JIMMY BUFFETT

'Jimmy Buffett' (born 'James William Buffett' on December 25 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi) is a singer, songwriter, author, businessman, and recently a film producer best known for his "island escapism" lifestyle and music including hits such as "Margaritaville" (No. 234 on the list of "Songs of the Century"), and "Come Monday." He has a devoted base of fans known as "Parrotheads." His band is known as the Coral Reefer Band.
Aside from his career in music, Buffett is also a best-selling writer and is involved in two restaurant chains named after some of his best known songs, "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and "Margaritaville." He owns the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the ''Cheeseburger in Paradise'' restaurant concept with OSI Restaurant Partners (parent of Outback Steakhouse), which operates the chain under a licensing agreement with Mr. Buffett.
He and his wife, Jane, have two daughters, Savannah Jane and Sarah Delaney, and a son, Cameron Marley.

Contents

Biography

Music

Writing

Film and television

Business ventures

Charity work

Controversy

Trademark Litigation

Concerts and tours

Setlist Structure

"The Big 8" & Standard Songs

List of tours

Discography

Musical cameos

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Biography

Born to James Delaney "J.D." Buffett Jr. and Mary Loraine "Peets" Buffett in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Buffett grew up along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay^[1]. He graduated high school from McGill Institute for Boys (now McGill-Toolen Catholic High School) in Mobile, Alabama in 1964. He began playing guitar during his college years at Auburn University and The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he received a bachelor's degree in history in 1969. Although a pledge of Sigma Pi (ΣΠ) at Auburn, he was initiated into the fraternity Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ) at the University of Southern Mississippi. He later married his first wife, Margie Washichek, at Spring Hill College in Mobile. After graduating from college, Buffett worked as a correspondent for ''Billboard'' magazine in Nashville.

Music

Buffett began his musical career in Nashville, Tennessee during the late 1960s as a country artist and recorded his first album, the folk rock ''Down to Earth,'' in 1970. During this time Buffett could be frequently found busking for tourists in New Orleans. Country music singer Jerry Jeff Walker took him to Key West on a busking expedition. Buffett then moved to Key West and began establishing the easy-going beach bum persona for which he is known. Following this move, Buffett combined country, folk, and pop music with coastal and tropical lyrical themes for a sound sometimes called "gulf and western." Today, he is a regular visitor to the Caribbean island of Saint Barts and other islands where he gets inspiration for many of his songs and some of the characters in his books.
Buffett's third album was the 1973 ''A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean''. ''Havana Daydreamin''' appeared in 1976, followed by 1977's ''Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,'' which featured the breakthrough hit song "Margaritaville".
During the 1980s, Buffett made far more money off his tours than albums and became known as a popular concert draw. He released a series of albums during the following twenty years, primarily to his devoted audience, and also branched into writing and merchandising. In 1985, Buffett opened the first of the "Margaritaville" restaurants in Key West, bringing new visibility and life to the Margaritaville name.
Two of the more out-of-character albums were ''Christmas Island,'' a collection of holiday songs, and ''Parakeets,'' a collection of Buffett songs sung by children and containing "cleaned-up" lyrics (like "a cold root beer" instead of "a cold draft beer").
In 1997, Buffett collaborated with novelist Herman Wouk to create a short-lived musical based on Wouk's novel, ''Don't Stop the Carnival''. Broadway showed little interest in the play, so it instead ran for six weeks in Miami. He released the soundtrack for the musical in 1998.
In 2003, he partnered in a partial duet with Alan Jackson for the song "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," a number one hit on the country charts.
Buffett's album, ''License to Chill'', released on July 13 2004, sold 238,600 copies in its first week of release according to Nielsen SoundScan. With this, Buffett topped the U.S. pop albums chart for the first time in his three-decade career.
Buffett continues to tour throughout the year although he has shifted recently to a more relaxed schedule of around 20-30 dates, and rarely on back-to-back nights, preferring to play only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, thus the title of his 1999 live album ''Buffett Live — Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays''. Purchasing tickets is difficult with most of his concerts selling out in minutes.
In September of 2005, Buffett became the first musician to stage a concert at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
In August 2006, he released the album ''Take The Weather With You''. The song "Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On" on this album refers to 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Also on the album he pays tribute to Merle Haggard with his rendition of "Silver Wings" and collaborates with Mark Knopfler in the track, "Whoop De Doo."
A DVD entitled ''He Went To Paris'' is scheduled for release in Spring 2008.

