"Big Yellow Taxi" is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell.

Mitchell got the idea for the song during a visit to Hawaii. She looked out of her hotel window at the spectacular Pacific mountain scenery, and then down to a parking lot.

Joni said this about writing the song to journalist Alan McDougall in the early 1970's:

The song is known for its environmental statement (as assumed from the lyric "paved paradise to put up a parking lot") and sentimental sound. The line, "Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum/And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em" refers to Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered.

In the song's final verse, the political gives way to the personal, as Mitchell recounts the departure of a father figure in the "big yellow taxi" of the title.

(In many covers the departed one may be interpreted as variously a boyfriend, a husband, or a father. Sometimes they are merely walking out on the singer; other times it is implied they are being taken away by authorities. This lends the song an almost dystopian feel.) The song was first put out as a single and then was put on the album Ladies of the Canyon in 1970; a later live version was released in 1975 and reached #24 on the U.S. charts. Mitchell's playful closing lyrics has made the song the most identifiable in her repertoire, still receiving significant airplay in Canada. In 2005, it was voted #9 on CBC's list of the top 50 essential Canadian tracks.

In 2007, Joni Mitchell released the album Shine, which includes a re-work of the song.