Huey "Piano" Smith, owner of a black belt in
gobbledygook, was at the top of his game in Don't You Know Yockomo.
The other day my friend Pete Menchetti spun a cool version I
didn't know, by cute New Zealander Dinah Lee. It cracks me up to hear her make
her way (rather effectively for a kiwi) through Huey's goofy New Orleans lyrics.
Her version reached #1 in Australia and New Zealand in 1964. And here's a nice live clip.
According to this blog, the Y-word comes from
"Jockomo" as found in the song cut in 1953 by James "Sugar
Boy" Crawford : Jock-A-Mo.
That number was later a hit for the Dixie Cups as Iko Iko. Here's a live clip.
And to bring one more cute chick into this blog, here's a French adaptation by Julie D. and its charming clip (unfortunately out of sync)*.
Bonus track : Casey Jones and the Governors, a second-rate British
beat band, tries their best to do Yockomo, but loses the groove.
They nonetheless continued their campaign to bring Huey's music to the British public with a somewhat more successful cover of Don't You Just Know It. But even their clever renaming as Don't Ha Ha was not sufficient to make it a hit. And if that's not enough, here's a live clip !
* As a particularly astute reader pointed out, the chicks in the Julie D. clip are actually the Parisiennes.