Writing

Buffett has written 3 No. 1 best sellers. ''Tales from Margaritaville'' and ''Where Is Joe Merchant?'' both spent over seven months on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller fiction list. His book ''A Pirate Looks At Fifty'' went straight to No. 1 on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller non-fiction list, making him one of seven authors in that list's history to have reached No. 1 on both the fiction and non-fiction lists. The other six authors who have accomplished this are Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace, Dr. Seuss and Mitch Albom.
Buffett also co-wrote two children's books, ''The Jolly Mon'' and ''Trouble Dolls,'' with his eldest daughter, Savannah Jane Buffett. The original hard cover release of the ''The Jolly Mon'' included a cassette tape recording of him and Savannah Jane reading the story accompanied by an original score written by Michael Utley.
His most recent book, ''A Salty Piece of Land,'' was released on November 30, 2004, and the first edition of the book included a CD single of the same title. The book was a ''New York Times'' best seller soon after its release.
Currently, Amazon.com lists a fourth title from Buffett, ''Swine Not?'', to be released in November 2007.

Film and television

Buffett wrote the sound-track for, co-produced and acted in the 2006 film ''Hoot,'' directed by Wil Shriner and based on the book by Carl Hiassen, which focuses on issues important to him, such as conservation. The film was not a big hit, and it was critically panned. He also wrote and performed the theme song to the short-lived 1993 CBS television series ''Johnny Bago''.
In addition, Buffett has made several cameo appearances, including in ''Repo Man'', ''Hook'', ''Cobb'', ''Congo'', and ''From the Earth to the Moon''. He also made cameo appearances as himself in ''Rancho Deluxe'' (for which he also wrote the music) and in FM.^[2] Buffett reportedly was offered a cameo role in '', but declined the offer.

Business ventures

Buffett has taken advantage of his name and the effect of his music to launch several business ventures, usually with a tropical theme. He owns or licenses the Margaritaville Cafe and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains. He loves baseball and was part-owner of two minor league teams: the Fort Myers Miracle and the Madison Black Wolf. Between his restaurants, album sales, and tours, he earns an estimated $100 million a year.
In 2006, Buffett launched a cooperative project with the Anheuser-Busch brewing company to produce his own beer under the Margaritaville Brewing label called Land Shark Lager. The label of the beer bottle features a shark fin.
In June 2007, Buffett, in partnership with Harrah’s Entertainment, announced plans to build the Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi not far from his birthplace of Pascagoula. When completed in the spring of 2010, the resort will feature 798 rooms, a full-service spa, a pool/deck area with cabanas, and tropical landscaping.

Charity work

He has been involved in many charity efforts. In 1981, the Save the Manatee Club was founded by Buffett and former Florida governor Bob Graham.^[3] The Save the Manatee Club is the world's leading^[4] manatee preservation effort. In 1989, legislation was passed in Florida that introduced the "Save the Manatee" license plate, and earmarked funding for the Save the Manatee club.
The "Singing for Change" foundation was initially funded by proceeds from Buffett's 1995 concert tour, and provides grants to local charities in three main areas: children and family causes, environmental causes, and causes for disenfranchised groups.^[5][6]
On November 23, 2004, Buffett raised USD$3.4 million at his "Surviving the Storm" Hurricane Relief Concert in Orlando, Florida to provide relief for hurricane victims in Florida, Alabama and the Caribbean affected by the four major hurricanes that year.^[7] He has donated $500,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief so far.
In addition, many Parrothead club activities are focused on charity work, although Buffett is not directly involved with them.

