Napoleon XIV

Napoleon XIV unleashed what stands as perhaps the most eccentric novelty single ever to crack the upper reaches of the pop charts with "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" Delivered over a relentless tambourine-driven rhythm, the track featured the artist reciting a spoken-word narrative of romantic collapse and mental unraveling, with the vocal track abruptly accelerating into a manic, gleeful pitch while police sirens wailed underneath. The recording contained no musical notes whatsoever, yet it surged to the number-three spot in summer 1966, serving as a bizarre foil to Barry Sadler's equally improbable chart-topper from the same period, "The Ballad of the Green Berets." A million-selling depiction of institutionalization struck an uneasy chord in a country that values emotional steadiness, sparking widespread debate; the single lingered in the Top 20 for just five weeks before numerous stations pulled it amid protests from parents and civic groups.

The man behind the persona was Jerry Samuels, then a 28-year-old recording engineer who had already penned modest successes for crooners Johnny Ray and Sammy Davis, Jr., and issued an unremarkable solo single of his own. Crafting "They're Coming to Take Me Away" required technical ingenuity for the era: a hypnotic pulse generated by tambourines, drums, and hand slaps, with the core drum loop created by repeating a ten-second tape segment while Samuels manipulated vocal speeds to convey psychological deterioration without altering the underlying tempo. The B-side, "!Aaah-ah, Yawa Em Ekat ot Gnimoc Er'yeht," consisted of the A-side played in reverse, producing what many regard as the most abrasive vinyl release in existence.

Eager to exploit the single's unexpected triumph, Samuels, under the Napoleon XIV name, assembled an album of related oddities including "Bats in My Belfry" and "I Live in a Split-Level Head." Although Samuels himself wrote little of the LP material, comedy scribe Jim Lehner, formerly head writer for Jonathan Winters, and composer Bobby Gosh, then collaborating with Sammy Cahn, supplied most of the songs; the concept quickly exhausted its appeal across a full album. Follow-ups proved elusive for such an unrepeatable hit, though additional singles appeared and an unreleased late-1960s project titled For God's Sake, Stop the Feces! remained vaulted. Samuels later sustained himself selling marijuana paraphernalia to head shops and spent two decades performing in Philadelphia-area piano bars. On a later Napoleon XIV reissue CD he observed, "I became probably the most popular entertainer at nursing homes and senior facilities in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area," a claim that presumably excluded airings of his signature hit. The same CD paired the original 1966 album with further 1960s recordings and 1995 tracks. Jerry Samuels died on March 10, 2023 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania after suffering a heart attack; he was 84 years of age.