Debunking The Urban Myth About "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka"

Edited by Azizi Powell

"Hooka Tooka Soda Craka" is a song that is most often associated with the Rhythm & Blues singer Chubby Checker or the Folk/Pop singer Judy Henske.

I've read a number of places online a story that is attributed by her fans to Judy Henske that the lyrics to "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracker" come from Black American children who would sing this song to warn their prostitue mothers that the police were outside. For example, read this YouTube sound file publisher's summary:

Hooka Tooka Two



Man06ful, Uploaded on Aug 22, 2009
"the main lyrics here came from a skip rope song by children of prostitutes playing outside the whore houses. Somehow Judy Henske found this song - svaed [sic] it. The kids were holding soda crackers and chewing tobacco to pass to their mothers if there was a bust."
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This video uploader expands on that story in his or her comments on that sound file's viewer comment thread:
"Henske made up the lyrics - Green Rocky Road - and had a law suit for years with Chubby Checker who - used her lyrics. Henske introduced the song - explaining the bit about kids in front of whore houses holding chewing tobbacco and soda crackers for their mothers if there was a bust - because in jail they werent allowed cigarettes and the bread was mouldy. The rythme - lyrics are exactly like other skip rope songs....
-Man06ful, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAt9hrrKh0
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The story that "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" comes from a "skip rope song by children of protitutes playing outside the whore houses" just doesn't seem credible to me.

It ssems probable to me that this story is an elaboration by fans of a joking comment that Judy Henske made during an introduction to that song, an elaboration which was not only accepted by some of her fans, but grew to include the "holding soda cracker and chewing tobacco" portion. According to a blogger with the screen name "old frat" on this 1996 discussion thread https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.music.folk/SkUpw3iKaQs "Hooka Tooka My Soda Cracker"
"Judy Henske does a great version of this song ["Does your mama chaw tobacca?], and is probably the one you remember.

On the album, it starts with a humorous monologue intro where she asks the group to repeat the chorus. She then says, "You sound like a bunch of kids outside a Chicagoe whorehouse." The song itself doesn't really seem to be about this subject at all --or I've been mssing the true meaning of soda cracker all of my life."
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The question about which album this comment is found in was answered by this comment that was posted in 2003 by Joe Offer on this thread of the Mudcat Folk & Blues music forum http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=59549 "Lyr Req: PLease help 'Hucka CHucka soda cracka'?":
"I found the Henske arrangement - it's on her self-titled album, released on Elektra in 1963 and recently reissued on CD. She calls it "Hooka Tooka," and says it's traditional, arranged by Henske."

If this story isn't an elaboration by her fans of a comment that Judy Henske made about the quality of her audience's singing that "Hooka Tooka" song, if Judy Henske actually believed the story about the song being used by children to warn their mothers of a police bust story, I have these questions:

How did that singer learn that the jump rope rhyme/song "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" was used by those Black children (in Chicago or elsewhere) as a means of warning their mothers or other women in that whore house that a police bust was imminent? Did she hear the children singing that song and then go up to them and ask them why they were singing it? If the children told her that story, did she believe it without checking it? And how would she check such a story? Isn't it possible that those Black children made up a fanciful story for that White woman?

Also, how did she know that they were "holding soda crackers and chewing tobacco to give to their mothers if there was a bust? Where were these items placed while they were turning a jump rope and jumping rope? Furthermore, is it consistent with mothers' behaviors that they would force their children or encourage their children to play in front of the house where they are whoring so that their children would warn them in a pre-arranged manner of a possible police bust?

In my opinion, that this story has been accepted by so many people without questioning its crediblity speaks to Americans' negative stereotypes about Black women.

Even if Judy Henske somehow learned that "Hooka Tooka Soda Craker" was sung by some children in Chicago to warn their mothers of a police bust, that doesn't mean that this song was first sung for that reason. Nor does it mean that this song was always sung for that reason.

CORRECTING THAT URBAN MYTH
I believe that the song "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka" is an American (probably African American) adaptation of the United Kingdom children's counting out rhyme "Icka Backa Soda Cracker". I also believe that the United Kingdom children's singing game "Walking On The Green Grass" is another source of "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracker" song. The American song "Green Green Rocky Road" sometimes include a version of "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka". Click this page of my Cocojams cultural website for text versions of these & other songs that I believe are related to "Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka": http://cocojams.com/content/text-analysis-hooka-tooka-soda-cracker.

By the way, the end word of "hooka tooka soda cracka" rhymes with the second line in that couplet -"does your mama chew tobacca". The "does your mama chew tobacco" line probably originated as a "dig" (an insult, rip, diss). That phrase definitely predates Judy Henske's 1963 song, "Hooka Tooka" song e.g. read the entry "Green Green Rocky Road" given below which "was collected [in 1955] from the children of Lilly Chapel School in York, Alabama and is found in "Negro Songs From Alabama" by Harold Courlander".

I'll let others debate whether Judy Henske or Ernest Evans (Chubby Checker) was the first to write the "Hooka Tooka" song.

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FEATURED SOUND FILES AND VIDEOS

Example #1: Chubby Checker Hooka Tooka Forever Gold 1999



JesusSierra408, Uploaded on Jun 22, 2009

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Example #2: hookatooka

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redheadedberry, Uploaded on Feb 22, 2009
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Girls singing "Hooka Tooka" around a camp fire.

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Example #3: Taj Mahal & André Christovam - Green Green Rocky Road



Annecysavoie | December 27, 2008
Heineken Concerts - Bourbon Street - São Paulo - 2000

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Acka Backa Soda Cracker!



julietlovesjoe Published on Jun 12, 2012

They played a game at Luka's concert this morning. Check it out!! 6/12/2012

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OTHER RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtgno5szcH8 for an example of the children's singing game "Walking On The Green Grass".

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHpXS01tz4A for a choral version of the song "Walking On The Green Grass".

Click this page of my Cocojams website http://cocojams.com/content/choosing-it-rhymes for additional text versions of the counting out rhyme "Acka Backa Soda Cracka" and other counting out rhymes.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers of this song. Thanks also to those whose comments I quoted. Also, thanks to those featured in these videos, to the producers of these videos, and to the video's publishers on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.