Retrospective Series
Where’d They Go? Napoleon XIV
A ‘60s novelty one-hit-wonder.
It’s a quiet day in a little suburban home in 1966. A teenager is spending time in their room listening to all their records, and when they’re done they grab their radio to see what’s playing on the stations. They scroll through most of the stations until they land on airwave playing a Beatles song. The song is about to end, and they don’t touch the dial to see if they will play anything worthwhile. “That was the Beatles with Eleanor Rigby from their new album Revolver. Next up a song which has been making listeners jump from their seats. They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-haaa! by Napoleon XIV, give it listen,” The announcer says. The song astounds the teenager with its simple yet eery sound; it sounded like nothing they ever heard before.
The song continues to play on the radio for the rest of the year as it charts on the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks on end. All while, the song continues to baffle people. Then the song and artist disappeared into obscurity. So where did they go?
The Beginning
Jerrold “Jerry” Samuels was born on May 3, 1938, in New York City. There isn’t much information on Samuel’s childhood and early life. In 1954 Jerry began his music career, and recorded his first song in 1956…
