Professor of Rock

I’ve got a great one today. We’re counting down the Catchiest songs of a legendary decade. These songs were all hits, but they are the kinds of hits that you’re pumped when they get stuck in your head… they’re that good. The 60s produced some of the most irresistible, perfectly constructed rock songs ever recorded, and they have even better stories. One of these classics went to the top of the charts, and as it got radio play, fans misheard a key lyric in it… at first it frustrated the legend who wrote it, but in the end he started singing the misheard lyric that way in concert as a joke between him and his fans. Plus the most Mysterious band in history: ? and the Mysterians. Some say they came from Mars; some say the singer is thousands of years old. Seriously, nobody is sure what is true about this band’s enigmatic singer and his biggest hit. In fact, I got in trouble with the singer over a show I did on them years ago… Will we ever know who they really are? Plus the rookie band The Monkees that was in competition with the Beatles, and then their main songwriter misheard The Beatles' new song on the radio and made a song out of it that ended up dethroning their greatest rival on the charts. And finally, Steam, a group of musicians who were so embarrassed by a throwaway B-side that they recorded, because they made a joke out of the recording session and were so over the top and silly that they slapped a fake band name on the song… and then watched in horror as the label made it the A-side and it went on to sell 6 million copies. And that’s where our countdown starts... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Kimberley Rumburg, Brent Gephart, Glenn Beardmore, Jennifer Selvidge, Carl Curcuruto, Thomas Williams ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #60smusic #vinylstory #60srock Hey Music Junkies, let’s count down the catchiest song of the 60s… Six from the 60s. Jump-starting the countdown at #6 is the craziest story behind a hit I've ever heard. It’s Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam. The story of Steam traces back to the early 60s in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where singer Gary DeCarlo, songwriter Dale Frashuer, and producer Paul Leka performed together in local vocal doo-wop groups… most notably an ensemble called The Glenwoods. Although the group eventually parted ways, Paul Leka established himself as a successful songwriter and producer in New York City, co-writing the 1968 hit "Green Tambourine" for The Lemon Pipers. Throughout his early career, Leka maintained a firm belief in Gary DeCarlo's exceptional vocal talent, believing DeCarlo had the potential to become a major solo R&B recording artist. So in early 1969, Leka brought DeCarlo into a Manhattan studio to record a batch of polished, soulful tracks designed to launch DeCarlo's career. When execs at Mercury Records listened to the completed master tapes, they were so impressed with DeCarlo's vocals that they decided to sign him and release four individual tracks as separate A-side singles over the coming year. But they needed a "throwaway" track to stick on the B-side. So Leka, DeCarlo, and Frashuer pulled out an unfinished blues shuffle from their teen doo-wop days titled "Kiss Him Goodbye." Annoyed at having to waste valuable studio time on a garbage B-side, they decided to sabotage the track so no one would take it seriously… They slapped on heavy drum fills, pipe organ, and chaotic handclaps. And Leka sat at the piano yelling out "Na, na, na, na..." because he didn’t want to bother composing actual lyrics for the refrain. Said Paul, “We were short on lyrics for the chorus, and we didn't want to spend time writing real ones because this was just supposed to be a dumb B-side track to throw away. So I sat at the piano and started singing 'Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na...' just as a filler. We added the handclaps and the drum solos to make it sound a bit messy and over the top so that nobody would take it seriously as a main single.” Convinced the ridiculous track would destroy DeCarlo's reputation as a serious soul artist, they refused to put his real name on it. Leka looked out the studio window, saw steam rising from a street manhole, and credited the record to a fake band named "Steam."