You know the tune. Even if you hate baseball or haven't listened to a "classic hits" radio station in a decade, those pounding drums and that soaring, repetitive chorus are burned into your brain. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye is everywhere. It is the sound of a losing pitcher walking to the dugout in shame. It is the sound of a political candidate conceding an election. It’s the ultimate "get out of here" song. But honestly, the most fascinating thing about this track isn't its longevity—it’s the fact that it was never supposed to be a hit. In fact, the band on the record cover didn't even exist when the song was recorded.
It's a total fluke.
Most people assume some big-name 60s group sat down to write a stadium anthem. They didn't. Back in 1969, a guy named Paul Leka, along with Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, were working together in a studio. They had this old song they’d written years prior when they were in a band called The Chateaus. They needed a B-side. You know, the "throwaway" track on the back of a 45rpm record that nobody is actually supposed to listen to. They decided to dust off this old melody.
The accidental birth of the hey hey hey goodbye song
To make the song long enough to fill the space, they started improvising. Paul Leka reportedly told the guys to just keep singing "na na na" because they didn't have enough lyrics ready. They were basically just killing time. They thought the song was sort of embarrassing. DeCarlo actually thought it was garbage. He didn't want his name on it because he was worried it would ruin his reputation as a "serious" artist.
So, they put it out under a fake name: Steam.
There was no band called Steam. It was just studio magic and some guys messing around with a drum loop and an organ. But then, radio DJs did what they often do—they ignored the "A-side" and started playing the weird "na na" song. It exploded. Suddenly, there was a Number One hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and the label had to scramble to put a "band" together for a tour. They literally hired random musicians to pose as Steam for the album cover and television appearances.
Imagine being those guys. You’re hired to be the face of a song you didn't even sing on, pretending to be a group that was invented in a marketing meeting. It's the kind of music industry chaos that you just don't see as much in the digital age.
🔗 Read more: Shamea Morton and the Real Housewives of Atlanta: What Really Happened to Her Peach
Why it became a sports weapon
For about eight years, the song was just another catchy 60s relic. It might have faded into obscurity if not for a guy named Nancy Faust.
Nancy was the organist for the Chicago White Sox. In 1977, she started playing the chorus whenever an opposing pitcher was pulled from the game. It was a stroke of genius. The crowd at Comiskey Park picked it up instantly. It wasn't just music anymore; it was a taunt. It was a collective "don't let the door hit you on the way out" from thousands of people.
Music scholars often talk about how certain songs have "modular" structures. This song is the king of them. It’s easy to sing even if you’re three beers deep at a stadium. The "na na na" part requires zero linguistic skill. It’s primal. Once the White Sox fans started doing it, other stadiums followed suit. Within a few years, it was the universal soundtrack for failure in American sports.
The technical simplicity that makes it work
Why does it stick? Musically, it's actually pretty clever.
The song is built on a very driving, repetitive rhythm section. If you listen closely to the original 1969 recording, the drums are surprisingly heavy for a pop song of that era. It has a bit of a "shuffle" feel that mimics a heartbeat or a march.
- The Hook: The "Na na na na" section follows a simple descending pattern.
- The Contrast: The verses are actually quite soulful and melancholic, which people often forget because they only ever hear the chorus at games.
- The Production: Paul Leka used a lot of reverb on the vocals to give it that "distant" feel, which accidentally made it sound like it was being sung in a large hall—perfectly foreshadowing its future in massive arenas.
The lyrics are actually about a guy telling a girl that her current boyfriend isn't right for her and that he's going to "kiss him goodbye." It’s a breakup song. It was never intended to be about a relief pitcher being sent to the minors or a politician losing an exit poll. But that’s the beauty of pop culture. The public decides what a song means, not the writer.
💡 You might also like: Who is Really in the Enola Holmes 2 Cast? A Look at the Faces Behind the Mystery
The money behind the "Na Na"
You’d think the guys who wrote it would be living on private islands. And yeah, the royalties have been massive. But because of the way the industry worked back then, the story of the money is a bit complicated. Gary DeCarlo, the voice you actually hear on the record, spent years feeling somewhat bitter about how things went down. He was the "real" singer, but the "fake" band got the fame.
He eventually started performing it later in life, finally embracing the legacy of the "hey hey hey goodbye song" before he passed away in 2017. It’s a bit of a bittersweet ending. He spent a long time trying to distance himself from his biggest success, only to realize that he’d accidentally created a piece of the global cultural fabric.
Misconceptions about the lyrics
There’s a common mistake people make when they sing along. Most people think the lyrics are "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye."
Actually, the official title and the lyrics are "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye."
We’ve collectively edited the "kiss him" out of the stadium version. It’s too many syllables for a rowdy crowd to coordinate. Plus, "Kiss Him Goodbye" sounds a bit too intimate for a bunch of sports fans screaming at a rival team. So, we just shortened it in our heads to "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye."
The song's weird afterlife in politics and film
It’s not just sports. In 2017, the song made headlines when members of the House of Representatives sang it to their colleagues after a controversial vote on the Affordable Care Act. It was a polarizing moment, but it proved one thing: the song is the ultimate "power move" in audio form.
📖 Related: Priyanka Chopra Latest Movies: Why Her 2026 Slate Is Riskier Than You Think
It’s appeared in movies like Remember the Titans, where it was used to show unity and triumph. It’s been covered by everyone from The Supremes to Bananarama. The Bananarama version in the 80s actually gave the song a whole new life in the UK, where it became a synth-pop hit. Every generation seems to rediscover it, strip away the previous context, and find a new way to use it as a weapon of joy or derision.
How to use this history for your own projects
If you’re a content creator, a DJ, or just someone interested in how trends work, there’s a huge lesson in the story of Steam.
- Don't overthink the "B-side." Sometimes the stuff you create when you aren't trying too hard—the stuff that feels "throwaway"—is what actually resonates with people.
- Context is king. The song was a hit in 1969, but it became an icon in 1977 because of where it was played. If you want something to go viral, look at where it's being used, not just what it is.
- Simplicity scales. You can’t get 50,000 people to sing a complex lyric. You can get them to sing "Na na na na."
The legacy of the hey hey hey goodbye song is basically a masterclass in accidental branding. It’s a reminder that once you put art out into the world, you don't own the meaning of it anymore. The world does.
If you want to dive deeper into this specific era of music, look up "Bubblegum Pop" history. You’ll find that a lot of your favorite hits from the late 60s were actually recorded by studio pros and credited to "fake" bands that didn't exist. It was a wild time for the music business.
For your next steps, go listen to the original 1969 version by Steam. Don't just listen to the chorus. Listen to the drum break around the two-minute mark. It’s actually a pretty sophisticated piece of studio engineering for something that was supposed to be a joke. Then, check out the Bananarama cover to see how a simple "na na" can be transformed into a completely different genre without losing its power.
You'll never hear it the same way again the next time someone strikes out.