Paul Leka

Paul Leka is one particular names that helps to keep arriving in tales regarding many fondly remembered tracks and rings (and also one non-band) through the 1960s onward. He was one particular rare really prodigious musicians who was simply as well talented to limit himself to really being a person in one group or documenting project. Knowing this in early stages in his profession, he became a composer and maker, and also used his abilities to organizing and orchestrating when that became essential to realize one of is own tracks. He do this in colaboration with the Lemon Pipers, the Peppermint Rainbow, and — maybe his most profitable however amorphous association — Vapor, with the tracks “Green Tambourine,” “And I’M GOING TO BE There,” “ARE YOU CONSIDERING Staying After Weekend,” and “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).” Leka was raised in Connecticut, and his fascination with music manifested itself early in existence. He became effective in the piano — and finally a multi-instrumentalist — and his formal teaching included an intensive grounding within the classics. That didn’t end him from becoming a member of the Chateaus, a Bridgeport-based clothing which was sufficient to lower some singles for Coral and Warner Bros. in the first ’60s. He later on left the music group and quit the carrying out end from the music business and only composing, organizing, and creating. Among his first successes like a composer was “Falling Sugars,” recorded from the Palace Safeguard in 1966. He was especially successful dealing with tranquility groups, like the Lemon Pipers, who got a hit along with his “Green Tambourine,” as well as the Remaining Banke, and he place the Peppermint Rainbow for the map aswell with a set of strikes, “And I’M GOING TO BE There” and “ARE YOU CONSIDERING Staying After Weekend.” His biggest achievement, nevertheless, came from some recordings made out of his ex-Chateaus bandmates Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, which yielded “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).” Originally entitled “Kiss Him Goodbye,” it had been Leka who added the chorus spontaneously, in the piano, while documenting what was said to be a throwaway B-side. It finished up offering many million copies, as the melody was widely protected across the years and even finished up as a sports activities anthem in Chicago. Credited towards the nonexistent group Vapor, it had been a chart-topper that needed a group be placed together to really perform it — right here, Leka had taken over and collected together among the better available music artists that he’d caused in Bridgeport. It had been also the capper to some string of strikes by Leka which was difficult to check out up with regards to numbers. He continued to be active with the 1970s and 1980s, nevertheless, working with serves including Jimmie Spheeris, Harry Chapin, Gloria Gaynor, REO Speedwagon, and Lori Lieberman. Paul Leka passed away of lung tumor in a hospice near his house in Connecticut on Oct 12, 2011; he was 68 yrs . old.