Out of the limelight - And loving it

By Daniel Rubin

Inquirer Columnist

The following is an Inquirer archive story from Jul 14, 1998

The piano man arrives early for the afternoon show but some in his audience are already snoring.

``Who wants music? '' Jerry Samuels asks in a tone that camp counselors save for rainy days. ``You'll find this very interesting.''

``Prove it!'' barks a white-haired man in horn-rims.

Samuels smiles. Once called the Rembrandt of the novelty song by no less an authority than Dr. Demento, he can handle a crowd.

``I have a program for you that I call Verses. Verses are the unsung gems of American popular music. '' And in a mellow baritone, he begins one of the thousands of classic songs in his repertoire.

``Who's that coming down the street?

``Who's that looking so petite? ''

For the next 45 minutes, the audience in this Willow Grove nursing home belongs to the barrel-shaped piano man with a salt-and-pepper brush cut and full beard who mixes standards and patriotic tunes.

No one would think of requesting the song Samuels is most famous for.

He performed it only once, back in the summer of 1966, when Samuels, then a 28-year-old recording engineer from Queens, had the No. 1 song in the country. It was a manic rant that stormed AM radio and sold nearly a million copies in less than two weeks, then disappeared overnight.

He recorded it under the pseudonym Napoleon XIV.

``They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!

They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, he-he, ha-haa.

To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time,

And I'll be happy to see those nice

young men in their clean white coats.

And they're coming to take me away.

Ha-haa!''

* He sits on the back deck of his rowhouse in Oxford Circle, where he's lived anonymously for the last 21 years. Neighbors know him as Jerry the piano player and owner of a business that books acts into senior centers. The Jerry Samuels Agency represents 250 performers: accordionists, troubadours, strolling violinists, Mummers, Elvis impersonators, an Appalachian dulcimer and spoon player, a Norman Rockwell lecturer.

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