Download Instrumental    To all you working musicians out there, let’s face it – when you play a tune night after night for years, you can get mighty sick of it.  Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” is one of those unfortunate songs… as is “Brown-Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison (I USED to love that one).  But your audience is unforgiving – they want to hear it just like the original artist (sigh).

That’s why I loved it when Alan Jackson came out with a country version of “Margaritaville”, even though Buffett joined him on the last verse.  Jackson got a nice hit out of it, which gave bar band musicians leeway to play it a little differently and get away with it.  Now your crowd is saying, “Oh, that’s Jackson’s version…cool!”  See?  Everybody’s happy.  We stopped doing it Buffett’s way a long time ago.  I happen to like the country styling better (still kept the marimba though).

There has been a rumor floating around for years that Elvis was supposed to record “Margaritaville”.  When Buffett first penned the tune in Key West (sitting on his front porch strumming a guitar, watching tourists bake and shrimp boil), his first idea was to give it to “The King” to record, but Elvis died before that could happen.  Don’t know if I believe that story and Jimmy’s not talking.  I can’t see Elvis complaining about stepping on a pop-top on his way home to drink a gallon of Margaritas.  Just doesn’t fit somehow.

So, if you’re still singing this song the “Buffett” way and can’t stand it anymore, use these backups and go country!  As for “Brown-Eyed Girl”, we went from performing Van Morrison’s original to using the cover by….. Jimmy Buffett.  Go figure.