Iko Iko

According to the legend, sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson of New Orleans, had already had a #1 International hit as the Dixie Cups with Chapel of Love in 1964 and were between sessions in a New York recording studio when they began fooling around, tapping a rhythm on ash trays and Coke bottles with drumsticks and singing a song their Grandmother had taught them about a clash between rival Mardi Gras krewes.  Their producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were recording the improv and immediately recognized a hit.  They added minor instrumentation and released it in the spring of 1965 as Iko Iko. Their intuitions about its potential were right - it charted at #20 on the Billboard list.  Knowing only their grandmother's version, the songwriting credit went to the Dixie Cups.

As one theory goes, unknown to the Dixie Cups, Grandma may have been augmenting a memory of this version released (to greater obscurity than the Dixie Cups recording) by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford and his Cane Cutters in 1953:

A lawsuit filed by Crawford against the Dixie Cups' label was settled with Crawford relinquishing any credit for the song in exchange for 25% of future performances.  Crawford reportedly had this to say about it: "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."

Crawford was first with a recording, but the words suggest a more ancient origin of the song:

My grandma and your grand-ma were sit-tin' by the fire
My grandma told your grand-ma "I'm gon-na set your flag on fire"

Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né

Look at my king all dressed in red I-ko, I-ko, un-day
I bet-cha five dol-lars he'll kill you dead, jock-a-mo fee na-né

Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né

My flag boy and your flag boy were sit-tin' by the fire
My flag boy told your flag boy "I'm gon-na set your flag on fire"

Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né

See that guy all dressed in green I-ko, I-ko, un-day
He's not a man, he's a lov-in' ma-chine jock-a mo fee na-né

Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né

Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né

Theories of the song's provenance were explored by Drew Hinshaw in an article for Offbeat magazine from 2009.  According to Hinshaw's account:

I was sitting by the shore in Ghana, watching an extravagant parade, when I heard a chant that rung my eardrums like a bell. “Iko, Iko!” To which the nation’s Ewe speakers would say “aayé!” ... It belongs to no particular language, Iko—and the Ashanti, Fante, Ewe spell it “ayekoo”—but that swallowed ‘I’ and soft, clucking ‘ko’ sound uncannily the same. “It means well done or congratulations,” says Dr. Evershed Amuzu, a social linguistics lecturer at the University of Ghana, who proceeds to pull a phenomenal stunt.  Having professed no prior knowledge of the song, he takes hold of the lyrics sheet and sings the chorus—flubbing the rhythm, but more or less nailing the melody. “It’s definitely West African,” he concludes. “I can tell from the sound of each word what tone comes next.”

Hinshaw floats other theories in his piece, including the intriguing possibility that Jock-A-Mo may be a transliteration of the Haitian place name Jacmel, which if true underlines the strong connection between Haiti and New Orleans cultures.

There's no question that the Dixie Cups and Sugar Boy Crawford are singing versions of the same song.  But it's at least an interesting alternative possibility that the Dixie Cups independently and legitimately unearthed the song from memories of their New Orleans upbringing along a completely different path from whatever inspired Crawford to record the tune a dozen years earlier.