August 25, 2023     —–     Chart #208

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Going for a deeper cut this week from one of my favorite artists. I have admitted to all of you SONGCHART fans before that I am an unapologetic parrot head, a diehard Jimmy Buffett fan. Here we are in the blast furnace heat of August and I need something to cool me off. Put this song on, fix something to drink with a lime in it, and put your feet in the water. A complete attitude reset for sure.

Barometer Soup is the nineteenth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. The album was released on MCA and Margaritaville Records on August 1, 1995. Today’s chart is the title track, Barometer Soup. Certainly not the chart topper of a song like Margaritaville, but this little gem always solicits a smile when I hear it.

Following the release of Fruitcakes in the previous year, Buffett returned to songwriting and recorded the collection in Key West, Florida in January and February 1995. The album continued Buffett’s album chart success begun with Fruitcakes and reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200. The album was also certified “Platinum” by the RIAA on December 19, 2004.

The first single from the album, “Mexico” reached No. 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart but “Bank of Bad Habits”, the second single, did not chart. You may remember “Mexico” from James Taylor who recorded the song he wrote in 1975 and released it on his Gorilla album.

As usual, Buffett went on tour in the summer of 1995, although instead of basing it on the album, he called it the “Domino College Tour”, after a song released on the box set three years prior; the song was co-written by Buffett and Dan Fogelberg. Songs from Barometer Soup still appeared regularly in the tour, including “Don’t Chu-Know”, “Diamond as Big as the Ritz” and “Mexico.” Played less frequently on the tour were “Jimmy Dreams”, the title track, “Bank Of Bad Habits” and “The Night I Painted the Sky.” One of my personal favorites is “Barefoot Children”.

If you have never heard this album, I strongly suggest you fill a cooler with your favorite adult beverage, turn your cell phone off, put your feet in a pool and waste a few hours listening to this one a time or two. It will clear your mind.

Enjoy!

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw