![\"Howard](\"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/images\/26-0413-s2p-Howard-Farber-800x600.jpg\")
Image caption: Howard Farber, a New York-based veteran studio drummer and record producer.<\/em><\/p>\n
Sixty years ago, the recording shot into the Top 10 and sold over one million copies, written and performed by Jerry Samuels under the Napoleon XIV name. <\/p>\n
Now, six decades later, that same drum track is at the center of a remarkable story. Farber recently discovered that Kanye West and Kid Cudi, recording together as Kids See Ghosts, sampled his original drum track for their recording \u201cFire\u201d \u2013 stripped of vocals, sound effects, and everything else, leaving only Farber\u2019s drums and rhythms as the sonic foundation. \u201cFire\u201d has since accumulated hundreds of millions of streams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Farber. \u201cThey took my drums \u2013 nothing else \u2013 and built a whole new record around them. Not everyone gets to say they had two major hits sixty years apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farber\u2019s career spans decades of work as both a studio drummer and record producer, with credits at United Artists, RCA, and Musicor, and as head of Farber Music Corporation (ASCAP).<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t wait till fifty years from now,\u201d Farber adds with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ll need another hit by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABOUT HOWARD FARBER<\/strong><\/p>\n Howard Farber is a New York-based veteran studio drummer and record producer active since the 1960s, with production credits at United Artists, RCA, and Musicor. He is the founder and head of Farber Music Corporation, registered with ASCAP.<\/p>\n You can find Farber on INSTAGRAM at: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/HOWARDJFARBER<\/a> and https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/HOWARDJFARBERART<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK, N.Y., April 13, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Veteran studio drummer and record producer Howard Farber is marking the 60th anniversary of the novelty smash “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” – a record on which Farber performed all drums, tambourines, and hand clapping, and for which he also coined the name Napoleon XIV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10252,"featured_media":134514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191,1,37,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-recording-news","category-business-news","category-entertainment-news","category-new-york-news","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":342,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134519,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134515\/revisions\/134519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}