Top 100 Songs of Summer #1 “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett

Our Hamptons summer journey is over, the trip from Memorial Day to Labor Day was a good one, but like you, we’re not ready to let go—not now and, truth be told, not ever. So, with the endless summer spirit in mind, the Number One slot in our Top 100 Songs of Summer Countdown belongs to North Haven’s own Calypso poet, the one man who knows how to keep the summertime party going better than anyone.

Hamptons 100 Songs of Summer #1

“Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett

When Jimmy Buffett put out his album Songs You Know by Heart: Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hit(s) in 1985, that parenthetical was an inside joke among Parrot Heads everywhere and a self-aware nod to his biggest success. At that point, he was not the mega-multimedia-mogul that he is today. There were no Margaritaville tequilas or blenders or frozen shrimp—none of it. His following was loyal, yes, but his mainstream fame was buoyed at the time by this one 1977 song about that frozen concoction that helps us all hang on from time to time. It went to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and went on to fuel an empire and create a state of mind.

It has been called the most lucrative song ever written, and that may be true based on the reach of its corporate extensions, including 27 Margaritaville cafes around the world. But had it never made a dime, had Buffett never made another record, it would still deserve its place atop this list, as no song better embodies the laidback lifestyle spirit of the season. In its search for that lost shaker of salt, “Margaritaville” does what so many songs in our Top 100 do, only better than all the rest—it transports you to another place every time it plays, a place where, even when we’re staring at eight feet of snow, it is perpetually summertime.