Copied from an academic paper called "When Palestine Played the Palace: Vaudeville Interprets the Balfour Declaration" by Charles A. Kennedy (Click here for the pdf file.)

"Here is the last word in political incorrectness about the Middle East. Without fear or favor, without good sense or good taste, this song by Ray Noble lampoons male and female, Turk and Arab, Persian and Pakistani. The range of its targets is matched only by the inaccuracy of its information."

TURKISH DELIGHT
Music by Ray Noble
Words by Max Kester
©1937 Cinephonic Music Co., Ltd.; ©1948 Campbell-Connelly, Inc.

Once there was a Caliph and he lived in old Baghdad,
He led a most unhappy life, Be-Gum, Be-Gosh, Be-Gad;
He couldn't sleep a wink at night, he had two hundred wives
Who had to tell him stories otherwise they lost their lives.

CHORUS: Yah-ah-ah-ah, So the [first/next] wife told her tale.

Once there was a tourist who took a trip to Turkey,
He went out for adventure when the night was dark and murky,
He tried to kiss a Turkish girl, but she remarked, "My word,
You may be fond of Turkey, but I'm not that kind of bird."

Sinbad was a sailor, and you know what sailors are!
He sailed about the seven seas, but once he went too far.
He saw a lovely mermaid a-combing out her locks,
The naked truth upset him and he soon was on the rocks.

King Solomon, that wise old man, he had a thousand wives,
He bought a lovely tourist bus to take them all for drives,
The tourist bus broke down one night and here's where trouble starts,
His wives were waiting in a row and he'd got no spare parts.

The Oriental beauties, they veil their pretty faces,
Although they aren't so careful about some other places,
They make whoopee and aren't found out and here's the reason why,
A woman in a veil can never tell a bare-faced lie.

Cleopatra was a gal who always got her man,
She wooed a certain Emir who lived in Pakistan.
She wore her most exotic gown, she thought it would convince,
It did all right—He put it on, she hasn't seen him since.

The Sultan of Morocco has a wonderful hareem,
With wives of every colour from chocolate to cream.
He's only got three-sixty-five and yet it makes him groan,
For every time leap year comes round he has to sleep alone.

CHORUS: Yah-ah-ah-ah, So the last wife told her tale.