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"Margaritaville"
Cover of the West German 7 " single
Single by Jimmy Buffett
from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
B-side	"Miss You So Badly"
Released	February 14, 1977
Recorded	November 1976
Studio	Criteria (Miami) Quadrafonic Sound (Nashville)
Genre	Tropical rock country rock folk rock soft rock
Length	4:09 (album) 3:20 (single)
Label	ABC
Songwriter(s)	Jimmy Buffett
Producer(s)	Norbert Putnam
Jimmy Buffett singles chronology
"Woman Goin' Crazy on Caroline Street" (1976) "Margaritaville" (1977) "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (1977)
Alternative cover
1977 Italian single picture sleeve
Audio sample
file help

"Margaritaville" is a 1977 song by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, released on his seventh album, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. In the United States, "Margaritaville" reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and went to number one on the Easy Listening chart, also peaking at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard ranked it number 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. It was Buffett's highest charting solo single. After Buffett’s death on September 1, 2023, the song re-entered the Top 40 for the week ending September 16, 2023.

Named for the cocktail margarita, with lyrics reflecting a laid-back lifestyle in a tropical climate, "Margaritaville" has come to define Buffett's music and career. The relative importance of the song to Buffett's career is referred to obliquely in a parenthetical plural in the title of a Buffett greatest hits compilation album, Songs You Know by Heart: Jimmy Buffett's Greatest Hit(s). The name was used in the title of other Buffett compilation albums including Meet Me in Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection and is also the name of several commercial products licensed by Buffett. The song also lent its name to the 2017 musical Escape to Margaritaville, in which it is featured alongside other Buffett songs. Continued popular culture references to and covers of it throughout the years attest to the song's continuing popularity. The song was mentioned in Alan Jackson's 2003 single "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", on which Buffett is a featured artist, and in Blake Shelton's 2004 single "Some Beach".

"Margaritaville" has been inducted into the 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance. In 2023, the song was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Buffett maintained a resort chain by the same name.

Origins

In an interview with Sound on Sound magazine, producer Norbert Putnam stated Buffett approached him with the concept of an album of light, carefree songs about life by the beach. Putnam encouraged Buffett to record the album at Criteria Studios in Miami, rather than Buffett's usual studio in Nashville, in order to take inspiration from Miami's easygoing beachfront lifestyle. One day during recording, Buffett complained about a bad day he recently had on the beach, which included losing one of his flip-flops on his way home from a bar, cutting his foot on a beer can pop top, and running out of salt for his margarita. Buffett was already working on a set of lyrics about the incident, to which Putnam told him, "That's a terrible idea for a song." A few days later, Buffett played a rough version of the song, then called "Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville," and Putnam and others at the studio realized it had potential as a hit.

Content

The song is about a man spending an entire season at a beach resort community, with three verses that describe his day-to-day activities. In the first verse, he passes his time playing guitar on his front porch and watching tourists sunbathe, all the while eating sponge cake and waiting for a pot of shrimp to boil. In the second verse, he has nothing to show for his time except a tattoo of a woman that he cannot remember getting. In the third and final verse, he steps on a discarded pull-tab, cutting his heel and ruining the flip-flops he is wearing, then returns home to ease his pain with a fresh batch of margaritas. In live performances, he sang "I broke my leg twice, I had to limp on back home".

The three choruses reveal that the narrator is pondering his recent failed romance, and his friends are telling him that his former girlfriend is at fault. The last line of each shows his shifting attitude toward the situation: first "it's nobody's fault," then "hell, it could be my fault," and finally "it's my own damn fault." So the overall story that the song tells is not hedonist enjoyment of life in the sun, but rather almost the opposite; it's a man's gradual recognition, while drowning his sorrows in alcohol, that it was his foolish actions that destroyed the chance of happiness with the woman he loved. The appeal of the song is partly the clever way this evolving story is related in just a few words at the end of each chorus.

Buffett revealed during the recording of an episode of CMT's Crossroads with the Zac Brown Band that "Margaritaville" was actually supposed to be recorded by Elvis Presley, but Presley died the same year the song was released (he declined the offer before the song could be recorded).

Lost verse

There is a "lost verse" to this song, as described by Buffett, which he often added when performing in concert, which was reputedly edited out before recording the song in order to make the song more radio friendly. The song was shortened even further for the single edit:

Old men in tank tops,

Cruisin' the gift shops,

Checkin' out chiquitas, down by the shore

They dream about weight loss,

Wish they could be their own boss

Those three-day vacations can be (or "become") such a bore

Lyric confusion

There is some confusion as to whether Buffett sings "Wasted away" or "Wastin’ away" in the chorus of the song. The original unedited lyrics, that appear on the record sleeve to the Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes LP, read "Waistin'" [sic]. Also, most guitar tablature and sheet music read "Wastin'." Buffett never made a statement on the issue. However, he was also known to use "wasted" in some performances, as well as in the video game re-recording for Rock Band.

