The Surprising Rumor Jimmy Buffett Started About His Own Signature Song (That He Later Came To Regret)

If you’re going to start a rumor, you better be prepared for people to believe it (even if you’re ready for them to drop the whole thing). Jimmy Buffett encountered that tough life lesson after coming up with a tongue-in-cheek joke about a famous rock star almost covering his signature song, “Margaritaville”. It’s a song on which Buffett built his entire beachy empire, which makes the possibility of someone else singing it that much stranger.

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In hindsight, Buffett ought to have known that his loyal fan base of Parrotheads would believe whatever he said about the song, especially since his tall tale had to do with an artist most of his fan base would love, too. Various online retellings of Buffett’s fib and his own comments on the story show that it isn’t enough to take the Mayor of Margaritaville at his word.

But if you’ve had one too many, you might miss the subtle sarcasm.

Jimmy Buffett Regretted Coming up With This Rumor

Jimmy Buffett released “Margaritaville” as the lead single off his seventh album, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, on Valentine’s Day, 1977. It became Buffett’s most successful single, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. From his many themed business endeavors to mentions of “Margaritaville” in other songs, films, and television shows, the song quickly became Buffett’s signature. But as he let slip to the public, another artist was supposed to get first dibs on recording the track: the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. According to this story, Presley died before he could ever cut the record.

One of the most oft-cited pieces of evidence for this rumor is a Jimmy Buffett appearance on CMT Crossroads in 2009. But according to Paul Leslie of The Paul Leslie Hour, who was at the taping, Buffett was obviously pulling the crowd’s leg. “I’ll confess that he had me going for a moment,” Leslie wrote. “Who knew? Then it felt abundantly clear that it was all a joke when John Driskell Hopkins, the bass player for the Zac Brown Band, put on Elvis aviator shades and did his best Elvis vocal.”

If that wasn’t enough evidence to prove that the “Elvis almost recorded ‘Margaritaville’” rumor was just that, a rumor, Buffett said as much during a 60 Minutes interview. “On some days, I want to go to [the fans] and [say], ‘Get a life,’ you know? It’s just made up, you know?”

A Day Late and a Shaker of Salt Short

To be fair to Parrotheads everywhere, it’s not like the rumor of Elvis Presley covering Jimmy Buffett is totally absurd. The pair were contemporaries in the final years of Presley’s life, albeit in different realms of the popular music world. Even biographer Joseph A. Tunzi admits there is some evidence to suggest it could have happened. (If we’re to assume that Buffett only said he made the story up because he was in a bad mood that day.) Per Tunzi, Presley had a recording session booked in Nashville in January 1977.

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s team canceled the session, and Jimmy Buffett’s version came out the following month. Moreover, the music world is surprisingly small. Presley’s bassist at the time was also working as a producer on Buffett’s albums. Thus, it’s not totally outlandish that Presley could have caught wind of the song about drowning one’s woes in tequila, lime, and salt. However, Presley was more of a Gatorade guy than a margarita drinker.

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