This is one of the strangest stories about the creation of a number one record that I’ve seen. Three guys who had been friends for years and had written songs in the early Sixties, got together one day and decided to write and record some new music. The three guys were Paul Leka, a producer and songwriter whose major claim to fame up to now was that he had produced a number one song, “Green Tambourine” by the Lemon Pipers a year earlier in 1968. His friends were Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer. The three of them decided to write four songs, all of which they believed would be the A-sides of four different singles. Once those primary songs were written, it was time to think about the B-sides.

Paul had a song he called “Kiss Him Goodbye” which he had written back in 1960. He played it for them and while, no one was really impressed, they thought, what difference did it make, it was only a B-side after all. So, they started working on “Kiss Him Goodbye.” One big problem they ran into was the song was only two minutes long. B-side or not, in the late Sixties songs were getting longer and they felt they needed at least four minutes to make it work.

So, they just started singing nonsense words, like na, na, na and hey hey. At first they were just filler, but when they played back the recording, it sounded pretty good, so they left it that way. It was, after all, just a B-side.

When they left their studio, they had a song, but no band or vocalists to sing the song. They hired some studio musicians and Gary DeCarlo did the lead singing and they recorded the record. On the way home that night, the guys noticed some steam rising up from a manhole cover on the street near the studio. One mentioned that there might be a fire under that manhole and then didn’t think any more about it. The next day, when it came time to come up with a name for the group, Paul remembered the steam and the manhole cover and they had their name.

“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” was released (as a B-side) and nobody thought anymore about it. That is, until one day, a disc jockey in Georgia turned the record over and played the lucky song. The phones lit up with requests to hear it again and the rest is history. The song rocketed to number one. The sad thing is, none of the four A-sides which the three guys had written ever did a thing. None of them made the top 40 and “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” would be Steam’s only hit on the charts, so they are truly a one-hit wonder.

In 1977, the organist for the Chicago White Sox baseball team played the song at a game. The fans started singing along and a sports ritual was born. Like other songs, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” is now a sports anthem that is sung by the fans whenever someone is being eliminated from the game.

“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” debuted on the pop charts on November 8, 1969 and stayed at number one for two weeks.