They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!
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| “They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” | |||||
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Cover of the Rhino Album re-issue of the WB album
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| Single by Napoleon XIV | |||||
| B-side | "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" | ||||
| Released | July 1966 | ||||
| Format | 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | 1966 | ||||
| Genre | Novelty | ||||
| Length | 2:10 | ||||
| Label | Warner Bros. Records #5831 | ||||
| Writer(s) | N. Bonaparte (Jerry Samuels) | ||||
| Producer | A Jepalana Production | ||||
| Certification | Jepalana Music Co., Inc. BMI | ||||
| Napoleon XIV singles chronology | |||||
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"They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" is a hit 1966 novelty song by Napoleon XIV (aka Jerry Samuels). It has been called the #1 greatest novelty song.[1]
Contents |
[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. 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 as BMI took the unprecedented step of withdrawing its certification. By the time it had been recertified by SESAC, it had all but disappeared from the Billboard Top 40 playlist.[2]
The record was also a success in United Kingdom, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.
[edit] Song structure
Musically, "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" could be called a very early rap record. 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. 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 "NOELOPAN VIX". It was the A-side played in reverse; in fact, most of the label affixed to that B-side was a mirror image of the front label (as opposed to being spelled backwards), including the letters in the "WB" shield logo. 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 (or Rhino re-issue), although the title is shown on the front cover, whereas the title is actually spelled backwards.
[edit] Covers and other appearances
Kim Fowley recorded a cover version in 1966, produced by Mark Wirtz, that charted in Denmark.
The Monkees, in a song on their first album, "Gonna Buy Me a Dog", include the refrain at the tail end of the song, shouted by Davy Jones.
Tiny Tim has allegedly recorded a cover of this song, but the only copy is said to be in the possession of Samuels himself.
In 1984, Dadaist experimental group Nurse with Wound used the lyrics to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!" for the song "Burial of the Sardine" for a split single with Current 93, the latter band's David Tibet providing vocals. This version is far eerier than the original, sung slowly over implacable noises.
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.
A short clip of this recording is used in the soundtrack of Weyburn - An Archaeology of Madness, a 90-minute documentary of the controversial history surrounding the Souris Valley Mental Health Hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
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 2002 French singer and media personality Amanda Lear recorded a cover of the song.
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 melodic death 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.
A somewhat altered version of "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" is also performed by The Nervous Breakdowns (Canada), and included on their self released album, "Our God is Awesome!".
Heavy metal band Mudvayne makes distinct reference to this song on their track titled "Internal Primates Forever" on their album L.D. 50, with a lyric that says "They're coming... they're coming... they're coming to take me away ha-haaa!"
This song appears on Biz Markie's 2006 album "Make the Music with your Mouth, Biz".
Napoleon's Ghost recorded a new version in 2006, produced by Les Fradkin, that charted on Apple iTunes and Amazon.com. That new version also contained sped up vocals-this time done with digital manipulation.
[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 wife's point of view), and, much later, "They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha Haaa!" (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!" was recorded by a female vocalist named Josephine XV, and was a featured track on the 1966 Warner Bros. album. (Both sequels are included on Samuels' 1996 Second Coming album.)
The original single was re-issued by Warner Bros. Records (#7726) in 1973, and eked onto the Billboard Hot 100 at number 87. The song appeared on disk releases by Dr. Demento in 1975 as part of Dr. Demento's Delights, then in subsequent Dr. Demento LP's released in 1985, 1988 and 1991.
[edit] References
- ^ 100 Greatest Novelty Songs
- ^ Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, Billboard Publications, 1983.
- ^ "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-haaa". Songfacts.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
