Jimmy Soul Was Right (and Wrong)

Jimmy Soul was a musician from the 1960s best known for his hit single "If You Wanna Be Happy," advising that "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life / Never make a pretty woman your wife," noting the faithfulness of the less attractive mate versus how "A pretty woman makes her husband look small / And very often causes his downfall / As soon as he married her and then she starts / To do the things that will break his heart." 

    This recent article from the New York Post--"My $11K nose job helped me leave my husband"--seems to nicely illustrate the lesson of the song. Per the story, Devyn Aiken had an unfortunately sized and shaped nose. She related: "'I struggled immensely because of the bullying from boys,' she recalled of the juvenile jerks who called her 'witch,' 'toucan' and 'Pinocchio.'" "The incessant shots at her snout weighed on Aiken’s self-esteem, causing her to settle for an ill-fated relationship," the article continues. 

    But after 7 years of marriage, she opted for surgery to reshape her nose:

“It’s changed my life,” Aiken said of the nearly six-hour operation, which she paid for on her own. “I had a lot of time to recover after the nose job and it made me think, ‘I need to finally get the divorce so I can move on with my life.’” 

So, in essence, she had the surgery, becoming the "pretty woman" of the song, and, realizing she could do better than her current husband, threw him to the curb. I suspect that if Jimmy Soul were to write his song today, it would probably have a line about not letting the less attractive woman get plastic surgery.