Editing Napoleon XIV (section)

==Biography==

=== Childhood and early career ===
Jerrold Laurence Samuels was born in [[Manhattan]] and was raised in [[the Bronx]].<ref name="Genzlinger">{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/arts/music/jerry-samuels-dead.html|title = Jerry Samuels, 84, Songwriter Who Recorded a Strange and Successful Hit|date = March 19, 2023|accessdate = March 24, 2023|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|last = Genzlinger|first = Neil|page = A26|url-access = limited}}</ref> He played the piano and wrote music throughout his childhood, and began his recording career in 1956 when he cut the single "Puppy Love" for the [[Vik Records]] subsidiary of [[RCA Victor Records]].<ref name="Genzlinger" /><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hB8EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22jerry+samuels%22+%2B+%22puppy+love%22&pg=PA52 |magazine=Billboard |page=52 |via=Google Books |date=March 31, 1956 |accessdate=August 19, 2015 |title= The Billboard - Reviews of New Pop Records}}</ref>

Samuels was an acclaimed songwriter during the early 1960s. Under the name Scott David (his son's name), he cowrote "As If I Didn't Know" with [[Larry Kusik]], a top-10 hit for [[Adam Wade (singer)|Adam Wade]] in 1961. Samuels also wrote "[[The Shelter of Your Arms]]", a top-20 hit for [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] in 1964.

=== Napoleon XIV ===
In 1966, Samuels concocted "[[They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!]]" while working at [[Associated Recording Studios]] in New York. The public found out his true identity when [[Bruce Morrow|Cousin Brucie]] of [[WABC (AM)|WABC]] revealed his name. The record quickly climbed the charts, reaching the top ten nationally in just its third week on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]]. It peaked at #3 and sold over one million copies, and was awarded a [[music recording sales certification|gold disc]].<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book
| first= Joseph
| last= Murrells
| year= 1978
| title= The Book of Golden Discs
| edition= 2nd
| publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd
| location= London
| pages= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/208 208–209]
| isbn= 0-214-20512-6
| url-access= registration
| url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/208
}}</ref> In the [[Cash Box Top 100]] the record even climbed to No. 1 for one week in its second week on the charts.

The success of the single inspired a [[Warner Bros.]] album of the same name in 1966 (reissued by [[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino]] in 1985), most of which continued the mental illness theme, for example: "Bats in My Belfry" and "I Live in a Split Level Head", the latter of which features different vocal parts in each stereo speaker.<ref name="Larkin" /> A second single of two recordings from that album went relatively unnoticed. His manager was [[Leonard Stogel]].

In the following years, Samuels would occasionally revisit the Napoleon XIV character to record other songs, usually comedy records with an insanity theme.

His songs were often played on [[Dr. Demento]]'s radio show.

=== Later career ===
In his later years, Samuels worked as a singer and agent who booked various performers in the [[Delaware Valley]].<ref name = Genzlinger/> In 1984, he founded the Jerry Samuels Agency, and later operated it with his second wife, Bobbie. They retired in 2021.<ref name = Genzlinger/>

In February 2022, Needlejuice Records teased the release of "an album that's 50 years old".<ref>{{Cite web | title=Needlejuice Records on Twitter: "Just signed an album that's 50 years old, and has been lost media until the day we drop it." | url=https://twitter.com/needlejuicerec/status/1494508018251223043 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218030603/https://twitter.com/needlejuicerec/status/1494508018251223043 | access-date=2025-05-10 | archive-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> The following year, they announced it was Samuels' long-lost second studio album, ''For God's Sake, Stop the Feces!''<ref>https://twitter.com/needlejuicerec/status/1627056159478910978 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> Recorded between April 1968 and December 1970, the album was rejected by Warner Bros. for its macabre content; notably, the eighth track, "Rape", which provides a graphic account of a [[sexual assault]], and the fourteenth, "The Note", which portrays a man writing a [[suicide note]]. ''Stop the Feces'' was released on April 20, 2023, one month after Samuels' death.

=== Personal life and death ===
Samuels was married twice: first to Rosemary Djivre, divorcing in 1968, and then to Bobbie Simon from 1996 until his death. He was also in a relationship with Petra Vesters from 1973 to 1987. He had a son from his first marriage and another from his relationship with Vesters. Another son predeceased him.<ref name = Genzlinger/> Samuels was a longtime resident of the [[Oxford Circle, Philadelphia|Oxford Circle]] neighborhood of Philadelphia, though he moved to an assisted living facility in [[King of Prussia, Pennsylvania]], after retiring.<ref name = Genzlinger/><ref name = File>{{cite news|url = https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/jerry-samuels-obituary-take-me-away-ha-20230311.html|title = Jerry Samuels, the Northeast Philly artist behind the 1966 hit novelty song 'They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!,' has died at 84|newspaper = [[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|date = March 11, 2023|accessdate = March 25, 2023|last = File|first = Nate|url-access = limited}}</ref>

Samuels died from complications of [[Parkinson's disease dementia]] at a hospital in [[Phoenixville, Pennsylvania]], on March 10, 2023, at the age of 84.<ref name = Genzlinger/><ref name = File/>