What does it take to write a timeless hit prog-rock song? If you're an unknown Dutch group in the early 1970s, you couldn't do better than to combine an incessant crunchy guitar riff with a driving rhythm and something entirely left field.
Say, yodeling, for instance.
As Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman reveals in a new interview, a smorgasbord of influences were at work when the group created what became its trademark song, “Hocus Pocus.”
Written in 1971, the track's blend of incendiary Gibson Les Paul guitar riffs and yodeling has become a pop-culture favorite. It's been covered by artists across a myriad of genres, and was even featured in a Nike advertising campaign to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
“Hocus Pocus” was born from a spur-of-the-moment jam, during which keyboardist, flutist and vocalist Thijs van Leer spontaneously broke out into a yodeling refrain that Akkerman latched onto.
“We were just jamming when our organ player started yodeling on the piece,” the guitarist explains to Guitar.com. “We said, ‘Yeah, man, keep on doing that,’ not realizing the consequences and what it would bring to the song.”
Van Leer related his own memories of the song's creation in a 2007 interview with Classic Rock.
“Shortly before leaving for England to record the second album, we were playing at a castle, when the guitarist suddenly played that riff,” van Leer recalled. “Then completely spontaneously Pierre threw in a two-bar drum solo and I started yodelling. It came from nowhere; a piece of pure improvisation, inspired by the fun of playing together.”
Even stranger is the fact that, until that day, van Leer had never yodelled before. Why did he pick such a pivotal moment to start?
“I still think it came from heaven,” he said.
It wouldn’t be the first, nor the last time, the Dutch group would set rock, classical and a generous smattering of jazz on a collision course. In reality, it’s the very natural consequence of Akkerman’s biggest inspirations.
“My guitar playing influences go much further than just the rock scene,” he continues. “I like jazz guitar players like Django Reinhardt, because of his approach to playing the melody, and also Wes Montgomery, in the way he uses phrasing. So in my own style, I tried to do a mishmash of those things.”
But the story doesn’t end there.
“I used to listen to a lot of Frank Zappa and really liked his eclectic approach to making music,” he adds. “[But] the main heavy rock guitar motif that is throughout the track is actually very Chuck Berry based.”
He also has another influence to thank. He played the song's infectious angular guitar riff on a late '60s Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul Custom. Akkerman says he chose the model after seeing the Dutch-Indonesian group the Tielman Brothers perform with one. Even then, he says, he knew “that’s going to be my guitar.”
“It had everything I wanted,” he says, although his dislike of the middle position prompted him to bestow it with the Filter’Tron pickups from his Gretsch White Falcon. Eventually, he restored to its stock humbuckers.
As reported by Guitar World, Akkerman paired the guitar with a Fender SS1000/XFL1000 Super Showman amp head, a product of Fender's much-derided CBS era. A Colorsound Power Boost distortion pedal was also used.
Over the years, "Hocus Pocus" has been covered numerous times. In the world of heavy metal, Iron Maiden and Helloween have both given it their spin, as have British violinist Vanessa Mae, California-based punk band the Vandals and American guitarist Gary Hoey.
Which version does Akkerman prefer?
“I think Marillion’s version is really great,” he says. “Steve Rothery is such a great guitar player that I’m actually very proud of that cover.”
But for all the song’s success, Akkerman doesn’t feel that an instrumental track like "Hocus Pocus" would succeed in 2025.
“Today, everybody does their own thing, and everything else is bad,” he bemoans. “And that gets pretty boring after a while, so because of that, I don’t listen to new music anymore.”
