Margaritaville

For other uses, see Margaritaville (disambiguation).

"Margaritaville"
Cover of the West German 7 " single[1]
Single by Jimmy Buffett
from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
B-side"Miss You So Badly"
ReleasedFebruary 14, 1977
RecordedNovember 1976
Studio
Genre
Length4:09 (album)
3:20 (single)
LabelABC
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
A margarita cocktail: the inspiration for "Margaritaville"

"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,[7] also peaking at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart.[8] Billboard ranked it number 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart.[9] 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.[10] 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."[11] Buffett maintained a resort chain by the same name.[12]

  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.