Jimmy Buffett
BORN: December 25, 1946, Pascagoula, MS
Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett has translated his easygoing Gulf Coast
persona into more than just a successful recording career -- he has expanded
into clothing, nightclubs, and literature. But the basis of the business
empire that keeps him on the Fortune magazine list of highest-earning entertainers
is his music.
Buffett moved to Nashville to try to make it in country music in the late
'60s. Signed to Barnaby, he released one album, Down to Earth (1970), from
which the socially conscious single "The Christian?" suggested he might be
more at home protesting in Greenwich Village. (Barnaby "lost" his second album,
High Cumberland Jubilee, though they would find it and release it after he
became successful.) Instead, he moved to Key West, FL, where he gradually
evolved into the beach bum character and tropical folk-rock style that would
endear him to millions.
Signing to ABC-Dunhill Record (later absorbed by MCA), Buffett achieved
notoriety but not much else with his second (released) album, White Sport
Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973), which featured a song called "Why Don't
We Get Drunk" ("...and screw?" goes the chorus). Buffett revealed a more
thoughtful side on Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (1974), with its song of
marital separation "Come Monday," his first singles-chart entry. But it took
the Top Ten song "Margaritaville" and the album in which it was featured,
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (1977), to capture Buffett's tropical
world view and, for a while, turn him into a pop star.
By the start of the '80s, Buffett's yearly albums had stopped going gold,
and he briefly tried the country market again. But by the middle of the decade,
it was his yearly summer tours that were filling his bank account, as a steadily
growing core of Sun Belt fans he dubbed "Parrotheads" made his concerts into
Mardi Gras-like affairs. Buffett launched his Margaritaville line of clothes
and opened the first of his Margaritaville clubs in Key West. He also turned
to fiction writing, landing on the book bestseller lists.
His recording career, meanwhile, languished, though a hits compilation sold
millions; a 1990 live album, Feeding Frenzy, went gold; and a 1992 box set
retrospective, Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads, became one of the best-selling
box sets ever. Buffett finally got around to making a new album in 1994, when
Fruitcakes became one of his fastest-selling records. It was followed in
1995 by Barometer Soup and Banana Wind in 1996. The following year, Buffett
began working on a musical adaptation of Herman Wouk's novel Don't Stop the
Carnival with the author himself. After Broadway producers expressed little
interest, the production ran for six weeks in Miami during 1997. In spring
of 1998, Buffett released a collection of songs from the production as he
began mulling over the idea of taking the play on the road. In 1999 he released
Beach House on the Moon as well as Live: Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. ~ William
Ruhlmann, All Music Guide