Steam was an American pop rock music group, best known for their 1969 number one hit single, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". The song was written and recorded by studio musicians Gary DeCarlo (aka Garrett Scott), Dale Frashuer, and producer/writer Paul Leka at Mercury Records studios in New York City. The single was attributed to the band "Steam", although at the time there was actually no band with that name. Leka and the studio group also recorded the first album of the band from which four other songs were released as singles in 1970. History Background In the early 1960s, Frashuer and DeCarlo (born Gary Richard DeCarlo in Bridgeport, Connecticut on June 5, 1942) were members of a doo-wop group from Bridgeport, Connecticut variously known as the Glenwoods, the Citations, and the Chateaus, for which Leka played piano. The group separated but kept in contact. Leka became a songwriter with Circle Five Productions and in 1967, he wrote and produced the Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine" and other Pipers songs with Shelley Pinz. Steam In 1969, Leka was working at Mercury Records and convinced the label's A&R to record DeCarlo. With Leka producing, DeCarlo (under the professional name Garrett Scott) recorded four singles, all of which Bob Reno, the label's head, thought would do well issued as an A-side. DeCarlo's first single was to be "Workin' On a Groovy Thing", but it was beaten by the 5th Dimension version released a week earlier. Then the company and Leka decided on "Sweet Laura Lee" as the next single and a B-side was needed. DeCarlo and Leka were asked to cut a B-side along with Frashuer. The trio chose to use a previously unrecorded song from their Chateaus days, which became "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". To the musicians' surprise, Reno decided that "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" should be an A-side. Leka thought the song was "an embarrassing record... Not that Gary sang it badly. But compared to his four songs, it was an insult." To avoid a clash with DeCarlo's planned solo career, Mercury issued the single on its Fontana subsidiary under the name "Steam". Leka said the name was conceived after he saw steam rising from a manhole cover in the street outside the recording studio. Released late in 1969, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" reached number one in the United States