A One Hit Wonder For The South Side Hit Men

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 11, 2005 3:12PM

It’s a rare occurrence when the Sports and Arts and Entertainment departments of Chicagoist find their beats overlapping. But with the White Sox in the playoffs, there’s a sports tie-in to be found anywhere.

Sun-Time sports columnist Greg Couch finds himself working a little off-beat this morning as well with an interview with Paul Leka a.k.a. producer of the group Steam. Steam is responsible for the song “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” a.k.a. the song played at countless White Sox games whenever anything awesome happens.

A native of Bridgeport (the one in Connecticut, not the one on the South Side), Leka andformer bandmate Gary DeCarlo needed something for the B-side of one of their singles. So they pulled out a track they worked on back in the early 60s called “Kiss Him Goodbye.”

Leka thought the “na-na-nas” would make for a catchy chorus on a throwaway song that no one would ever hear. As fate would have it, the record company loved the B-side and hated the singles. Refusing to allow their names to be associated with the track, they released it under the name Steam—a name they came up with after seeing an open manhole.

In 1977, the song started getting play at White Sox games and became a multi-purpose anthem for either home runs or a change in opposing pitchers.

No matter what happens in the playoffs, the Sox can rest easy knowing they have the coolest theme song—not that the competition is that stiff. Couch begrudgingly references “Bear Down” and “Here Come The Hawks” and politely sidesteps the past by not mentioning “Super Bowl Shuffle,” a song that sounded dated even as it was being recorded. So that leaves us with “Go Cubs Go” (optimistic but boring) and “Sirius” by Alan Parsons Project from the Bulls. No contest.