Margaritaville



"Margaritaville" is a 1977 song by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung's Cocina del Sur restaurant on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas, and the first huge surge of tourists who descended on Key West, Florida around that time. He wrote most of the song one night at a friend's house in Austin, and finished it while spending time in Key West. 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 #13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard ranked it number 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. It Buffett's highest charting solo single.

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 has been used in the title of other Buffett compilation albums such as Meet Me In Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection and is also the name of several commercial products licensed by Buffett (see below). 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 Blake Shelton's 2004 single "Some Beach".

"Margaritaville" has been inducted into the 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance.

Content
The song is about a man spending an entire season at a beach resort community. The three verses 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, all he has to show for his time is a tattoo of a woman, but he cannot remember how he got it. In the third and final verse, he has punctured one of his Flip-flops and cut his heel by stepping on a "pop-top" (the pull tab from an old-style soda can), forcing him to return home and ease his pain with a fresh batch of margaritas.

The three choruses reveal that the narrator is drowning his sorrows over a failed romance, all the while onlookers speculate that an ex 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."

Single edit
When "Margaritaville" was released to radio stations in 1977, the single edit ran for 3:20, and it cuts another minute off of that, which made the song more radio friendly:
 * The instrumental break after the second chorus, and before going into the third and final verse was cut for radio airplay.
 * The song structure had changed from "riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-interlude-verse-chorus-refrain-riff" to "riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-riff", where the section during the third and final chorus, and the last refrain were also cut for radio airplay.
 * The track itself was sped up at half-step. The original recording of 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 #63 after receiving play as an album cut. Professional wrestlers Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock both covered the song on the November 12, 2001 episode of RAW. 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, along with Carlo Volhl, wrote a spoof titled "Marijuanaville". The song appeared on the album Rock & Roll Comedy Cuts Part I.

In 2006, YouTube user arockitproduction released a parody of the song titled "Atkins Diet Ville". The music video took place at Save-A-Lot food stores.

The song was parodied on an episode of Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons in the eighth season episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" (1997) with a drunken Shary Bobbins (a Mary Poppins expy) and Barney Gumble. It was featured once again in the eleventh season episode "Bart to the Future" (2000), where it was parodied as "Daiquiritaville". In 2009, YouTube user BasketCasesdw released a parody of the song titled "Project Cupcakeville", which is about making cupcakes.

In 2004, a parody titled "Piña Coladaburg" is sung by Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton) in the film Club Dread, who claims his song came before "Margaritaville".

Award-winning parodist and comedian Cody Marshall made several parodies of "Margaritaville", including "Cody Marshallville", "Tyler Mooreville", "Mommmysitaville", "Cody's Birthdayville", "Diane Chambersville", and "Coffeeritaville".

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." This was likely a parody on Mortaritaville, which was recorded around 2 years prior.

In an episode of the short-lived Fox animated series Napoleon Dynamite (2012), Kip mentions that the animatronics at Goof Nutz Pizza sing "Pizzaritaville".

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

Merchandising
As Buffett's signature song, "Margaritaville" has been used in a number of commercial ventures and product licensing tie-ins including:
 * Radio Margaritaville, a radio station that broadcasts on the Internet and Sirius XM Radio
 * Tales from Margaritaville, a collection of short stories by Buffett
 * Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a casual dining restaurant chain, tourist destination and chain of stores selling Buffett-themed franchise merchandise in Jamaica, Mexico and the U.S. In 1985, Buffett opened a "Margaritaville" restaurant in Key West, though his first was in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
 * Margaritaville margarita mix (manufactured by Mott's)
 * Margaritaville tequila
 * Margaritaville bottled malt beverages
 * Margaritaville branded Landshark Lager
 * Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker
 * Margaritaville chips & salsa
 * Margaritaville chicken wings
 * Margaritaville frozen seafood
 * Margaritaville Soles of the Tropics footwear
 * Margaritaville men's & women's apparel
 * Margaritaville outdoor & beach furniture
 * Margaritaville key-lime pie filling mix
 * Margaritaville beach cruiser bicycles produced by Bicycle Corporation of America, a division of Kent International