Let’s go straight to the top here with one of the most foolish records to grace the top 40. “They’re Coming to Take Me Away” was concocted by Jerry Samuels, a recording engineer/producer/songwriter and released under the nom de plume Napoleon XIV, and got to #3 in 1966 on the Billboard charts.

Anyone between the ages of 60-70 does not need me to describe this manic recitiative. For those of a younger age, who do not understand what a novelty record is, please go to YouTube and look this one up. I cannot be responsible for educating you on everything.

The B-side of this 45 is the same song backwards. On the label, the title and credits are backwards as well, i.e., mirror-imaged. Thus:

There is also an LP available, the track listing of which is worth perusing:

Side 1

1. “I’m In Love With My Little Red Tricycle”
2. “Photogenic, Schizophrenic You”
3. “Marching Off To Bedlam”
4. “Doin’ The Napoleon”
5. “Let’s Cuddle Up In My Security Blanket”
6. “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”

Side 2

1. “Bats In My Belfry”
2. “Dr. Psyche, The Cut-Rate Head-Shrinker”
3. “I Live In A Split Level Head”
4. “The Nuts On My Family Tree”
5. “The Place Where The Nuts Hunt The Squirrels”
6. “I’m Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa!” (by Josephine XV)

You can find out more about Mr. Samuels and his career (apparently still working as a booking agent) at his website (http://www.jerysam.com).

Two comedy lp’s also appeared under the Xmas tree this year. The first, I’m not sure I really dig, to use the parlance of the time (1959):

Though it really is a fantastic cover. I’m not a Lenny Bruce devotee, so I’m not sure if this offering isn’t one of his better ones, or perhaps his humor was better appreciated in person . . . or I’m just not hip enough, which doesn’t seem possible given how often I listened to this Del Close and John Brent masterpiece during my formative years:

If you’ve never heard this, again, off to YouTube with you.

The other comedy LP I received is truly a classic, though besmirched by Mr. Cosby’s terrible behavior (which is no doubt why an unnamed friend gave it to me):

This was Cosby’s first lp, and he certainly was a comic suited to the medium. Many of my age group will remember Noah’s dialogue with God: “What’s a cubit?”

The last record in this tedious recounting of Xmas surfeit is by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and is not “Wooly Bully” (or “Little Red Riding Hood”, for that matter). It is “Ju Ju Hand”:

Wow, with the picture sleeve and everything. Imagine my surprise that it sounds EXACTLY like “Wooly Bully” with different words. It was released in 1965, on the heels of the wild success of WB, and got to #26 on the US charts, which tells you something about . . . well, it definitely tells you something.

“Wooly Bully” to this day evokes a shudder for me, as in my sophomore year of college, I lived in a dormitory wing that was apportioned to the DKE fraternity. They couldn’t fill all the rooms, so the four rooms on the first floor were populated by non-DKE’s like me.

When the DKE’s had their “Hell Week”, their pledges were all required to live in the basement of the dorm and a turntable was set up to play “Wooly Bully” at ear-shattering volume over and over. (I moved out).

This was, of course, the fraternity that gave us Brett Kavanaugh.