Putting your Right Foot In

Factual Questions
1

Every so often in my long and interesting life, I have run across references to the “hokey pokey”. Never gave it much thought, since very early on one of these references cited the lyrics “you put your right foot in, you take your right foot out…”, and of course I knew that song, and sang it in my head and nodded, while saying to myself, “OK, I just didn’t know it was called ‘the hokey pokey’.”

So the other day I was watching a videotape that showed a bunch of fools at a wedding party doing (and singing) the hokey pokey and I turned to my companion and said “Omigod, is THAT the ‘hokey pokey’?” (Whereupon her opinion of my intelligence sort of plummeted a score or so).

After careful thought, I realized that the song I know which contains the lyrics “you put your right foot in” and so forth is “Here We Go Loop-de-Loo” and that I had never, before this time, heard the “Hokey Pokey”, only heard OF it, and informed my companion of this interesting MPSIMSical factual nugget. And my companion, convinced by this time that my waves don’t make it to the shoreline on a regular basis, said “No it isn’t. ‘Loop-de-Loo’ contains no reference to putting your right foot in”, although she did proceed to demonstrate her familiarity with the basic “Loop-de-Loo” tune.

OK…am I maleducated? Did I learn some garbled bastardized hybrid in which Hokey Pokey lyrics were superimposed on the Here We Go Loop-de-Loo melody? Or did I perhaps inhale too many cannabinoid compounds and have a memory-snarlup in my upstairs circuits? Or can someone come forward and verify having heard it the way I remember hearing it?

2

Have you tried doing a search? Lycos returned the following:

Loop De Loo
Game song

                                                                              Here we go loop de loo, Here we go loop de light,
                                                                              Here we go loop de loo, All on a Saturday night.
                                                                              I put my left hand in, I put my left hand out,
                                                                              I give my hand a shake, shake, shake and turn myself about.

                                                                              Additional verses: right hand, left leg, right leg, whole self.
3

The source of the confusion is probably the fact that the Looby Loo (sorry, guys, it’s NOT Loop De Loo) has both a verse and a chorus. Because of this it takes longer to complete, and thus is not as frequently performed by preschool play groups.

The Hokey Pokey

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about,
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about,
That’s what it’s all about. [clap in time to this last line, 3 claps]

And after you’ve gone through all the body parts, you have a final verse that’s just,
**Hohhhhhh-key pokey,

Hohhhhhh-key pokey,

Hohhhhhh-key pokey,** [and you twirl around madly like the hokey-pokey to each line]

That’s what it’s all about. [clap in time to this again, 3 claps]

The Looby Loo
Chorus:
[everybody holds hands and goes around in a circle, first one direction, then the other, reversing on each line]
Here we go looby loo,
Here we go looby lie,
Here we go looby loo,
All on a Saturday night.

Verse:
[drop hands and do body parts]
You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You give your right foot a shake shake shake
And turn yourself about.

Except for the fact that they both use body parts, they are TOTALLY different.

Ask any kindergartener. :smiley: