They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!

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"They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!"

Single by Napoleon XIV
B-side(s)	"!Aaah-aH yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT"
Released	July 1966
Format	7" single
Recorded	1966
Genre	Novelty
Length	??
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Writer(s)	Jerry Samuels
Producer(s)	??
Chart positions
#3 (U.S.) #4 (UK)

"They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" is a hit 1966 novelty song by Napoleon XIV (aka Jerry Samuels).

1 History
2 Song structure
3 Covers and other appearances
4 Sequels
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Released on Warner Bros. Records, the bizarre depiction of mental illness became an instant hit in the United States that summer, reaching number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.

However, it was highly controversial at the time. Some groups protested the apparent mockery of mental illness, while other groups attacked the apparent comparison of Napoleon's wife to a "mangy mutt". The protesters put pressure both on radio stations directly and on the stations' advertisers.^[1] This was especially felt in New York City, where Top 40 stalwarts WABC and WMCA soon dropped the record from airplay and skipped it during their countdown shows, much to the confusion of the young teens who made up a large part of those broadcasters' audience. The record was soon banned from airplay at radio stations in a number of other markets as well. As a result, it quickly sank back down the charts, spending a total only five weeks in the Billboard Top 40.^[2]

The record was also a success in England, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

[edit] Song structure

The song, mostly set to a rhythm tapped out on a snare drum and tambourine, deals with mental illness, seemingly brought about by the singer's lover:

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!

However, later lyrics make it appear that the trigger for the singer's mental illness is not his lover, but rather his dog. Or it could mean that his "lover" was abusive and he was an animal. Which would explain the reference to the ASPCA :

Well, you just wait

They´ll get you yet

And when they do

They´ll put you in the ASPCA, you mangy mutt!

However, this could be an insulting term to the lover, in much the same way as the term bitch is used as abuse.

Musically, "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" could be called a very early rap record. The singer speaks rhythmically rather than singing the lyric, over a spare, multitracked percussion track dominated by drum kit and tambourines with a siren sounding in and out of the "chorus". According to Samuels, the vocal glissando, signifying the vocalist's plunge into insanity, was achieved by Samuels manipulating tape recording speeds, a variation on the technique used by Ross Bagdasarian in creating the original Chipmunks novelty hits. Supposedly the song's thumping beat derives from or was inspired by the Scottish marching song "The Campbells Are Coming".^[3]

Furthering the theme of insanity, the flip or B-side of the single was called "!Aaah-aH yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" and the singer billed as "VIX noelopaN". It was the A-side played in reverse; in fact, most of the label affixed to that B-side was printed backward, including the letters in the "WB" shield logo. This is the first known instance of backmasking in popular music.^[4] Only the label name, disclaimer, and record & song master numbers were kept frontward. The backwards version does not appear on the original Warner Bros. album, although the title is shown on the front cover.

[edit] Covers and other appearances

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.

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.

In 2005, Sascha Mario Klein, the sole member of Neuroticfish, a band whose style borrows from futurepop and synthpop genres, as well as other types of electronic music, covered "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa" on the album Gelb. He created his version using the original lyrics and a bassline sampled from the theme of the BBC television series Doctor Who.

A Beavis and Butthead episode entitled "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Huh Huh" references the song.

The Finnish Heavy Metal band Children of Bodom sometimes open their live performances with a recording of the first few verses of this song.

"They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" was also covered in a demo CD in 2001 by Stone Sour entitled The Death Dance of the Frog Fish.

[edit] Sequels

Following the original song's success, Jerry Samuels wrote and recorded two further sequels to it, titled "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa!", (which is sung from the deranged singer's dog point of view), and "They're Coming to Get me Again" (which sees the original singer slipping back into madness after being released from the insane asylum). Both songs were recorded with the same beat and tune as the original, but neither charted. "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa!" featured a female vocalist named Jospehine XV. (Both sequels are included on Samuels' 1996 Second Coming album.)

The original single was re-issued by Warner Bros. Records in 1973, and eeked onto the Billboard Hot 100 at number 87.