On January 20, 1977, Jimmy Buffett released the album that changed his career trajectory. Coincidentally called Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, Buffett’s seventh album penetrated more of his laid-back ethos. The title also played as a metaphor for the shift in Buffett’s musical direction, moving from his previous country music to the beginning of an infinite catalog of Gulf and Western trop-rock.
The title track set the tone for the remainder of the album. Throughout Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, Buffett moves at a chilled pace with only two more uptempo tracks, “Tampico Trauma,” a story about getting kicked out of Mexico, and his closing ode to sailing away from his troubles on “Landfall”: Sail away for a month at a time / Sail away I’ve got to recharge mind / Then you’ll find me back at it again.
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Except for his cover of Steve Goodman’s 1975 song “Banana Republics” and contributions from Jonathan Baham (“Lovely Cruise”) and Jesse Winchester (“Biloxi”), Buffett wrote all of the songs on Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.
The album reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 37, No. 24 on the Country chart, and went even higher on the Easy Listening chart at No. 11, while Buffett’s first single was about to take on a life of its own.
“Margaritaville”
“Margaritaville” became, and remains, the creed of Parrotheads everywhere. When released, it became Buffett’s highest-charting solo single, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and topping the Easy Listening chart.
Inspired by tasting a margarita for the first time in Austin, Texas, after playing some shows with the Coral Reefer Band to the tourism explosion happening in Key West, Florida at the time, “Margaritaville” also captured the sights and flavors of the Caribbean, along with visions of oil-covered tourists baking in the sun, beautiful women, and plenty of booze in the blender.
Wasted away again in Margaritaville
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame
Now I think
Must be Buffet’s fault
“One day in the studio, he comes in and starts telling me about a day he had in Key West,” remembered producer Norbert Putnam. “He was coming home from a bar and he lost one of his flip-flops and he stepped on a beer can top and he couldn’t find the salt for his Margarita. He says he’s writing lyrics to it and I say ‘That’s a terrible idea for a song.’ He comes back in a few days later with ‘Wasted Away Again In Margaritaville’ and plays it and right then everyone knows it’s a hit song. Hell, it wasn’t a song. It was a movie.”
A Boat and a Billion
After the success of “Margaritaville,” Buffett was happy that he could finally buy his own boat, but the song went beyond the sea for him,
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In 1985, Buffett opened a chain of Margaritaville-themed restaurants and stores in Key West. Throughout the years, Margaritaville expanded to more than 20 openings, including restaurants in Jamaica, New Orleans, Charleston, South Carolina, and Orlando, Florida, and more, in addition to themed merchandise and clothing.
Buffett, who died on September 1, 2023, at 76 after a long battle with cancer, was estimated to be worth $1 billion, according to a Forbes report in April 2023, and his 28 percent stake in Margaritaville Holdings was reportedly worth an estimated $180 million.
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016, and “Margaritaville” is still playing somewhere—and anywhere there are Parrotheads.
Photo: Julie Skarratt / Courtesy of Press House PR
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