Hey now / Hey now / Iko, Iko, an day, plays the simplistic, yet infectious pop hit “Iko Iko.” The enduring tune is among music’s most covered, but few renditions have captured the song’s bright New Orleans roots quite like the original.
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Who Wrote It?
“Iko Iko” was written by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford and released by his group Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters in 1953. The song was originally titled “Jock-A-Mo,” and featured the band’s signature Big Easy R&B style.
“It came from two [Mardi Gras] Indian chants that I put music to,” Crawford once explained in an interview with OffBeat Magazine. “’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. … I was just trying to write a catchy song.”
When asked what “Jock-A-Mo” meant – some believe the phrase translated to “Kiss my ass,” others thought it the name for a court jester – the song’s writer said, “I really don’t know. It wasn’t my idea to call the song ‘Jock-A-Mo’—[Chess Records founder and executive] Leonard Chess did that.”
He added, “If you listen to the song, 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’.’”
Catch the “C-H-O-C-K” in the original “Jock-A-Mo” by Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters below.
The Versions
The all-girl group and fellow New Orleans natives the Dixie Cups would popularize the song with their classic 1965 rendition, calling the ditty “Iko Iko.” Their version launched the bouncy hit to international acclaim and the tune has since gone on to see covers by everyone from Dr. John to the Grateful Dead.
(Photo by James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