Controversy

On October 6 2006, it was reported that Buffett had been detained by French custom officials in Saint Tropez for allegedly carrying over 100 pills of Ecstasy.[1][2][3]
Buffett’s luggage was searched after his Dassault Falcon 900 private jet landed at Toulon-Hyères International Airport. He paid a fine of $300 and was released. A spokesperson for Buffett stated the pills in question were prescription drugs, but declined to name the drug or the health problem for which he was being treated. Buffett released a statement that the "Ecstasy" was in fact, a Vitamin B supplement known as Foltx.[4]
On February 4th, 2001, he was ejected from the American Airlines Arena in Miami during a Miami Heat/New York Knicks NBA basketball game for cursing.
After the game, referee Joe Forte said that he ordered the singer moved during the fourth quarter because "there was a little boy sitting next to him and a lady sitting by him. He used some words he knows he shouldn't have used."
However, Forte apparently didn't know who he'd just removed from the arena. Heat coach Pat Riley tried to explain who Buffett was to Forte and was censured himself because the referee thought Riley was insulting him by asking if he'd ever been a "Parrothead," the nickname for Buffett's loyal fans. ^[8]
Though Buffett didn't comment immediately after the incident, he did appear on ''The Today Show'' three days later and talked with Matt Lauer about the ejection. Jimmy was laughing and having a very good time with it. Matt told Jimmy that his punishment should be that he play a concert for their Summer Concert Series.

Trademark Litigation

Jimmy Buffett filed a lawsuit against UnderOneHut.com in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on November 13 2006. Jimmy Buffett's attorneys sought to prevent UnderOneHut.com from selling Jimmy Buffett merchandise claiming they had not granted permission for such sales. The case made worldwide headlines appearing in over 200 media sources. It was ultimately settled out of court.^[9]

Concerts and tours

Setlist Structure

Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band are famous for their concerts. Most shows consist of 26-29 songs, an intermission usually after the 12th to 14th song, and two separate encores.
A few tours, (notably 'Banana Wind '96'^[10], 'License to Chill '04'^[11] and 'Party at the End of the World '06'^[12]) Buffett opened the show with one to three acoustic songs. The Great Filling Station Holdup and Pencil Thin Mustache are common acoustic openers, as well as Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, The Wino and I Know, Son of a Son of a Sailor, Migration and My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink and I Don't Love Jesus in recent years.
With the exception of 'Fruitcakes '94'^[13] and 'License to Chill '04'^[11], Come Monday is played during the first set of the show. Usually, after 12 to 14 songs, a 20-minute intermission is taken while a video plays for the fans.
The first part of the second set usually consists of slower songs. There has never been a tour where A Pirate Looks At Forty hasn't been played during the second set.
The first encore usually consists of two songs. After the first song, Buffett introduces the band, and then they segue into the second song. The second encore usually consists of one acoustic ballad. A Pirate Looks At Forty is a typical closer at shows, however, Buffett sometimes takes the opportunity to choose a more obscure song to perform (He Went to Paris, Changing Channels, Defying Gravity, Nautical Wheelers, Survive, Tin Cup Chalice, Twelve Volt Man, etc.)
Fins, mostly performed during the first encore in recent years, is always preluded by the ''Jaws'' theme as a teaser, which gets the fans pumped. Buffett calls out to the Parrotheads, or "land-sharks", to get their "fins up"! The fans raise their hands in the air, in the manner of a dorsal fin, and wave it left and right. "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" usually has a video of local parrotheads in the arena/venue parking lot playing over its performance. "Why Don't We Get Drunk" is sometimes performed in a different style ('Tiki Time '03' Hawaiian style, 'Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays '00' performed karaoke style, 'Banana Wind '96' audience members selected to perform, and 'Jimmy Jump Up '90' performed sing-along style). "One Particular Harbour" is played for women and men wearing hula-skirts. "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" is performed with Mac McAnally taking Alan Jackson's place.
The band will also often throw in references to and skits about the actual venue they're playing to please home town fans. As an example, when Buffett and the Coral Reefers performed at Fenway Park, Boston, in September 2004, they added a performance of Take Me Out To The Ball Game featuring Dr. Charles Steinberg on organ, segued 'Why Don't We Get Drunk' into Red Sox favourite Sweet Caroline, and attempted to reverse the Curse of the Bambino (some even claim they were successful).
Buffett will sometimes kick the tour off with an obscure opening cover song. 'A Salty Piece of Land '05' opened with Little Feat's "Time Loves a Hero"^[15] in South Carolina, and 'Bama Breeze '07' opened with Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" in Houston.

