[symple_heading style=”” title=”By Ken Stone” type=”h1″ font_size=”” text_align=”left” margin_top=”20″ margin_bottom=”20″ color=”undefined” icon_left=”” icon_right=””]Gary DeCarlo is a 74-year-old resident of Shelton, Connecticut, who voted for Donald Trump and says “the “Democrats have been the problem with our economy and with a lot of things for years now.”
But Thursday he was delighted to learn that House Democrats serenaded Obamacare-repealing Republicans with “na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey hey, goodbye.”
That’s because DeCarlo helped write it in 1969.
“It doesn’t bother me — because it’s exposure,” DeCarlo said from a Bridgeport hospital, where the Stage 4 bone-cancer patient was being hydrated after a brutal hiccups episode the sleepless night before. (“I was a basket case,” he said.)
“It’s like they say — no exposure is bad exposure. The thing is that the song is getting the exposure. As far as what Obamacare stands for, that is a whole different situation,” he told MyNewsLA.com in a phone interview.
Responsible for the “hey hey” part of the famous trash-talk chorus, DeCarlo says he still profits from the song, which has sold close to 8 million copies as “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)” and once reached No. 1 on the pop charts.
He recorded this new version in 2014 as well:
DeCarlo has outlived Paul Leka and Dale Frashuer — the pair who helped him lengthen a 1961 song with the “na-na-na-na” section to fill the “B” side of a single.
“Someone sent me an email and they showed that the Democrats sang it to the Republicans and the Republicans sang it back to the Democrats,” DeCarlo said. “I don’t know. But thanks to them, we’re getting a lot of exposure.”
DeCarlo is on Medicare, which is helping pay expenses for treatment of cancer that has spread from his right side to the left.
“It’s in my ribs on the left side, and also I have a big one, a tumor, on my spine, and they’re going to try to zap that,” he said.
After 10 radiation treatments, as well as chemotherapy, he’s also putting hope in immunotherapy to combat cancer in his lung, chest, back and bladder.
Here’s the video: House Dems singing “Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye” to Repubs following the health care vote —via @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/nnQ5kc8HEp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 4, 2017
His wife, Annette, was back home in Shelton — 10 miles inland from his native Bridgeport — taking care of their four dogs. They have two grown daughters.
DeCarlo never lived in Los Angeles but says he’s visited many times, especially to see his dad, who lived in Burbank, he said.
What does he think of the Affordable Care Act — whose repeal Democrats think is political poison for the GOP?
Not much.
“From what I’ve read, [Obamacare is] not very good,” he said. “And from what I’ve seen, pricewise, I don’t see how these people can even afford it — the poor people that they were supposed to be helping.”
He says Obamacare was supposed to be affordable, “and it’s not affordable, man. It’s very expensive for people in that tax bracket.”
Despite his strong words on President Obama’s signature legislation, DeCarlo says he’s not a political person — “because those guys are so full of crap that it annoys me to even watch them. They can lie and have a straight face.”
But he says he likes Trump.
“He’s down to earth, man, and he’s trying to do something. But obviously [Democrats are] going to roadblock him. They’re going to do the best that they can do to make him look bad. And so far he hasn’t looked bad.”
He hopes his career prospects are still looking good, with his music on cdbaby.com, iTunes and Amazon.
“I’m happy about that,” he said Thursday night, hoping to go home Friday. “There’s a couple of videos I did. Once I get on some charts, I get on some radio stations.”
Democrats sing “Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye” after the House vote on healthcare https://t.co/CNr35nFXk1 pic.twitter.com/XkNxhR65JQ
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 5, 2017
And mangling the lyrics:
Nah pic.twitter.com/aZtLwstP6j
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 4, 2017