A song that (for some reason) was passed on to us all...
Mr. Degen, gone at 104; is now recognized for the song's popularity.
"The Hokey Pokey," performed by Wesley, 5 years old, at the 2009 Spring Coffee Shop Jam, at The Columbia City Theater in Seattle, WA....
The Jam's a chance. (ht/Freeps)
There are many reasons to question this version of the song’s provenance, however. Among them is that a very similar song, “The Hokey Pokey Dance,” was copyrighted a few years earlier, in 1944, by a club musician from Scranton, Pa., named Robert Degen...
Mr. Degen — who claimed for decades that Mr. LaPrise had stolen his song — died in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 23... His 104th birthday.
(Mr. LaPrise died in 1996, and the two men never met.) NYT
Mr. Degen’s death was confirmed by his son William.
