Songfacts®:

• Despite a seemingly upbeat title and up-tempo bassline, this song is actually about a failed relationship. It has been described as a "funky male heartbreak song." The video shows the band members standing at a bus stop dressed as 'pimps' who start dancing and accidentally trigger a massive street party - a typical tongue-in-cheek humor that largely came to epitomize the band's videos in the early to mid-1980s.
• The phrase "Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho" was regularly heard on the UK TV sitcom "Hi-De-Hi!" in the 1980s. As a result, this song enjoyed massive airplay on UK radio on release in January 1983, and the video enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV. It received positive reviews from the critics, many of whom likened it to one of the band's previous hits, "Get Down On It," which had been a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite becoming a popular staple at house parties, night clubs/dance halls, discotheques, fairgrounds, and skating venues/ice rinks on release, "Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho" failed to repeat the success of "Get Down On It," as it stalled at #29 in the UK and did not chart at all in the US, where it was only a turntable hit. However, it would become one of Kool & The Gang's most popular and frequently requested songs when performing live.
• Robert "Kool" Bell has cited that this song was heavily influenced by the legendary bandleader/entertainer Cab Calloway's 1930s songs "You Gotta Hi-De-Ho", "The Hi-De-Ho Miracle Man" and "Minnie the Moocher." Although attempts to replicate Calloway's "Big Band" sound were originally attempted, Bell and the band's lead vocalist James "J.T." Taylor opted to go with a more stripped back "rhythmic" feel instead. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Dave - Cardiff, Wales for above 3