Wednesday 45 Flashback: ‘Iko Iko’

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. And things ain’t been right since.

So today on this blog, it’s all about Southern Louisiana, starting with this platter from YouTube’s 45 king, spoonfedcornbread.

The Mardi Gras song “Iko Iko” was first recorded in the 1950s by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, and has been covered by the likes of Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Cyndi Lauper and the Grateful Dead.

But the hit version was this one by the Dixie Cups, a girl group out of New Orleans. Their 1965 single reached No. 20 on the pop chart, and No. 20 on the R&B chart.

I’m not old enough to remember “Iko Iko” from the radio. But anybody who’s American has heard this tune some kind of way.

UPDATE (08/29/07): If you’d like an MP3 of Sugar Boy Crawford’s original version (titled “Jock-a-Mo”), Nancy Nall has it up on her blog. Follow this link; click the blue button at the bottom of the post. But move quickly; the download will only be available for 24 hours.

I had never heard Crawford’s version before, so thank you, Nancy, for sharing! (To hear it streaming on my Vox blog, click here.)

UPDATE (09/13/07): Oh crap, y’all. Looks like YouTube has suspended spoonfedcornbread’s account! If you try to check out any of his spinning platters, it’ll say: “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

Dammit. Dee-double-dammit. I sure hope my calling attention to him didn’t lead to his downfall. I didn’t even know this was illegal. He was just an oldies deejay to me... playing cool records and getting people excited about music... bringing back sweet memories...

Shit. I don’t even have a way to contact him and find out what the deal is. We communicated through YouTube messages. Wow. I couldn’t wait to embed 45s like “I’m Doing Fine Now” and “Remember Me.”