If someone who saw Jimmy Buffett during the early days of his career--say 1972, when he was the opening act at a Miami coffeehouse/club called the Flick--was plucked from the past and deposited in the midst of a modern-day Buffett concert, that person's jaw would drop lower than Key West. Just as the Grateful Dead have their core following of Deadheads, Buffett's own loyal troops, called "Parrot Heads" due to their colorfully tropical taste in hats, are among the most colorful in pop history. Jimmy Buffett: Not just a singer, but a cultural icon.

How did it happen? Buffett (b. Dec. 25, 1946, Pascagoula, Miss.) had humble but well-educated beginnings, graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in history and journalism (he was a one-time Billboard correspondent) and a hankering to establish himself as a country singer. He moved to Nashville by the end of the '60s and recorded two albums for Barnaby, but neither sold, and his career floundered. Next stop: Miami, where an expected job didn't materialize--after which a near-broke Buffett took buddy Jerry Jeff Walker's advice and moved south to Key West.

Thereafter, Buffett's career swiftly kicked into gear. The cover of 1973's A White Sport Coat & A Pink Crustacean, his first album under a new deal with Dunhill (which would ultimately be absorbed by MCA), instantly established Buffett's redoubtable persona: A droopy-eyed, too-pleasant-to-be-smarmy Buffett was beaming barefoot atop a crate of Florida lobsters. With liner notes by local literary fixture Tom McGuane and the now-classic "Why Don't We Get Drunk" ("and screw" mysteriously missing from the official title) credited to one "Marvin Gardens," Buffett had produced a warm album of colorful story-songs that showed equal traces of humor, sentiment, and a keen grasp of Americana. With 1974's "Come Monday," Buffett produced his first hit single; his next, 1977's "Margaritaville," took him to the top 10 and gave him his first platinum album, Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes.

In one sense, Buffett enjoyed his peak record-selling years between 1977-79: He had three additional top 40 hits (Changes' title track, "Cheeseburger In Paradise" and "Fins") as well as one platinum (Son Of A Son Of A Sailor) and two gold (You Had To Be There: Jimmy Buffet In Concert and Volcano) albums in that timespan. Though he'd again nab platinum honors with 1985's Songs You Know By Heart compilation, by then he'd become much more than a mere record-seller. For his growing legion of fans, Buffett was an annual summer concert tradition in the same sense that the Beach Boys were; his records may not have been going quadruple platinum, but attendance at his concerts was booming, and he quickly became a regular top-grossing artist. At the same time, Buffett's creative juices were flowing in several other directions as well: He was an entrepreneur (he'd opened two retail operations, the Margaritaville Store & Cafe, first in Key West, then New Orleans); a crusader (he's been instrumental in Florida conservationists' efforts to save the manatee); a sailor (he'd bought a boat with his first big royalty check); a pilot (he flies his own single-engine amphibian plane); a record company head (he launched Margaritaville Records in 1992); and an author of both bestsellers (Where Is Joe Merchant? and Tales From Margaritaville) and childrens' books (The Jolly Mon and Trouble Dolls, co-written with his young daughter.

Not that Buffett's records don't continue to sell. Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, a four-CD career retrospective boxed set issued in 1992 went on to become MCA's biggest-selling boxed set ever. Another retrospective, Meet Me In Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection was released in 2003. And the Parrot Heads continue to increase in number: Buffett continues to make headlines as one of the biggest concert draws when he tours. "What gets so surreal to me is that I figured this was going to peak some time ago," he told a reporter. "I thought everybody would start going to somebody else's shows. But it hasn't happened."

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