The Origins Of "Rock The Boat" Girls' Cheerleader Squad Cheer, Softball Cheer, or Children's Summer Camp Cheer

Edited by Azizi Powell This is Part I of a two part series about the "Rock The Boat" cheer.

This post presents information about the provenance of the Rock The Boat" cheerleader squad cheer, softball cheer, or children's summer camp cheer. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/11/rock-boat-videos-word-only-examples.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases examples of "Rock The Boat" cheers and chants that are performed by girls' cheerleader squads* , by members of some girls' softball teams, and by attendees of children's summer camps.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in this embedded video. -snip- *from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/provenance
"provenance (noun)

1. origin, source

2. the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature

-snip- **I am differentiating between girls pretending to be cheerleaders who chanted foot stomping cheers during as part of their recreational activities and girls who are actually members of a cheerleading squad that is associated with a sports team. **** THE PROVENANCE OF THE SOFT BALL CHANT "ROCK THE BOAT" . A. THE DISCO RECORD "ROCK THE BOAT" 1. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_Boat_(The_Hues_Corporation_song) 
" "Rock the Boat" is a song by American trio The Hues Corporation, written by Wally Holmes. "Rock the Boat" was first featured on their 1973 debut studio album Freedom for the Stallion (the single edit later appeared on certain editions of the band's 1974 second album Rockin' Soul).[1] It was released as the third single from the album in early 1974, to follow up Stallion's title song, which had peaked at number sixty-three on the Hot 100, and "Miracle Maker (Sweet Soul Shaker)" which did not chart.

Initially, "Rock the Boat" appeared as though it would also flop, as months went by without any radio airplay or sales activity. Not until the song became a disco favorite in New York did Top 40 radio finally pick up on the song, leading the record to finally enter the Hot 100 and zip up the chart to number one the week of July 6, 1974, in only its seventh week on the chart (and fourth week in the Top 40). The record also reached the top ten in the United Kingdom. "Rock the Boat" is considered one of the earliest disco songs. Some authorities proclaim it to be the first disco song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while others give that distinction to "Love's Theme" by Love Unlimited Orchestra or "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" by MFSB, both chart-toppers from earlier in 1974. The song became a gold record. It is a heavy airplay favorite on oldie and adult contemporary stations today.

Composition and recording

Holmes wrote the song for the band's first album, and started the song with the line "Ever since our voyage of love began..". In an attempt to make it more punchy, producer John Florez suggested starting with the line "So I'd like to know where you got the notion."[2]

The song features a lead vocal by Fleming Williams, who left The Hues Corporation shortly after the song was recorded. According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson, the lone female member of the group, H. Ann Kelley, had originally been pegged to sing lead, but this idea was discarded out of fear that groups with female lead singers were less commercially viable. The bass player on the session was Wilton Felder, not James Jamerson as sometimes reported. Florez also brought in two other members of the Jazz Crusaders"...

****
2. from https://genius.com/The-hues-corporation-rock-the-boat-lyrics (Genius annotation written by LuckyBluJay, December 15, 2014)
" "Rock the Boat" was featured on the Hues Corporation’s debut album Freedom for the Stallion.

When the song was first released, it went months without getting radio airplay, but it wasn’t until the song became a disco\club music favorite in New York that it was picked up by Top 40 radio.

Hues Corporation member St. Clair Lee said that the song “was a song you could do anything on. You could cuddle or you could get crazy if you wanted to. It was a love song without being a love song, but it was a disco hit and it happened because of the discos.”

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week in July of 1974. It also peaked at #2 on Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart and #5 on Billboard’s Hot Dance\Disco Singles chart."
-snip-
This is how that annotation is written on that page 

****
3. Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat • TopPop

TopPop, November 6, 2015
-snip-
This Disco record was first released in 1974.

****
4.  https://genius.com/The-hues-corporation-rock-the-boat-lyrics 
LYRICS - ROCK THE BOAT
(written by Wally Holmes)

" [Chorus]

So I'd like to know where you got the notion

Said I'd like to know where you got the notion

To rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

 

Rock the boat

Don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Rock the boat

 

[Verse 1]

Ever since our voyage of love began

Your touch has thrilled me

Like the rush of the wind

And your arms have held me

Safe from a rolling sea

There's always been a quiet place

To harbor you and me

 

Our love is like a ship on the ocean

We've been sailing with a cargo

Full of love and devotion

 

[Chorus]

So I'd like to know where you got the notion

Said I'd like to know where you got the notion

To rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Rock the boat

Don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Rock the boat

 

[Verse 2:]

Up to now

We sailed through every storm

And I've always had your tender lips

To keep me warm

 

Oh, I need to have the strength

That flows from you

Don't let me drift away my dear

When love can see me through

 

Our love is like a ship on the ocean

We've been sailing with a cargo

Full of love and devotion

 

[Chorus]

So I'd like to know where you got the notion

Said I'd like to know where you got the notion

So I'd like to know where you got the notion

Said I'd like to know where you got the notion

To rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Rock the boat

Don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Rock the boat

Don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock on with yo bad self

Rock the boat

Rock on with yo bad self

Rock the boat

Rock on with yo bad self

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat

Rock the boat"

****
B. "ROCK THE BOAT" FOOT STOMPING CHEERS 
1. Information about foot stomping cheers
"Rock The Boat" is  an example of a dance style foot stomping cheers.

