CHOCKO MO FEENDO HEY
Created on 10/02/2002Latest update on 17/11/2023
Artist: Danny Barker & his Creole Cats
Author: Danny Barker/Howard Mandolf
Label: King Zulu
Year: 1948
78RPM single with My Indian Red on the B-side (see there). Rare item since the last remaining copies were gathering dust in the New Orleans residence of Danny & Blue Lu Barker (see Don't You Make Me High) and were hopelessly lost in the flood of 2005. The actual King Zulu-single (on 45) was re-issued by Sinking City Records (sic) in 2017. In Jockamo - The Native Roots of Mardi Gras Indians, a book by Shane Lief & John McCusker (University Press of Mississippi - 2019), this song is marked as the oldest indian chant ever mentioned: in a Daily Picayune account of the Mardi Gras parade of 1879 where an Indian tribe clearly sings Chick-A-Ma-Feeno.
Covers:
- 1953:
Sugar Boy & The Cane Cutters [as Jock-A-Mo for Checker; James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford's popular New Orleans party band with Professor Longhair on piano, Snooks Eaglin on lead guitar, Edgar Big Boy Miles (trombone) and David Lastie (sax); called themselves The Sha-Weez for Aladdin, Sugar Boy & The Cane Cutters for Checker; combination of two Indian chants: victory chant Iko Iko (écoute, écoute in French creole) and un-translateable war chant Jock-a-mo/Chocko Me Feendo Hey; Crawford objected against Leonard Chess's spelling of Jock-A-Mo on the label, which clearly should have been Chock-A-Mo]
- 1957:
Larry Williams [as Iko Iko and as Hey Now Hey Now (shelved until '99)]
- 1965:
Dixie Cups [idem; top 20 R&B & US]
- 1965:
Cesar Costa [as Perico Iko]
- 1967:
Julie D. [as Aïko aïko; Joe Dassin's sister]
- 1969:
Warren Zevon [as Iko Iko]
- 1972:
Long John Baldry [idem]
- 1972:
Dr. John [idem]
- 1973:
Wild Magnolias [with Snooks Eaglin on guitar, as with Sugar Boy]
- 1981:
Neville Brothers [in medley with Brother John]
- 1982:
Belle Stars [top 20 US as Iko Iko and in '88 in film Rain Man]
- 1986:
Cyndi Lauper [as Iko Iko]
- 1989:
Zachary Richard [idem]
- 1990:
- 1995:
Willy DeVille [idem]
- 2000:
Captain Jack [all as Iko Iko]
- 2000:
Zap Mama [in film Mission Impossible II]
- 2016:
Along with both sides of a second Danny Barker-78 with more indian chants, released in '48 on King Zulu, these four tracks were added on the cd-version of the Baby Dodds Trio album Jazz à la Creole (GMB Records).
