Posted on 03/10/2023 1:56:21 PM PST by Borges
Jerry Samuels, who as “Napoleon XIV” wrote and recorded one of pop music’s most unusual hit singles, 1966’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!,” died today (March 10, 2023). Samuels, 84, had operated a Philadelphia-based talent agency for the past four decades. News of his passing was shared by his wife, Bobbie Samuels, on her Facebook page. “My friends,” she wrote, “Jerry died early this morning. He was my rock and the greatest love of my life. He taught me to be strong.”
Samuels, born May 3, 1938, was a recording engineer in New York City. He came up with an idea: a song about a poor guy who’s so distraught over his girlfriend leaving him that he’s driven to madness. He took on the name Napoleon XIV, credited his composition to N. Bonaparte and somehow got Warner Bros. Records to agree to release it in July 1966. With only a snare drum and a tambourine as accompaniment, Samuels recites—never sings—his tale of woe.
“They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” was, by any measure, one of the most bizarre records to come out in any year. It took off like, well, like crazy, reaching #3 in the U.S. and #4 in the U.K.
The single’s B-side was “!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT ot gnimoC er’yehT,” the same recording played backwards.
Dr. Demento featured “I Owe a Lot to Iowa Pot,” which Samuels recorded under his own name. Samuels also wrote “The Shelter of Your Arms” for Sammy Davis, Jr.
Great song!
An icon of Western culture has left us. RIP.
I remember Rush playing that for Perot. Good times.
Thanks for that. Never heard the backwards version before.
May he rest in peace in the happy home, where life is beautiful all the time...
ditto
Oh yea, it was Paul Shanklin!
That recording should be the official song of the “woke”.
And ‘twould be much better for the world if we actually did “take them away”.
Post 3 is the B side, the song played backwards.
Si
Post 3 is the B side, the song played backwards.
Si, senor.
Only time I ever heard this on the radio was on the Demento show in the early 70’s. Then he would play Fish Heads or Please, Please Me by Will Robinson! Now it’s all on YouTube and its real, not just in your head like you thought for the last 30 or so years.
I remember it being played on the radio when it first came out in 1966. We had a 45 of it around the house for years, which is how I knew that the B side was the song played backward. Used to listen to Dr. Demento every week for a few years in the mid-70s, too, but I think that show’s long gone.
Should have been the theme song for Joe Stupids inauguration
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