Listen: They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa! / Napoleon XIV
Listen: They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa! / Napoleon XIV

Are novelty songs credible? If a record makes you smile or laugh, then it must not be credible, right? Not sure I agree.

When ‘They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!’ started getting airplay in Spring ’66, it was suddenly everywhere. Seriously everywhere. Sometimes being played once an hour on the same station. The intensity was real, but short lived. It lasted a total of six weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at #3. When re-released in ’73, the record re-entered the Top 100 for a few weeks, hovering around the low 80′s.

Listen: Mouldy Old Dough / Lieutenant Pigeon
Listen: Mouldy Old Dough / Lieutenant Pigeon

Lieutenant Pigeon’s 1972 UK #1 was not an American hit. US radio had long since lost it’s sense of humor by then. They wouldn’t even play it. God forbid, they might lose their jobs. What a surprise, most of those radio gatekeepers did anyways.

Lieutenant Pigeon was in actuality, a band fronted by Rob Woodward, with his mother Hilda on piano. They went on to release three albums, and a best off. Pretty impressive. Napoleon XIV only managed one.

In today’s world, Napoleon XIV’s legal army might come chasing down Lieutenant Pigeon’s after comparing both record’s intros.