At least there will be no question as to what to play at Paul Leka’s funeral. Probably the most-heard song at American sporting events, beside the National Anthem, is Na Na, Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, the only song I know that prompted the creation of a rock group instead of the other way around. Leka, a songwriter and producer, wrote the chorus that you’ve heard a million times if you’ve ever been to a high school football game: Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye.
As the story goes, in 1969 Leka was helping a musician friend, Gary De Carlo, fill the B side of a 45 record, and decided to record a song Leka had written a few years earlier. But at a playing time of two minutes, it was too short — the pair wanted to insure that radio stations didn’t play it instead of the A-side selection. So Leka lengthened it with the long chorus of Na na na na, etc.
But the record company liked it anyway and released it as an A-side selection, using the fictitious band name, Steam, that De Carlo and Leka had invented for record labeling purposes.
The song did fairly well. Then, eight years later, the Chicago White Sox got involved.
In 1977, the organist for the Chicago White Sox, Nancy Faust, began using the song to stoke the crowd into taunting the opposing team when visiting players struck out, say, or when their pitcher was removed. It is unclear how it spread, but within a few years the chant had become an anthem of sports conquest – not as nice as the communally-spirited “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” perhaps, but more ubiquitous, since fans were singing it at football and soccer games, too.
It’s clear to me how it spread. Every high school and college crowd in the nation began singing it when victory appeared imminent for their teams. It has just the right amount of “You suck” and “we’re happy” to appeal to kids.
“It’s a song where a guy wants a girl, but she’s going out with someone else,” Mr. DeCarlo said in a phone interview on Friday. “It’s basically a sad situation, but we made it upbeat. The guy sounds like he’s going to come out ahead. That’s why I think it caught on. It gives you a lift.”
Bonus: this may be the only hit rock song in which the lead singer has a pronounced combover.
H/T Fang’s Bites.
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Paul Leka, a Songwriter of ‘Na Na Hey Hey,’ Dies at 68 [The New York Times]
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- alligatorsnapper - Oct 24, 2011 at 3:49 PM
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Great to read of the background of what we sang in high school and in college. I have sung at least a small portion of the song numerous times at various sporting events and never knew the interesting background. The author certainly affected our lives with his song. That is a great legacy. Thank you, Paul Leka!
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- trbowman - Oct 24, 2011 at 5:01 PM
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RIP.
They better play that at his funeral.
