Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" cover
Single by Steam
B-side "It's the Magic in You Girl"
Released 1969
Format 7" single
Recorded 1968 in New York at Mercury Sound Studios
Length 4:08
6:20 (long version)
Label Fontana F 1667 (US)
Writer Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, Paul Leka
Producer Paul Leka
Steam singles chronology
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
(1969)
"I've Gotta Make You Love Me"
(1970)
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" cover
Single by Bananarama
from the album Deep Sea Skiving
B-side "Tell Tale Signs"
Released February 1983
Format 7" single, 12" single
Recorded February 1982
Genre Pop/New Wave
Length 3:30
Label London Records
Writer Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, Paul Leka
Producer Jolley & Swain
Bananarama singles chronology
"He's Got Tact"
(1982)
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
(1983)
"Cruel Summer"
(1983)

"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" was a song written and recorded by Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, and Paul Leka; attributed to a then fictitious band "Steam," it was released under the Mercury subsidiary label Fontana. It became the number one pop single on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1969. Although subsequent recordings and a quickly assembled touring band Steam met with little success, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" remains a perennial favorite.

Contents

Gary DeCarlo, Paul Leka and Dale Frashuer wrote the song in the early 1960s, when the three were members of a Bridgeport, Connecticut band called The Chateaus. The Chateaus disbanded after several failed recordings. In 1969, DeCarlo recorded several singles at Mercury Records in New York with Paul Leka as producer. The singles impressed the company's executives, who wanted to issue all of them as A-side singles. In need of "inferior" B-side songs, Leka and DeCarlo resurrected an old song from their days as the Chateaus, "Kiss Him Goodbye" with their old bandmate, Dale Frashuer.

With DeCarlo as lead vocalist, the three musicians recorded the song in one recording session. Instead of using a full band, Leka spliced together a drum track from one of DeCarlo's four singles and played keyboards himself. "I said we should put a chorus to it (to make it longer)," Leka told Fred Bronson in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "I started writing while I was sitting at the piano going 'na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na'...Everything was 'na na' when you didn't have a lyric." Someone else added "hey hey." (Bronson,2003)

To everyone's great surprise, the powers-that-be at the label decided to release the song, now named "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", as the A-side on Fontana, a Mercury Records subsidiary. Leka thought it was "an embarrassing record, not that Gary sang it badly. But compared to his four songs, it was an insult." (Bronson, 2003) Since none of the musicians wanted credit for the tune, a nonexistent group, "Steam", was concocted. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" rapidly rose to the top of the pop charts, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in December of 1969. A touring band, quickly assembled and dubbed "Steam" by their producer, Paul Leka, went on tour with the song but quickly disbanded in 1970. Despite the demise of the original band, "Na Na Hey Hey" continued to ride the charts during the 1970s.[1].

The original recording of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" has been released in many collections of oldies songs and re-recorded by other groups. In February 1983, UK girl group Bananarama released the song as a single off their album Deep Sea Skiving. This version became a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, but only a minor hit in the US later that year. Their music video features a feminist message as the girls undergo boxing training in order to retaliate against a bunch of guys.

In 1987, Canadian act The Nylons released an a cappella version of this song as a single under the shortened title "Kiss Him Goodbye." It became their biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number twelve that summer.

The song was transformed into a stadium anthem during the 1977 Major League Baseball season. Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust had played the song many times before when opposing pitchers were relieved or when the Sox had clearly won the game, but without much reaction from the Comiskey Park fans. During a critical series with the Kansas City Royals, however, the crowd began singing along with the tune, and a tradition was born.[2] Since then, the song has become a staple of many sporting events. The song's familiar chorus of "Na na na na / na na na na / hey hey / goodbye" is often chanted by fans near the end of a contest to signify that victory is all but assured. This is sometimes accompanied by the gesture of holding up keys. Other versions of lyrics sung by the crowds at sporting events can be interpreted as "Na na na na / na na na na / hey hey / Start the bus," in reference as to it's time to just leave town now.

The verse of the song centers on the singer telling a woman the reasons why she should dump her current beau. The lengthy, repetitive fade-out chorus is the part that is typically sung by the fans: Na,na... na, na, na, na... hey, hey, hey... goodbye.

Preceded by
"Come Together" / "Something" by The Beatles
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Steam version)
December 6, 1969
Succeeded by
"Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.