Na Na Hey Hey Who Knew? The Rise of a Classic

Na Na Hey Hey Who Knew?

Hello there everybody, it is Rick Troutman aka The Trout here with another episode of Vinyl to Viral on The Trout Show. You know they say a song with great lyrics and deep meaning will get you places. There's been some songs out there that I remember that are just phenomenally good and the lyrics are so pristine and have a story to tell that you just can't hardly wait to hear the end of the story.

And then of course there's the other songs. The songs that have goofy lyrics that become huge hits. Lyrics like na na hey hey kiss him goodbye.

The story of steam and that song becoming number one and still played over and over again is up next on The Trout Show. The year was 1969 when Gary DiCarlo, Paul Ica, and Dale Freshour, three Connecticut musicians with a history of jamming together, were in New York studio, actually the Mercury studio, working on a single called Sweet Laura Lee from Mercury Records. Laker, a producer, needed a B-side to fill out the record.

You know we had 45s back then. You did the 45, you had the A-side, and you had the B-side. DiCarlo and Freshour, they got together and said hey we got a rough demo of a song that we wrote way back in 1961.

It was that song. It was catchy but simplistic tune that they called na na hey hey kiss him goodbye. They all got together and said ah this is a joke.

This is a nothing track. Let's just slap it together. And in 20 minutes they did repetitive chant na na hey hey which was inspired by doo-wop and R&B.

The three guys, the three musicians, decided hey this song is never going to see the light of day. We'll just put this together for fun. Well here's where the story gets interesting.

Steam, the band, really never existed. You see Mercury Records didn't think Gary DiCarlo's name alone would sell. So the guys at Mercury said you know what we're going to invent a band called Steam.

They thought it was trendy and marketable and had a great vibe to it. And Mercury Records, get this, they even hired session musicians to pose as Steam for promotional photos and TV appearances. While the guy that sang on the original song, DiCarlo, was sidelined.

He wasn't happy about it. Feeling his work was being misrepresented. But he had no control of the label's marketing ploy.

It's kind of funny when you think about it. You write a goofy song then they don't want to put it out but then they say we're going to put a fake band out but then you're really concerned about it. Music for you.

Well the A-side, which was the three guys wanted to be a big hit, Sweet Laura Lee, flopped. DJs took the record, flipped it over on the B-side, and started playing na na na na chant. And an upbeat rhythm caught fire with listeners.

By November of 69, that song rocketed number one on the Billboard Hot 100, staying there for two weeks and selling over a million copies. DiCarlo and Nika, they were stunned. Their funny joke track had outperformed their serious efforts.

And I want to tell you as a songwriter myself and producer, I have discovered that people that you think are going to like certain songs don't like them. Or the idea of what you think they're going to hear sometimes never comes to fruition. So I can appreciate the fact that they took ownership of the song, but they really wanted the Sweet Laura Lee to be the number one hit.

The song's charm came from its raw, unpolished energy, recorded, as I said earlier, in single night at Mercury Studios. That track featured DiCarlo's soulful vocals, a pounding riff by Lika, and a drum machine, which I didn't even know we had them back then. The na-na chant was improvised because the band, or the fake band, the three guys, were worried that it was the song was way too short under three minutes.

So they just sat around and did na-na, na-na, na-na. I'm sorry, I have to laugh because I think it's pretty funny myself. That spontaneous hook became its defining feature in easy for audiences to sing along.

This is one thing I can tell you about musicians. We want to be the kind of people who play difficult pieces for people to listen to. But nine times out of ten, the people in the audience care about simple three-chord songs.

In this case, a simple chant. Well, behind the scenes, DiCarlo was heartbroken by the label's handling. When they did put the band Steam together, he refused to even be with the band because the fake band didn't include him.

And he couldn't even perform his own hit. Now, Lika, the piano player, later admitted they were embarrassed by the song's simplicity, thinking it was too dumb to succeed. The real Steam band disbanded after one album, unable to replicate the flute successes.

Now, normally a one-hit song disappears. It's a one hit, people make a lot of money off of it, and the band disappears. In this case, Steam did.

But something happened that made the song even more popular. It became a catchy taunt and a sports anthem in the 70s. Fans at different baseball and football games adopted it to mock opposing teams.

Particularly one particular baseball team, the Chicago White Sox, when the organist, Nancy Faust, played it to rile up crowds. This accidental second life as a stadium staple cemented its legacy, with the chant still echoing in arenas even today. Yep, you can still hear it.

So what makes this song so iconic? Well, I think it's because of the na-na-hey-hey silly lyrics. But it's so simple. It was an accidental chart hit, and it became a cultural chant and a classic case of a throwaway track becoming a phenomenon.

It's universal appeal. Part breakup song, part playful diss gave it staying power, with covers by even artists like Bananarama and endless pop culture references. So the next time you listen to this song, remember it was an accident that became a hit that's still getting played today.

And that, my friends, is the story behind the song na-na-hey-hey kiss em goodbye. Well that's it for this episode of the Trout Show. Thanks so much for stopping by.

We appreciate it very very much. Another interesting story about the story behind the songs. For more information about the Trout Show, please consider subscribing to their YouTube channel.

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Thanks again for listening, and remember what I always say, people. It's only rock and roll. Na-na-hey-hey kiss em goodbye.

See ya!