"The Big 8" & Standard Songs

Before 2003, songs played at every Buffett show were known as the 'Big 8'. With the success of the Alan Jackson duet "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", the list of songs played at every show have now gone from 8 to 10. The original "Big 8", though unspecified, are most likely:
#"Margaritaville"
#"Come Monday"
#"Fins"
#"Volcano"
#"A Pirate Looks At Forty"
#"Cheeseburger in Paradise"
#"One Particular Harbour"
#"Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes"
"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" was added to the standard list, as well as Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw).
This list doesn't necessarily mean that those songs have been played at every show. "A Pirate Looks at Forty" was not played during the Gorge, WA '92 show^[16]. "Cheeseburger in Paradise" was excluded from two setlists during the 1998 tour^[17]. "One Particular Harbour" was left out of 11 shows during the 1997 tour^[18], not to mention every show during the 1989 tour^[19]. "Why Don't We Get Drunk" hasn't been played during most concerts of the Bama Breeze tour. "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" did not appear during the opening Tiki Time '03 show in Houston^[20]. "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" was omitted from opening of the Irvine show in 2006^[21]. The archives show that only four ("Margaritaville", "Come Monday", "Fins" and "Volcano") songs have been played at every show since the song's debut.

List of tours

★ 1976: 'A Pink Crustacean Tour'

★ 1978: 'Cheeseburger in Paradise Tour'

★ 1979: 'You Had to Be There / Volcano Tour'

★ 1980: 'Coconut Telegraph Tour'

★ 1980: 'Homecoming Tour'

★ 1984: 'Feeding Frenzy Tour'

★ 1985: 'Last Mango in Paris Tour'

★ 1986: 'World Tour of Florida'

★ 1987: 'A Pirate Looks At Forty Tour'

★ 1988: 'Cheap Vacation Tour'

★ 1988: 'Hot Water Tour'

★ 1989: 'Off To See The Lizard Tour'

★ 1990: 'Jimmy's Jump Up Tour'

★ 1991: 'Outpost Tour'

★ 1992: 'Recession Recess Tour'

★ 1993: 'Chameleon Caravan Tour'

★ 1994: 'Fruitcakes Tour'

★ 1995: 'Domino College Tour'

★ 1996: 'Banana Wind Tour'

★ 1997: 'Havana Daydreamin' Tour'

★ 1998: 'Don't Stop The Carnival Tour'

★ 1999: 'Beach House On The Moon Tour'

★ 2000: 'Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays Tour'

★ 2001: 'A Beach Odyssey Tour'

★ 2002: 'Far Side of the World Tour'

★ 2003: 'Tiki Time Tour'

★ 2004: 'License To Chill Tour'

★ 2005: 'A Salty Piece Of Land Tour'

★ 2006: 'Party At The End Of The World Tour'

★ 2007: 'Bama Breeze Tour'

Discography

Main articles: Jimmy Buffett discography

Musical cameos

★ He did guest background vocals along with The Monstertones on the The Eagles song "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" on their album ''The Long Run''.

★ Buffett appears on a Phish tribute album called ''Sharin in the Groove'', where he performed the band's "Gumbo" (which references a gun-slinging parrot). He also performed Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" in concert with Phish in 1995.

