Top Ten Songs by Jimmy Buffett

Making a top ten list for Jimmy Buffett is tough for me because (a) I don’t consider myself a diehard Parrot Head and so I’m sure I’m missing some hidden gem only they know about, while (b) I also do know and like more than ten Jimmy Buffet songs beyond the traditional Margaritaville and Cheeseburger In Paradise. So, to compile this list, I’m just going to put down ten songs that to me, showcase what I like best about Buffett: his colorful, often beautiful lyrics and his sense of fun and adventure. This list of ten top Buffett songs is by no means in any real order, and it certainly doesn’t encompass all his best songs.

1-Pascagoula Run. To me, this song, about a young Jimmy being taken off on an adventure with his uncle, captures the real Jimmy Buffet spirit of traveling, having fun, seeing the exotic. The lyrics like “time to see the world,” “time to cross the wild meridian” seem to be appropriate charges to anyone venturing into Buffet music for the first time. (Try also: Cuban Crime of Passion)

2-The Wino And I Know. There are some great lines in this one, some of my favorite Buffet lyrics. I mean, hey, you know any song that begins “The ice cream man is a hillbilly fan” is going to have something interesting to say. There are all sorts of lyrics here, gentle odes to donuts, tales of first bar fights, and a line that seems to summarize again, the Buffet mentality: “living my life like a song.” (Try also: Incommunicado, The Good Fight)

3-Last Mango In Paris. This Jimmy Buffet song from 1985 contains maybe (gotta hedgeâÂ?¦) my favorite Buffet lyric of all time: “Our lives change like the weather, but a legend never dies”. The refrain doesn’t always exhilarate me on the rehearing, but I love the song’s story of one mysterious man’s adventures.

4-Banana Republics. Jimmy Buffet is often at his best painting us pictures of not just scenery and ocean views, but the people and the atmosphere of a place. I love the melancholy and the intrigue that runs through this song. “None of the natives are buying any second hand American dreams.” “You know that you cannot trust them/cause they know they can’t trust you.” It’s like a little movie. (Also try: One Particular Harbor)

5- Fruitcakes. This song, off the same-titled album, has a zany quality about it that most Buffett fans would surely associated with the man himself. “Walk naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week” is a favorite song of mine. I also like some of his reflections on contemporary society and the voice of the recurring nagging woman that appears in so many Buffet songs “I treat my body like a temple, you treat yours like a tent.” (Also try: Cheeseburger In Paradise, Coconut Telegraph)

7- Havana Daydreaming. In this song, Jimmy Buffett again creates a mood, one less sad than in Banana Republics. Sugar cane fields in the heat, a guy wanting a better life than his father, ceiling fans and cigar smoke, transient love. It’s all there in one Story and atmosphere. Vivid and wistful. Great Buffett.

8- Pencil Thin Mustache. I like this song because it’s a departure from the boats and the booze. It’s got a jazzy little melody like someone could do a little soft shoe routine to. And some unique lyrics like “Rama of the Jungle was everyone’s Bawana/But only jazz musicians were smoking marijuana.” That’s not a couplet you see everyday. Plus, you feel like you get a look into part of the childhood that created Jimmy Buffet. (Also try: Stars Fell on Alabama, Frank & Lola)

9- Fins. I know this is something of a clichÃ?© Jimmy Buffett song, but I can’t help putting it on my personal top ten. I love the music and the funny lyrics about a woman negotiating her way through losers, plus the story of this poor woman trying to “maybe keep her dreams afloat.” It’s just a fun song. (Also try: Boat Drinks)

10- Remittance Man. I know I’m going out on a limb listing this song off Barometer Soup as a top ten, but, as I mentioned, this is just really a list of ten songs I like. Here, I think Buffett’s at maybe his most poetic, talking about a lonely, misunderstood world-traveling man with a thankless job. I forget what a Remittance Man really does, but it’s in the liner notes.