Songfacts®:

• This song is about a fisherman who falls in love with a mermaid. He likes everything about her, but there's one problem - her bottom half is a fish. By the end of the song, the problem is solved when he comes across another mermaid, but this one is a fish from the waist up and the bottom half is a girl.
• This was written by Shel Silverstein, who is known for his children's books like A Light In The Attic and Where The Sidewalk Ends, but was also a writer for Playboy magazine. This song is very humorous, but also very adult in nature. The story was published in Playboy in 1966. (Myers is author of Silverstein Around the World. Read more about Shel Silverstein in our interview with Mitch Myers.)
• This is a concert favorite for the Canadian band Great Big Sea. They recorded it for their 2005 album The Hard and the Easy.