Margaritaville: The story of how a rejected song became a billion-dollar enterprise
It is often said that you don’t know true happiness until you are at your lowest, and that is certainly a philosophy that American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett would subscribe to. From his lowest point, a time of failed musical efforts, a depleted bank balance, and suicidal thoughts, he created the euphoric anthem ‘Margaritaville’, a colossal hit that would later spawn a billion-dollar business. Initially, though, the track was rejected outright.
Buffett had been a struggling musician in the clubs and bars of New Orleans during the late 1960s before moving north to Tennessee to pursue country music. However, the American music scene of the time was largely preoccupied with hard rock and disco; Buffett was a relic of the past, and there was no room for him in the musical mainstream of the 1970s. Dejected and in need of a hit song, Buffett decided to take a break, heading to the beach to clear his mind. Unfortunately, the trip proved to be anything but relaxing, with Buffett losing his flip-flops, cutting his foot, and – to top it all off – running out of salt for his margarita.
Using this miserable experience as an opportunity for catharsis, Buffett began working the events into lyrics for a new song. The song was meant to be an indictment of tourists in Key West, Florida, where Buffett had an apartment. After writing out the lyrics in, give or take, six minutes, Buffett took the track to producer Norbert Putnam, who promptly told him, “That’s a terrible idea for a song.”
Undeterred, Buffett persevered with the song, and eventually, a rough demo entitled ‘Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville’ proved to Putnam that the track had hit potential. Upon its public release as ‘Margaritaville’ in 1977, the song provided Buffett with his first and, if we’re being honest, only hit song. Peaking at number eight in the US singles chart, ‘Margaritaville’ was the smash hit that Buffett had been chasing for so long, and he certainly did not let the opportunity go to waste.
Finding an audience for the sun-soaked optimism of the song, in those who preferred Hawaiian shirts and cocktails to suits and red wine, Buffett quickly sought to capitalise on the success of the track. Although he failed to recapture the commercial success of the single within his music, the songwriter managed to build upon the success of his one-hit-wonder through the world of hospitality.
In the wake of the song, Buffett established ‘Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’, a retail store that found success in Key West – the same place that Buffett had sought to oust tourists from. The success of the merchandise store soon snowballed, and the business went on to incorporate more stores, as well as restaurants, hotels and resorts. Spread across North America, the Caribbean, and even Australia, ‘Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’ is a billion-dollar business that was born out of a kitsch, easy-listening song about cocktails.
With ‘Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’ still operating at countless locations across the world, even after the death of Jimmy Buffett in 2023, it is fair to say that the songwriter certainly proved Norbert Putnam, who had doubted the song initially, dead wrong. Although it may not have been the successful music career Buffett had aimed for, he seemed fairly content to live out his days sipping cocktails and bringing a slice of sunshine to locations across the world.
