Is there something really obvious here, or is it (again) me?

Passingly curious about why Americans do the "hokey pokey" instead of the "hokey cokey," I googled and consulted Wikipedia. Here's the link.

I quote for those disinclined to click:

"The Hokey Pokey (also known as the Hokey-Cokey) is a participation dance that became popular in the USA in the 1950s. Larry LaPrise, Charles Macak and Tafit Baker were granted the copyright for the song in 1950. According to popular legend they created this novelty dance in 1949 as entertainment for the ski crowd at Idaho's Sun Valley resort..."

and:

"It has virtually the same lyrics as the "Hokey-cokey", a song and novelty dance which has been popular in England since the mid-1940s. In addition to similar lyrics, these two songs share similar dance moves, as well as remarkably similar names."

Now, is there, or is there not, a clear inference to be drawn from the chronology here?

And I still don't know why they changed it to "pokey"...