B-side "My Eyes Are Jealous" Format 7" single Length 2:28 | Released September 7, 1965 Genre Country Label Columbia | |
"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" is a 1965 novelty song performed by Little Jimmy Dickens. It was Dickens' most successful single on the U.S. country music chart. It spent two weeks at No. 1 that November, and stayed on the chart for a total of 18 weeks. On the overall Billboard Hot 100 the song peaked at No. 15.
The song, written by Neal Merritt, was inspired by one of the many comic putdowns uttered by host Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
Content
The song features three verses, each of which mentions an incident where Dickens (the narrator) performs an action which is perceived to be insulting:
The chorus is an insult, said back to Dickens, for his insulting action.
The distinctive guitar work was done by Grady Martin, using the brand new Echoplex unit which had just been released.