“Iko Iko” is a much covered New Orleans song that tells of a parade collision between two tribes of Mardi Gras Indians and the traditional confrontation. The song, under the original title “Jock-A-Mo“, was written and released in 1953 as a single by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford and his Cane Cutters but it failed to make the charts.
The Dixie Cups version was the result of an unplanned jam in a New York City recording studio where they began an impromptu version of “Iko Iko”, accompanying themselves with drumsticks on an aluminum chair, a studio ashtray and a Coke bottle. After their producers cleaned up the track and added the backup vocals, bass and drums to the song, the single was then released in March 1965. The Dixie Cups scored an international hit single with “Iko Iko” in May 1965 on the Billboard chart where their version peaked at number 20 and spent 10 weeks on the Top 100. The song also charted at number 23 in the UK. They had learned “Iko, Iko” from hearing the Hawkins sisters’ grandmother sing it, but they knew little about the origin of the song and so the original authorship credit went to the members, Barbara Ann Hawkins, her sister Rosa Lee Hawkins, and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson.
New Orleans singer and pianist Dr. John covered “Iko Iko” in 1972 for his fifth studio album ‘Dr. John’s Gumbo’. Released as a single in March 1972 on Atco Records, his version of the song charted at number 71 on the Billboard chart. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste. The “Iko Iko” story, is told by Dr. John in the liner notes to his 1972 album, Dr. John’s Gumbo, in which he covers New Orleans R&B classics: “It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and ‘second line’ in their own special style during Mardi Gras. That’s dead and gone because there’s a freeway where those grounds used to be.”
The most successful charting version in the UK was recorded by the Scottish singer Natasha (full name Natasha England), whose version reached number 10 in the UK in 1982. Natasha’s single was one of two competing versions of “Iko Iko” in the Official Singles Chart Top 40 in June 1982, a chart run-down which saw Natasha at number 24, eleven places higher than the version released by The Belle Stars on Stiff Records.
In 1989, the British girl group the Belle Stars had a US chart hit with their cover of “Iko Iko”, which reached number 14 on the Billboard chart in March, after it was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The single was issued on Capitol Records. Their song is in the opening scene of the 1988 film. It was originally released several years earlier on Stiff Records in 1982 as a single in the UK, where it peaked at a modest number 35 in the UK in June 1982.
The German Eurodance act Captain Jack recorded a cover version of “Iko Iko” for their fourth studio album, Top Secret in 2001. It was released on E-Park Records. The single was produced by Udo Niebergall and Eric Sneo. Captain Jack’s version was a hit in several countries, reaching number 22 in Germany, number 62 in Switzerland and peaking at number 16 in Austria.