Critical reception

Record World said that "Buffett turns in a melodic performance that could give him his first big hit."

Charts

Other versions

Single edit

When "Margaritaville" was released to radio stations in 1977, the single edit ran for 3:20, cutting out the instrumental break, and the section during the third chorus and final refrain. So the song structure changed to "riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-riff", and the track itself was sped up at half-step. The original recording in the key of D would be E-flat.

Cover versions

In 1999, American country singer Alan Jackson covered the song on his album Under the Influence. The cover featured Buffett singing along on the third and final verse; it also peaked at No. 63 after receiving play as an album cut.

American singer Toby Keith covered it as a duet with Sammy Hagar in 2013 for his album Drinks After Work. It appeared only on the deluxe edition of the LP. This version was also included on the Sammy Hagar & Friends album, also from 2013.

Jimmy Buffett also re-recorded this song as well as "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and "Volcano" specifically for Rock Band as downloadable content.

Parodies

In 1991, comedian Mark Eddie wrote a parody of the song titled "Marijuanaville". The song appeared on the album "Rock n' Roll Comedy Cuts Part II" (1998). In 2006, Kenan Thompson did a parody of the song during the Weekend Update segment on Saturday Night Live, where he plays a soldier who found out he was going to the U.S.-Mexico border, rather than Baghdad. When Amy Poehler asks him what his reaction was when he discovered he was going to the border, in the next shot, he has a Corona banner above him, a sombrero on his head. He is swaying a Corona beer bottle and singing, "Wasting away again not in Iraq."

In 2013, a parody has aired on the John Boy & Billy Big Show titled "Martinsville", referencing Martinsville Speedway.

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1977 (U.S.)

References

1. The U.S. single did not have a picture cover but was issued with a standard ABC Records cover.
2. "Index of /2012.03.10 - San Diego, CA". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
3. Freeman, Doug (July 21, 2017). "How Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" Became the Most Valuable Song of All Time". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
4. Joseph Murrells (1984). Million Selling Records from the 1900s to the 1980s: An Illustrated Directory. B.T. Batsford. p. 433. ISBN 978-0-7134-3843-7.
5. Yonke, David (1998). "Jimmy Buffett". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 171-172.
6. Coleman, Mark; Puterbaugh, Parke (2004). "Jimmy Buffett". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 117–118. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
7. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 42.
8. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 61.
9. "Pop Singles" Billboard December 24, 1977: TIA-64
10. "THE RECORDING ACADEMY ANNOUNCES 2016 GRAMMY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES". GRAMMY.org. November 18, 2015. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
11. "2023 National Recording Registry selections". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
12. "Margaritaville Resort's Façade Nears Completion at 560 Seventh Avenue in Times Square". New York YIMBY. May 29, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
13. ^ Daley, Dan (September 2003). "Producer: Norbert Putnam, The Other Side of Nashville". www.soundonsound.com. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
14. Becca (December 10, 2009). "Zac Brown and Jimmy Buffett Meet at the Crossroads". The Country Vibe News. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
15. The Parrot Head Handbook
16. "Photographic image of sleeve and lyrics therein" (JPG). Buffettworld.com. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
17. "Single Picks" (PDF). Record World. March 26, 1977. p. 22. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
18. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 3682a." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
19. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 5245." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
20. "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 3689." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
21. "RIANZ Chart: 21-Aug-1977". Flavours of New Zealand. Archived from the original on February 11, 2018.
22. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
23. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
24. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
25. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, July 9, 1977". Archived from the original on March 21, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
26. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Global 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
27. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
28. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
29. "Billboard Hot Country Songs - September 16, 2023". Billboard.
30. "Jimmy Buffett Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
31. "Top 200 Singles of '77 – Volume 28, No. 14, December 31 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. July 17, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
32. Musicoutfitters.com
33. "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 31, 1977". Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
34. "Pics 'n Such". The Big Show. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2016.

External links

• Jimmy Buffett' "Margaritaville" at MIX Magazine online

• 1977 singles
• 1977 songs
• Jimmy Buffett songs
• Alan Jackson songs
• Male vocal duets
• Songs about alcohol
• Songs written by Jimmy Buffett
• ABC Records singles
• Songs about Florida
• United States National Recording Registry recordings