Re: Where exactly did the "Sock It To Me" thing come from and what did it really mean?

Don't know if this is THE answer, but it is one I found on the web:

Sock it to me
Posted by Masakim on July 29, 2003

In Reply to: Sock it to me posted by ESC on July 29, 2003

: : Can you tell me the meaning of "Sock it to me" (in the song Respect)
: : Thanks

: Give it (respect) to me.

sock it to me! spoken by the English actress Judy Carne who became known as the Sock-It-To-Me Girl on _Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In_ (NBC-TV, 1960s [Jan 22, 1968 - May 14, 1973]). She would appear and chant the phrase until -- ever unsuspecting -- something dreadful happened to her. ...
The actual phrase was taken from a 1967 hit record entitled 'Respect' recorded by Aretha Franklin, which featured a chorus repeating 'Sock it to me' quite rapidly in the background. The phrase 'to sock it to someone' originally meant 'to put something bluntly' (and was used as such by Mark Twain). Black musicians gave it a sexual meaning, as in 'I'd like to sock it to _her_.'
From Dictionary of Catchphrases by Nigel Rees
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sock it to me
1. Let me have it
2. Say what it is you have to say
Fom _Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang_ by Tom Dalzell
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"Well, observe the difference. You pay eight cents and four mills, we pay only four cents."
I prepared, now to sock it to him. I said: "Look here, dear friend, what's become of your hige wages you were bragging about a few minutes ago" -- and I looked round on the company with placid satisfaction.
From _A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur_ by Mark Twain

[www.phrases.org.uk]

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“Sock it to Me”

It was never in the original Redding song, but Franklin and her sisters added the trademark line sock it to me to the song "Respect". Aretha's sisters Erma and Carolyn Franklin can be heard singing the added line. Though the term was often considered a sexual reference, Franklin denied this in an interview. “There was nothing sexual about that,” said Franklin in 2014. “It’s like if you gave me a high five.” In the 1970s, the “sock it to me” caught on as a catchphrase on the TV show Laugh-In and was also used in the 1967 Syl Johnson song “Come On Sock It To Me.”

“I felt I could do something different with it, and my sister Carolyn, who was an RCA recording artist, and I got together on the background,” said Franklin in 2016, elaborating on her added lyrics. “The term ‘Sock it to me!’ was a big, big thing in our neighborhood—all the kids were saying it. The same goes for ‘TCB,’ an acronym for ‘taking care of business.'”

[americansongwriter.com]

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Judy Carne, and then Goldie Hawn may have made the phrase a catchphrase on the show "Laugh-In"... but it was actually Aretha Franklin! who used it in her hit "Respect" before Laugh-In did.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2023 11:11AM by MamaRAMa.