Listen
Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
You put your left leg in,
Your left leg out,
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Knees bent, arms stretched, rah, rah, rah!
You put your right leg in,
Your right leg out,
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!
You put your left arm in,
Your left arm out,
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Knees bent, arms stretched, rah, rah, rah!
You put your right arm in,
Your right arm out,
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!
You put your whole self in,
Your whole self out,
In, out, in, out, shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Oh, the hokey cokey, cokey.
Knees bent, arms stretched, rah, rah, rah!
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
The Hokey Cokey is a participation dance song that has been a fixture of British parties, school discos, and seaside entertainments for the best part of a century. The version most familiar in the United Kingdom was written by Jimmy Kennedy and published in 1942, though Kennedy himself acknowledged drawing on earlier American and Canadian versions of similar action songs.
The dance is performed in a circle, with participants following the instructions of the song — putting a named body part "in" towards the centre of the circle, then "out", shaking it, turning around, and raising arms for the chorus. The cumulative build, from left leg to right leg to arms to the triumphant "whole self in", creates a satisfying arc that ends with maximum movement and noise.
The phrase "that's what it's all about" has passed into common usage as a comic expression, often deployed ironically when describing surprisingly simple conclusions to complex matters. The philosopher A. J. Ayer famously remarked that the Hokey Cokey captured a profound metaphysical truth — or at least, this is a story that circulates widely enough to be worth repeating.
Our arrangement gives the song a proper fun-punk treatment: energetic, propulsive, and designed to get everyone in the room on their feet regardless of age.
