May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose

"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose"
Single by Little Jimmy Dickens
from the album May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose
B-side	"My Eyes Are Jealous"
Released	September 7, 1965
Genre	Country
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Neal Merritt
Producer	Don Law Frank Jones
Little Jimmy Dickens singles chronology
"He Stands Real Tall" (1965) "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" (1965) "When the Ship Hit the Sand" (1966)

"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" is a 1965 novelty song by Little Jimmy Dickens. The single was Dickens's most successful single on the U.S. country music chart. "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" went to number one for two weeks and stayed on the chart for a total of eighteen weeks.^[1] On the U.S. pop chart, "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" peaked at number fifteen.^[2]

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:

• In the first verse, Dickens sees a beggar and proceeds to give him one penny.
• In the second verse, Dickens gets a call from his laundryman, who returns $100 that Dickens left in his clothes; Dickens gives him 10 cents to repay the phone call.
• In the final verse, Dickens asks a cab driver to speed so he can catch a train; the cab driver is ticketed for speeding, while Dickens stands by, waiting for change from his fare.

The chorus is an insult, said back to Dickens, for his insulting behaviors.

Chart performance

Chart (1965)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	15
Canadian RPM Top Singles	4

References

1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 106. 
2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 178. 

Preceded by "Behind the Tear" by Sonny James

Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single November 20–November 27, 1965

Succeeded by "Make the World Go Away" by Eddy Arnold

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