Hokey Pokey

A. J. Weldon, a good of mine from High School in Florida, and with whom I later went through the electrician's apprenticeship with, sent me this bit of humor this evening. It's too good not to share.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larry LaPrise (Roland Lawrence LaPrise, born: 11 November, 1912, in Detroit, Michigan, died: 4 September, 1996, in Gooding, Idaho) holds the U.S. copyright for the song Hokey Pokey.

LaPrise reportedly wrote the song in the late 1940s for the après-ski crowd at a club in Sun Valley, Idaho. The song was first recorded by his group the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker) in 1949. They were awarded U.S. copyright in 1950.

After the group broke up in the 1960s, LaPrise worked for the Post Office in Ketchum, Idaho.

The authorship of the Hokey Pokey is disputed, with British/Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy claiming to have written the original (entitled Cokey-Cokey) during WWII. Robert Degan sued LaPrise for copyright infringement of his 1946, The Hokey-Pokey Dance. They settled out of court.

See article Hokey Pokey for a more comprehensive account of the various competing theories attending the origin of the song and dance both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

After LaPrise's death, the following joke circulated on the Internet, comparing the Hokey Pokey to the process of placing LaPrise in his coffin.

Sad News

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week.

Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey," died peacefully at the age of 83.

The most traumatic part was getting him into his coffin.

First, they put his left leg in. And that's when all the trouble started...