Paul Leka

Paul Leka (February 20, 1943 – October 12, 2011) was an American songwriter, pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, most notable for his writing associations with the later 1960s hits "Green Tambourine" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", the latter of which has become a standard song at sporting events.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Leka was one of four children of Theodore and Dhimitra Leka, immigrants from Albania. His father worked as a short-order cook. Soon after he started taking piano lessons, Paul was writing songs, and by age 16, his brother said, he was trying to sell them to music publishers in New York.

Described as "one of those rare, genuinely prodigious musicians who was too talented to limit himself to actually being a member of one group or recording project", Paul Leka grew up in Connecticut and played piano as a child and later became a multi-instrumentalist. He played with a group called The Chateaus, who recorded some singles for Coral Records in the 1960s. Leka soon gave up performing for production and arranging work. He principally wrote songs for and had hits with The Lemon Pipers (for whom, with Shelley Pinz, he wrote "Green Tambourine"), The Peppermint Rainbow in which he produced, arranged, and orchestrated for their song "Will You Be Staying After Sunday?" and Steam, which featured two of his bandmates from The Chateaus, and who scored a multiplatinum hit with the Leka co-written "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Leka is credited in particular with writing the well-known "Na Na Hey Hey" chorus. To get the right sound for that song, Leka said he used a hammer to bang directly on the piano keys. During this same period, Leka became a producer and arranger for The Left Banke, producing and arranging the majority of the songs on The Left Banke Too.

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