Napoleon XIV
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Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of record producer Jerry Samuels (b 1938 New York City) who had moderate success with the song "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!", released in 1966 (reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart that year). The song deals with mental illness brought about by the lover of the vocalist leaving him and was controversial at the time for its willingness to confront the subject directly—albeit humorously:
- Remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and begged you not to leave because I'd go berserk? Well, you left me anyhow, and then the days got worse and worse, and now you see I've gone completely out of my mind!...
Musically, the track is significant in that it does not actually feature any musical notes being played, although a melody was, quite naturally, planned for it. Instead, the backing is provided by a combination of drums and tambourines overlaid with a siren—presumably that of the authorities' vehicle "coming to take me away". The pitch of the vocals also raise and lower throughout the performance to signify the increasing insanity of the vocalist. The vocal effect was accomplished via a tape recorder modified by Samuels himself.
Some listeners believe the performance—or at least its percussion line and meter—might have been inspired by a Scottish marching song.
The Warner Brothers Records single of "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" featured, as its B-Side, the almost unlistenable "!Aaah-aH yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" which, as the title suggests, is the A-Side played in reverse.
Napoleon XIV continued to release music after "They're Coming To Take Me Away", including an album of the same name (reissued by Rhino in the mid-80's). most of which continued with the mental illness theme (for example, the single "Bats In My Belfry" or the track "Split Level Head," featuring different vocal parts in each stereo speaker). While he did not achieve any further mainstream success, Napoleon XIV has remained a cult favorite to this day.
In 1990, Lard, the project band formed by Jello Biafra and members of Ministry, covered "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" on their The Last Temptation Of Reid album, adding a guitar part and an extra verse (written by Biafra) to the original song and arrangement. Most recently, in 2005, the synthpop singer Neuroticfish created a techno version using the original lyrics and a baseline sampled from the theme of the tv series Doctor Who.
In the early 1990s, musical parodist Paul Shanklin created a parody of "They're Coming to Take Me Away" for the "Ross Perot Update" frequently used by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show to introduce Perot-related news items during Perot's political heyday.
Samuels presently runs a business that books entertainment primarily for retirement homes. Napolean trivia: As Jerry Samuels,the first single he made was in the late 50s and was called "Puppy love" Samuels was co writer of the Sammy Davis Jr song "The shelter of your arms"