★ Buffett appeared as the musical guest in the May 13, 1978, episode of ''Saturday Night Live''.

Trivia

★ He is friends with legendary investor Warren Buffett and although they suspected that they are distant cousins, it was determined that they are not related. (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/06/11/100060549/index.htm?cnn=yes)

★ An avid pilot, he owns several planes including a Grumman HU-16 "Albatross". The plane, named "Hemisphere Dancer", is currently parked next to his Margaritaville restaurant in Orlando, Florida. Previously it could sometimes be seen on the ramp at Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA identifier SXM, ICAO identifier TNCM) in nearby Saint Maarten while he was in the area. This is the plane Buffett was flying during the incident recounted in the song "Jamaica Mistaica" on the album ''Banana Wind.'' While in Jamaica on January 16 1996, Buffett's plane was shot at by Jamaican police. The "Hemisphere Dancer" had been carrying Buffett, U2's Bono, and Island Records producer Chris Blackwell, but they were not onboard at the time. Police suspected it was smuggling drugs. No one was hurt, although there were a few bullet holes in the plane. Buffett's company has since licensed use of the name Margaritaville to several restaurants in Jamaica, in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, where the "Jamaica Mistaica" incident took place.

★ Buffett sang for President Bill Clinton on the White House south lawn for his birthday in the year 2000. [5]

★ On a ''60 Minutes'' interview, Buffett stated that he gets letters from doctors who operate to his music and stated that "people in high stress situations listen to it as a release" and that "If you came to one of my concerts, it would look like Sodom and Gomorrah had just landed. But I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of people are back at work on Monday."

★ In the film ''Club Dread'', Bill Paxton's character, Coconut Pete, owns an island and plays a very similar style of music as Jimmy Buffett does. However, it is alluded in the film that Buffett's career has eclipsed Pete's when a bikini-clad girl at a campfire sing-along asks Pete to play the song "Margaritaville" (Pete's song was actually called "Pina-Coladaburg"). When Buffett viewed a private screening of the film, he was so amused that he requested permission to sing some of the film's original songs on one of his live tours.

★ During ''The Simpsons'' episode Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious, the Mary Poppins knockoff character Sherry Bobbins, desparing at her uselessness to the family, sings a few bars of "Margaritaville" accompanied by Barney...who finds the lost shaker of salt. He was lying on it.

References

1. Buffett, J: ''A Pirate Looks at Fifty'', page 402. Random House, 1998
2. IMDB entry for Jimmy Buffett, accessed 6/4/07
3. About SMC at savethemanatee.org
4. "Navigate with Care manatees are There", accessed 6/4/07
5. "Singing For Change Foundation: Jimmy Buffet Helps the Community" accessed 6/4/07
6. Singing for Change areas of interest
7. "Jimmy Buffett 'Surviving the Storm' - Hurricane Benefit'" accessed 6/4/07
8. Singer Buffett ejected from Knicks and Heat contest
9. Summary of the suit
10. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1996.html
11. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2004.html#9
12. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2006.html#2
13. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1994.html#1
14. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2004.html#9
15. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2005.html#3
16. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1992.html#11
17. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1998.html#11
18. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1997.html#6
19. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_1989.html
20. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2003.html#8
21. http://www.buffettworld.com/sl_2006.html#3

See also

★ List of best-selling music artists

★ A Pirate Looks At Fifty

External links

★ Official Jimmy Buffett Web Site

★ Buffett's myspace page

★ Jimmy's Facebook Profile

★ Buffett Music Videos

★ Launch's artist page on Buffett

★

★ Great Chords Compilation

★ BuffettWorld.com - The latest Buffett News, plus Tour Dates, Set Lists, and a Discussion Board

★ BuffettNews.com - News, Tour Dates, Discussion Board, Set Lists, Song Lyrics, Photo Gallery

★ Radio Margaritaville

★ Homepage of Parrotheads in Paradise, the organizing force behind Buffett fan clubs

★ Church of Buffett Orthodox