and what a bad lip sync job this was.
Invalid Link Removed
It was a very common practice in the ‘60s. Remember these guys?
Don’t worry if you don’t, you’ll at least recognise the tune that brought them crashing into the charts in 1969.
Except that the lady-magnets in the photo had nothing to do with the track itself. They were just the eye-candy.
‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’, was a hastily cobbled together studio track intended as a b-side for Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, two artists who’d been working on a series of singles with writer/producer Paul Leka.
The record company thought it had potential but neither the writer nor singer wanted much to do with it.
So the solution was to draft in an already existent band, rename them Steam and get them out promoting the disc. Which of course was a massive hit.
An album was hastily assembled and the band sent on the road to promote it. This lot were dissatisfied with not being allowed to record their own material so parted ways with the production team.
Not a problem of course, musicians were a dime-a-dozen so another band was slapped together and duly sent forth to shlep the boards. And the audiences didn’t seem any the wiser.
There are stories of at least two other unrelated bands pinching the name in order to take advantage of the Steam brands relative anonymity.
The success of the original single was never repeated but the tune continued to have legs, becoming the White Sox’s anthem and being covered by various artists throughout the years.
