 Jimmy Buffett - Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett has
translated his easy-going 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.
Jimmy 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), the single from which, a socially conscious song called, "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 the beach bum character and tropical
folk-rock style that would endear him to millions.
Signing to ABC-Dunhill Records (later absorbed by MCA), Jimmy
Buffett achieved notoriety but not much else with his second (released)
album, White Sport Coat & a Pink Crustacean (1973), which featured a song
called, "Why Don't We Get Drunk" ("... and screw?," goes the chorus). Jimmy
Buffett revealed a more thoughtful side on Living & 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 Jimmy Buffett 's tropical worldview and, for a while, turn him into a
pop star. 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 & Ballads, became one of the best-selling
box sets ever. Jimmy 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, Jimmy
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, Jimmy 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.
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