Saturday evening I was in the car and spun the dial on the radio. Figuratively, that is. What I really did was touch the SCAN button but how pretty of a picture does that paint. The dial landed on the beginning of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.” The original.  By Steam. From 1969. If you don’t know it or any of its copycatters, check it out here.

See, it’s a real song. A whole song. Not just a chorus you hear at baseball games after the pitcher is pulled.

I thought while listening (I can multitask) “God, I hated that song.” And then I went on to think more while listening more (still multitasking more) “Hey, hey, that’s not a bad song.”

I really did dislike it then and I even disliked more (or stronger) Banarama’s 1983 knock-off. But back to the sixties. I disliked Steam’s greatest hit though I shouldn’t have. If you’ve paused reading this post to check out the above noted video you’ll know why. That was me back then. Dressed and groomed pretty much in the form of… well, in the form of whoever they are. Steam wasn’t even a real group but one of those fake front bands to stick a name on a label when a bunch of studio musicians happen across a catchy little ditty some record producer thinks might make a few bucks. And that was me in high school. A fake front. Not quite nerd, not quite popular, not quite athletic, not quite stylish in my long collared, puffed sleeved, vested, flaired, and not quite straggly look. Somehow, like Na Na Etc Etc, I endured well into the 21st century.

Probably it was because of the changes that we made and/or were subjected to that we endured as well as we did. Na Na shifted from catchy little ditty requiring greedy producer to be popular to catchy little hook requiring bored baseball park organist to be popular. I’m now quite stylish.

The moral of the story is be true to what you are now, but be ready to change. Just in case.

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

(Video by kenwaman via YouTube)