 on Atco Records, his version of the song charted at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste. The "Iko Iko" story, is told by Dr. John in the liner notes to his 1972 album, Dr. John's Gumbo, in which he covers New Orleans R&B classics:

The song was written and recorded back in the early 1950s by a New Orleans singer named James Crawford who worked under the name of Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters. It was recorded in the 1960s by the Dixie Cups for Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller's Red Bird Records, but the format we're following here is Sugar Boy's original. Also in the group were Professor Longhair on piano, Jake Myles, Big Boy Myles, Irv Bannister on guitar, and Eugene 'Bones' Jones on drums. The group was also known as the Chipaka Shaweez. The song was originally called 'Jockamo,' and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. Jockamo means 'jester' in the old myth. It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and 'second line' in their own special style during Mardi Gras. That's dead and gone because there's a freeway where those grounds used to be. The tribes were like social clubs who lived all year for Mardi Gras, getting their costumes together. Many of them were musicians, gamblers, hustlers and pimps.

Dr. John, playing himself, performs the song in the "movie" Polynesian Town on the May 22, 1981 episode of the Canadian comedy show SCTV.

The song was performed by Dr. John during halftime of the 2008 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans and again in 2014.

The most successful charting version in the UK was recorded by the Scottish singer Natasha, whose version reached number 10 on the UK singles chart in 1982.[14] The song also charted highly in Ireland, Israel and New Zealand. The single was produced by Tom Newman.[15] A remix of the single was released in 2007, and Natasha's version enjoyed a resurgence in 2014 when it was included on the soundtrack to the highest-grossing Italian film of 2014, A Boss in the Living Room (Un Boss in Salotto).[16]

In 1989, the British girl group the Belle Stars had a US chart hit with their cover of "Iko Iko" which reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March, after it was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.[17] The single was issued on Capitol Records. Their song is in the opening scene of the 1988 film.

It was originally released several years earlier on Stiff Records in 1982 as a single in the UK where it peaked at a modest number 35 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1982.[18] The track was produced by Brian Tench and was also featured on the band's eponymous debut album, The Belle Stars which reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart.[18]

The Belle Stars version was also included in the 1997 film Knockin' on Heaven's Door[19] and The Hangover in 2009.

A music video was used to promote the single. The music video features scenes from the Rain Man movie as well as Belle Stars lead singer Jennie McKeown wearing a black outfit with blue dangling treble clefs and bleach blond dreadlocks. Jennie is also accompanied by four dancing girls in colorful outfits and a dancing man trying to persuade a subdued man. The original music video uses the 1989 remix which samples Woo! Yeah! from Lyn Collins's Think (About It). On the bridge, a line from the Thunderbirds episode Ricochet is also heard on the remix.

The German Eurodance act Captain Jack recorded a cover version of "Iko Iko" for their fourth studio album, Top Secret in 2001. It was released on E-Park Records. The single was produced by Udo Niebergall and Eric Sneo. Captain Jack's version was a hit in several countries, reaching number 22 in Germany, number 62 in Switzerland and peaking at number 16 in Austria.[20]

• The film The Big Easy (1987) featured the Dixie Cups version of the song.
• The film Satisfaction (1988) pays homage to this song with the band singing the song on their way to their next gig.
• The Belle Stars version is used in Rain Man (1988).[34]
• The film K-9 (1989), soundtrack featured the Dixie Cups version of the song, performed by Amy Holland.
• The Todd Phillips film The Hangover (2009) pays homage to the Belle Stars version with a scene (also a homage to Rain Man) in which the men attempt to win money at blackjack by counting cards.
• A version in 1990 by Amit Kumar is performed in the Hindi film Kishen Kanhaiya (1990).
• Zap Mama covered the song for the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 (2000).
• A recurring song in The Skeleton Key (2005).
• Natasha's version is used in A Boss in the Living Room (Italian: Un Boss In Salotto) (2014).[35]
• Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 2015 film and soundtrack Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.

• A modified version was created for a "Nickelodeon Nation" campaign.[36]
• South African artist Kurt Darren created his own version of the song, entitled "Aiko Aiko".
• In 1989, Mowaya covered this song in Season 1 of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (now MMC).
• Actress Kim Dickens' character Janette sings it while wandering the streets during Mardi Gras in episode 8, season 1 of the HBO series Treme. It also features in episode 4, season 3 of the series.
• It was used as an opening song in Miss USA 2014 which was held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• It also made an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in Season 2, when Will and Aunt Vivian play a jump rope game together singing the song.
• It's featured in the 2017 series American Gods, during a bar fight scene depicting the joy of conflict.
• Its lyrics are a plot point in the "Kimmy Rides a Bike!" episode of season 1 of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"
• The Belle Stars version is used in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 TV commercial.[37]

• Abita Brewing Company produces a beer called Jockamo IPA.[38]
• Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi (Australia) used the track as backing for a Cadbury Chocolates Australia 2014 ad campaign.
• The protagonist of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods recognizes the song as sung by the Dixie Cups as "an old children's song" while in a dive bar with the god Odin.
• The song is featured in the video game Just Dance 2, covered under the name Mardi Gras.