Songfacts®:

• Songwriters have come with many ways to express their love, but never quite like this. In "Reincarnation," Roger Miller wonders what would happen if he and his girl weren't human. They'd have to be together, obviously, so they'd both wish of reincarnation, hoping to come back in their next lives as they are now. It's a very sweet sentiment delivered with Roger Miller's folksy charm.
• "Reincarnation" is one of Roger Miller's lesser-known songs, released in 1965 near the peak of his popularity on his second album, The Return of Roger Miller. That album also contains his most famous song, "King Of The Road."
  
  Miller, who grew up poor in Oklahoma, had a talent for writing clever songs with appeal beyond the heartland. He started off writing for other artists, including George Jones and Ray Price. His first big hit as a singer came in 1964 with "Dang Me," one of his clever, self-deprecating song. Miller was so popular in the mid-'60s, he had his own TV show in 1966 and 1967. He did a lot of acting in the '80s, and in 1992 he died from cancer at age 56.
• The different scenarios presented in this song are:
  
  If I was a bird and you was a fish
  If I was a tree and you was a flower
  If you was a rose and I was a whippoorwill
  
  A whippoorwill (or whip-poor-will) is a kind of bird. It shows up in a lot of songs, including Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry":
  
  Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
  He sounds too blue to fly
• "Reincarnation" was an influence on the 1977 song "All I Want Is You" by Barry Louis Polisar. That one goes:
  
  If I was a flower growing wild and free
  All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee
  
  That song was revived in the movie Juno, where it's used in the opening scene. It's since appeared in many commercials and has garnered lots of covers.