Larry LaPrise
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Larry LaPrise (Roland Lawrence LaPrise, born: 11 November 1912 in Detroit, Michigan, died: 11 April 1996 in Gooding, Idaho) holds the U.S. copyright for the song Hokey Pokey.
LaPrise reportedly wrote the song in the late 1940s for the après-ski crowd at a club in Sun Valley, Idaho. The song was first recorded by his group the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker) in 1949. They were awarded U.S. copyright in 1950.
After the group broke up in the 1960s, LaPrise worked for the Post Office in Ketchum, Idaho.
The authorship of the Hokey Pokey is disputed, with British/Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy claiming to have written the original (entitled Cokey-Cokey) during WWII. Robert Degan sued LaPrise for copyright infringement of his 1946 The Hokey-Pokey Dance. They settled out of court.
See article Hokey Pokey for a more comprehensive account of the various competing theories attending the origin of the song and dance both in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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