Gary DeCarlo passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 75. Most of you never heard of him, but you have heard him. The song he co-wrote and sang, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” will live on, seemingly, forever.

DeCarlo and a few of his band mates in Bridgeport, Connecticut, wrote and recorded an album in the late 60’s, with DeCarlo on lead vocals. The guys essentially split to do other things after the song and album were in the can. Fontana Records liked the song and assembled a band, Steam, to promote and play it.

As the song surprisingly gained radio airplay in 1969, DeCarlo was miffed about doing appearances and performances with a group of guys that had nothing to do with the song. He felt it was akin to a Milli Vanilli thing.

See Steam’s promotional pre-MTV video below. DeCarlo was clapping at the end when he was supposed to be lip syncing!

The song went to #1 on the Billboard charts for a couple weeks in December of 1969, but DeCarlo was bummed. Within a year, he left Steam and went on to live a life of relative obscurity.

I can remember the Chicago White Sox being one of the first sports teams to play the song near the end of likely victories. It’s been played thousands of times in sports arenas at the finish of wins for the home tea, during visiting team pitching changes and after visiting team player or coach ejections.

In the winter of ’78-’79, my high school buddies sang it during our team’s basketball games. Of course, we added multiple verses with lyrics too dirty to print here.

The song’s been covered by a handful of bands over the years. Sales of this song total around 6.5 million! And recently, the Democrats sang it on the House floor.

So tip your hat or raise your drink today to the recently departed Gary DeCarlo, the man behind the famous sports song… from Peoria’s classic rock station, 95.5, GLO.

Doc Watson