"Hocus Pocus" is a song by the Dutch rock band Focus, written by keyboardist, flutist, and vocalist Thijs van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman. It was recorded and released in 1971 as the opening track of their second studio album Moving Waves. An edited version was released as a single (with "Janis" as the B-side) on the Imperial, Polydor and Blue Horizon labels in Europe in 1971, but failed to chart outside of the Netherlands (NL #9). Buoyed by a live performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test in December 1972 and a subsequent British club tour, the song rose to No. 20 on the UK charts in late January 1973. In the United States and Canada, the song was released as a single on the Sire Records label in the United States and Canada in 1973. A different recording, a faster version of the song, entitled "Hocus Pocus 2" or "Hocus Pocus II", appeared on the B-side of the original single edit in these territories. It was not available outside the US until Sire Records in 1975 released the compilation album Dutch Masters (1969–73), and it was later added as a bonus track on the CD release of Ship of Memories, where the producer, Mike Vernon, also mentions it in his booklet notes as the US single version. In the United States and Canada the song peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 the weeks of June 2 and 9 in the US and No. 18 in Canada during the spring and summer of 1973. The song was given new life in the new millennium, when it became the musical signature of the Nike Write the Future advertising campaign, shown during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. That year the single re-entered the UK charts at No. 57 and on the Dutch charts at No. 48. In 1984 the song was covered by California based punk band The Vandals on their When in Rome Do as The Vandals album. In 1999 the song was covered by German heavy metal band Helloween and released on their Metal Jukebox album.

Description

"Hocus Pocus" was described as “the bludgeoning guitar riff… broken up (or held together) by whistles, yodels, flutes and all manner of musical graffiti.” Another reviewer wrote that it amounts to … a modern day Teddy Bear’s Picnic without a let-up”. Akkerman himself has said that it “was a send-up of ourselves… all that serious Monteverdian fantasy.” It is an instrumental with silly noises that can not really be called vocals. In New Musical Express in May 1973 Akkerman said that it was “just a send-up of those rock groups”. The song takes the form of a rondo, consisting of alternation between a powerful rock chord riff with short drum solos and then varied solo "verses" (in the original all performed by Thijs van Leer) which include yodeling, organ playing, accordion, scat singing, flute riffs, and whistling. The single version is significantly edited from the album version. "Hocus Pocus 2" is a slightly faster version with some funk elements and rhythms added. It was released as a single in its own right in Europe and was the B-side to the North American release of "Hocus Pocus". When performing live, Focus would play "Hocus Pocus" even faster.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Use in media