Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye


"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is a song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to a then-fictitious band they named "Steam". It was released under the Mercury subsidiary label Fontana and became a number one pop single on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1969, and remained on the charts in early 1970.
In 1977, Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust began playing the song. It is generally directed at the losing side in an elimination contest when the outcome is all but certain or when an individual player is ejected or disqualified. It has also been sung by crowds in political rallies, to taunt political opponents or to drown out and mock disruptive counter-protesters.

Original version

Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer wrote a blues shuffle version of the song in the early 1960s when they were members of a doo-wop group from Bridgeport, Connecticut, called the Glenwoods, the Citations, and the Chateaus, of which Leka was the piano player. The group disbanded when Leka talked Frashuer into going into New York City with him to write and possibly produce. In 1968, DeCarlo recorded four songs at Mercury Records in New York with Leka as producer. The singles impressed the company's executives, who wanted to issue all of them as A-side singles. In need of a B-side, Leka and DeCarlo resurrected an old song from their days as the Glenwoods, "Kiss Him Goodbye", with their old bandmate, Frashuer.
With DeCarlo as lead vocalist, they recorded the song in one recording session. Instead of using a full band, Leka played keyboards and had engineer Warren Dewey splice together a drum track from one of DeCarlo's four singles and a conga drum solo by Ange DiGeronimo recorded in Mr. Leka's Bridgeport, Connecticut studio for an entirely different session. "I said we should put a chorus to it ", 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." Gary added "hey hey". The group that is seen on the album cover and in the old black and white video was a road group that had nothing to do with the recording. The road group was lip syncing to DeCarlo's vocal in the video.
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" reached number one in the United States for two weeks, on December 6 and 13, 1969; it was Billboards final multi-week number 1 hit of the 1960s and also peaked at number twenty on the soul chart. In Canada, the song reached number six. By the beginning of the 21st century, sales of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" had exceeded 6.5 million records, attaining gold record status.

Bananarama version

In February 1983, UK girl group Bananarama released the song as a single from 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.
This was the fifth single released from their first album in 1983.
It peaked at number five in the UK singles chart, and number 38 in Australia on the Kent Music Report chart.

Track listing

; UK & USA 7" vinyl single
UK: London Records NANA 4; USA: London Records 810 115-7
  1. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" 3:22
  2. "Tell Tale Signs" 2:58
; UK 12" vinyl single
London Records NANX 4
  1. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" 4:52
  2. "Na Na Hey Hey Na Hey" 4:12
  3. "Tell Tale Signs" 4:46

    Music video

The music video features the band playing in a school playground and then being made to move by a group of lads. They then decide to join a boxing club so the video features them singing the song whilst boxing. By the end of the video they return to the playground wearing leathers and this time make the group of lads move away. They then ride off into the night on motorbikes.

The Nylons version

In 1987, Canadian quartet 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.

Track listing

; Canada & USA 7" vinyl single
Canada: Attic Records AT 348; USA: Open Air Records OS-0022
  1. "Kiss Him Goodbye" 3:24
  2. "It's What They Call Magic" 3:49
; Canada & USA 12" vinyl single
Canada: Attic Records AT 1240; USA: Open Air Records OS-12240
  1. "Kiss Him Goodbye " 6:05
  2. "Kiss Him Goodbye " 4:05
  3. "Kiss Him Goodbye " 5:15

    Chart history

Weekly charts

;Steam original
Chart Peak
position
Australia 22
Canada RPM Top Singles6
-
New Zealand 2
South Africa 9
UK9
U.S. Billboard Hot 1001
U.S. Cash Box Top 1003

Year-end charts

;Bananarama cover
Chart Peak
position
Australia 38
Belgium 29
-
New Zealand 29
UK5
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100101
U.S. Billboard Disco/Dance14

Other cover versions

included a cover of the song on their 1970 album New Ways but Love Stays.
The Belmonts recorded an a cappella version, which can be found as a track on their 1972 album Cigars, Acappella, Candy.
Dave Clark & Friends released the song in October 1973 under the title "Sha-Na-Na-Na ", but the single did not chart.
The Donna Summer compilation album Gold contains a 3:42 disco cover of the song.
In 2000, Taiwanese singer Yuki Hsu released a cover of the song as a single with an accompanying music video.
In 2014 the Norwegian artist Adelén used the chorus line of the song on her World Cup song "Olé." The song was one of the tracks on the One Love, One Rhythm — The 2014 FIFA World Cup Official Album. The song peaked at number #3 in Norway.
The song "Chillin" by rapper Wale featuring singer Lady Gaga samples the chorus. It was also sampled in "Goodbye" by Kristinia DeBarge.
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" paraphrases several lyrics from Jerry Butler's 1960 hit "He Will Break Your Heart," later covered by Tony Orlando and Dawn as "He Don't Love You."
The rap song "We Ready" by Archie Eversole featuring Bubba Sparxxx samples the song and has become a sports stadium anthem as well as being featured in nationally-run commercials.

In popular culture

The song has been used several times on WWE in which it is sung by the crowd when a superstar/general manager is fired, from Jonathan Coachman to John Laurinaitis.
The song is typically sung by the crowd in NBA games, as a noteworthy opposing player is ejected due to personal, technical or flagrant fouls.
The MTV game show Remote Control featured the song as one of several songs the audience would sing as a player was eliminated.
Since 2003, it has been used at cricket matches in England and Wales during the T20 Blast to celebrate wickets.
The song is sung a cappella by the crowd at ice hockey games in Canada, particularly in Montreal and Quebec City, at the end of games in order to say goodbye to the losing team.
On January 23, 2006, Paul Martin was defeated by Stephen Harper as Prime Minister of Canada. Martin had acceded to the prime ministry following the ouster of Jean Chrétien. The next day's issue of La Voix de l'Est, a French newspaper in Granby, Quebec, included a cartoon by Paquette showing Chrétien calling Martin and singing "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye".
At the 2009 and 2017 Presidential Inaugurations, some audiences were chanting "Na na na na" to the departing Presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama respectively.
On May 4, 2017, after the House of Representatives voted to pass the American Health Care Act which partially repealed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Democratic representatives chanted "Na na na na, hey hey, goodbye" to Republican representatives, implying that in voting for the bill, they would lose their House seats in the next election. DeCarlo was happy to hear of the song getting renewed exposure, but said he opposed Obamacare. It was not the first time the song had been sung in Congress; in 1993, after Democrats voted for then-President Bill Clinton's tax bill, House Republicans sang "Goodbye".
In January 2019, GMC launched an advertising campaign for its 2019 Sierra 1500 pickup truck, focusing on GMC's new MultiPro tailgate feature. The commercial shows owners of competing pickups carrying tailgates from those trucks and singing "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" while heading to the top of a mountain.