<P> They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha - Haaa! is a 1966 novelty record written and performed by Jerry Samuels (billed as Napoleon XIV), and released on Warner Bros. Records . The song became an instant success in the United States, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 popular music singles chart on August 13 and reaching No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart . </P> <P> Jerry Samuels was a recording engineer at Associated Recording Studios in New York at the time when the song was written . He had learned a way to alter the pitch of a track using a Potentiometer (a tape speed control). After recording the drum track at the standard speed, he played it back through headphones while recording the voiceover . As he did this, he gradually reduced the tape speed and slowly returned it to normal speed while reciting the lyrics in time with the relative speed of the drum track . This gave him the idea for a song based on the rhythm of the old Scottish tune "The Campbells Are Coming". </P> <P> The lyrics describe the effect on the mental health of an individual after a break - up . His paranoid thinking makes him believe that he is being pursued by "those nice young men in their clean white coats" (i.e., psychiatric attendants) who are coming to transport him to the funny farm / happy home (i.e., mental hospital), and he welcomes them as an end to his misery . The main character seems to be addressing an ex-girlfriend or wife, and describes his descent into madness after she has left him . However, the last verse of the song finishes: "They'll find you yet and when they do / They'll put you in the ASPCA / You mangy mutt". Some interpret he's all the more insane as this may mean he's gone insane simply because his dog ran away . </P> <P> The recording is set primarily to a rhythm tapped on a snare drum and tambourine . The performer speaks rhythmically rather than singing the lyric, with the sparse percussion track being supported a siren sounding in and out of the "chorus" and the fading in and out of a tape - based echo created with an Echoplex . According to Samuels, the vocal glissando was achieved by Samuels' manipulating tape recording speeds, a variation on the technique used by Ross Bagdasarian in creating the original Chipmunks novelty songs . In addition, a siren is heard when the voice gets higher, and then, dissipates when it's back to the regular voice . </P>

They're coming to take you away lyrics