"Foot stomping cheers is a sub-category of children's cheerleader cheers.

I observed and collected foot stomping cheers (from the mid 1980s to 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Soloists were usually chosen by the order in which the members of the group called out "first", "second", "third" etc. Each person in the group has the same amount of soloist time. Ideally, the cheer doesn't end until each person in the group has a soloist turn. Each soloist turn is the same amount of time.

In my observations, these cheers were* performed as part of the recreational play of Black girls, ages around 6 years to around 12 years. These girls were pretending to be cheerleaders outdoors during school recess, or outdoor or indoors after-school. Usually, there wasn't any  formal audience for these cheerleading performances, although other children (and adults) might watch the girls perform. cheers weren't written down. Girls learned the cheers by watching the performances of others who knew them. Because the entire cheer had to start again from the beginning if anyone "went offbeat" [in the synchronized foot stomping/hand clapping routine or messed up a word because they waited too long to say it, girls who didn't know a cheer were usually reluctant to attempt to perform it. 

Foot stomping cheers used a distinctive foot stomping cheer textual pattern of group/consecutive soloist. The group (without the soloist) speaks first, The soloist responds and the group speaks. At some point, the soloist has a brief portion in the spotlight, sometimes followed by the group which echoes what the soloist says and/or does. That pattern immediately begins again from the beginning.

Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUHe51IiOaM for a YouTube video of the "Shabooya Roll Call" cheer that is performed as part of the 2006 cheerleader movie entitled Bring It On: All Or Nothing. That clip is probably the most widely known example of a performance of a foot stomping cheer. However, I believe that the dancing/stepping that these three girls did while chanting that cheer was greatly exaggerated and therefore isn't an accurate documentation of the choreographed syncopated, foot stomping routines.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/03/some-youtube-videos-of-foot-stomping.html for a pancocojams post entitled "Some YouTube Videos Of Foot Stomping Cheers (With Other Videos Of Similar Children's Stepping Motions & Routines)."

*I'm using past tense about foot stomping cheers in this post (and in other pancocojams posts) because (based on my direct observation and based on the lack of current comments about these cheers and the lack of examples of current performances of these cheers, I believe that old foot stomping cheers are no longer performed [the same way that they were traditionally performed] and new foot stomping cheers don't seem to be created.

The BIG caveat for the above statement is that (usually unbeknown to the people chanting these cheers), a few old foot stomping cheers still live on as softball chants. However, although those softball chants have some of the same words as certain foot stomping cheers, they may not strictly adhere to the "every one in the group has a solo turn" that is an essential foot stomping cheer rule. Also, those softball cheers that originated as foot stomping cheers may not be performed the same way as "traditional" foot stomping cheers (i.e. with chanters standing in a circle or in a horizontal line performing a choreographed, syncopated foot stomping and hand clapping routine to a 4/4 metronome type beat.)

For more information about foot stomping cheers click  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html "An Overview Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Part I- Characteristics, Sources, & Videos)"

and 

https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/11/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html "An Overview Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Part II -Types Of Cheers With Examples)".

****
2. Two Examples Of "Rock The Boat' Foot Stomping Cheers   

ROCK THE BOAT (Version #1)

Rock the boat,

Rock, rock the boat

[repeat]

My name is Yasmin (rock the boat)

I know I'm fine (rock the boat)

Just like my sign (rock the boat)

My sign is Leo

I go bang-bang choo choo train

Wind me up and I do my thing

Reeses pieces butter cup

Don't mess with me, cause I'll mess you up,

Rock the boat, rock rock the boat...
-Yasmin H. (Latina female; memories of East Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1980s), 2/25/04
-snip-
Yasmin noted that the words in parenthesis were chanted by the other members of the cheerleading squad. This example probably was performed using the "traditional" choreographed, syncopated foot stomping and hand clapping routine.

****

ROCK THE BOAT (Version #2)
this is how we do it at my school:

rock the boat dont tip it over

rock the boat dont tip it over

my name is __

yeah!

im feelin fine!

yeah!

u mess with me

yeah!

ill blow ur mind

so bang bang choo choo train

u look at me and i do my thang

no recces pieces no butter cup

i kno karate i kno kung fu

u mess with ill mes with u!

 

i kno its tottaly off to wat everyone else is sayin but thats wat we sing on the bus all the time.
-slimeshady100, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9QuTsAtQPY, 2010
-snip-
I categorize this example as a somewhat modified foot stomping cheer. This example begins with the group voice as is a characteristic of "traditional" foot stomping cheers. However, based on this contributor's comment, that this cheer was chanted during bus rides (probably to and from school), the chanters couldn't perform the foot stomping/hand clapping routine that is a key characteristic of foot stomping cheers.

Softball examples of "Rock The Boat" are even more modified than that example, as is partly documented in Part II of this pancocojams series.  

****
This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visiting comments are welcome.