Exactly four weeks from Fat Tuesday, it's time to get serious about Mardi Gras. Thus the Dixie Cups and their 1965 rendition of "Iko Iko", a bubble gum take on a Carnival classic first recorded in 1954 as "Jock-a-Mo" by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford.

A family act from the Calliope projects comprised of sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins and cousin Joan Marie Johnson, the Dixie Cups were, according to Barbara Hawkins, "just clowning around with it during a session using drumsticks on ashtrays", not realizing they were being recorded. Producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller overdubbed bass and percussion, and it became the Dixie Cups' last hit.

Here's a little Lagniappe: the Dixie Cups at Jazz Fest in 2010, photo by Hunter King.