Come Sail Away to Kokomo, but it might be Hot Hot Hot in Margaritaville!

Hello my favorite Monday peeps! As you know, Monday means music! This week’s theme is “Song about get-a-ways to chillaxing or anything that makes you think of summer fun”. Let’s get this chillaxing party started!

Let’s start with a song that takes you away on the high seas and beyond. This song, written by the keyboard player of this group, is about following your dreams by embarking on a journey into the unknown. In the second verse, he misses out on the pot of gold, but continues to carry on.

The song is a personal one for the keyboard player, who wrote it about struggling to break through to the next level with the band. Formed in the early 1970s, they built a solid fan base but were always the support act (for Bob Seger, Foghat, Rush, Kiss, Aerosmith, etc.), never the headliner.

Released as the first single from their seventh studio album, this song helped get them to this next level, as they became one of the top arena rock acts of the next few years. Interviewed in 2020, the keyboard player was asked about the meaning behind the song. He said:

“[This song] is a song about yearning to be in a better place. How do you get there? You go on a boat, on a ship, angels waving their wings as you ascend to heaven with them. Is there something going on? A starship to the stars? Are they aliens? Is it Captain Kirk? You tell me.” 

Give a listen to Styx, with “Come Sail Away”:

Next up, a little trip to a tropical beach to chillax. This song came together when the music producer was hired to work on a song with The Beach Boys for the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. The Beach Boys’ glory days were behind them, and they had been playing fairs and nostalgia shows. My friends and I saw them when they played at the Puyallup Fair (now known as the Washington State Fair) in 1988. Feels like yesterday!

They were one of the most popular bands of the ’60s and had a bunch of songs dealing with recreation and fun, which is why they were asked to record for the movie. Kokomo is a city in the middle of Indiana and is also a small resort owned by Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay; the title was made up. It was supposed to represent all the tropical places and images that people think of when wishing to escape to a paradise island and get away from dreary work life.

Fun fact: This was released in July 1988, but it didn’t gain traction until the movie came out a few months later and became a huge hit. When The Beach Boys played it live during concerts that summer, it got no response. Pay attention! John Stamos is playing the drums in this video.

Give a listen to The Beach Boys with “Kokomo”:

Next up is a song everyone associates with a tropical paradise. Back in June 1982, the charismatic soul-calypso singer from Montserrat, West Indies, recorded the hit song that introduced his music to a wider audience.

Originally an album track, it was released as a single in 1983 to great critical acclaim and became the artist’s first hit in the UK singles chart. It made the top ten in the Australian ARIA chart and launched the 34-year-old at the time onto the international stage.

People familiar with soul-calypso music (abbreviated to “soca”) dubbed him the King of Soca as a result. The rhythmic, dance-oriented musical style is most familiar in the Caribbean. The artist’s hit record became the biggest-selling soca single of all time and one of the most-played songs in history feel-good song for (outside) travel lovers, an ode to going the distance.

Cue it up when you’re packing your bags or planning your next adventure to a tropical paradise.

Get ready to dance, here’s Arrow with “Hot Hot Hot”:

Last but not least, you can never think of summer fun and chillaxing without thinking of this artist. He wrote this song in Key West, Florida, after he finished a tour with his group. They had just toured Texas, and he spent some time drinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant with a friend before returning to Key West. When he got there, he sat at the Old Anchor Inn watching gridlock on the roads, and used it as inspiration as he composed the song. His producer was quoted as saying:

“One day in the studio, he comes in and starts telling me about a day he had in Key West. He was coming home from a bar and he lost one of his flip-flops and he stepped on a beer can top and he couldn’t find the salt for his Margarita. He says he’s writing lyrics to it and I say ‘That’s a terrible idea for a song.’ He comes back in a few days later with ‘[this song]’ and plays it and right then everyone knows it’s a hit song. Hell, it wasn’t a song – it was a movie.”

This song has come to symbolize a carefree Caribbean lifestyle – what some in Key West call “Keys disease.” For many, the only time they experience this way of living is on vacations or at the artist’s concerts. The artist was born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama. He didn’t come to Key West, Florida, until 1971, when he was 24 years old. As a transplant, he had a perspective on the area that natives don’t, which helped him capture the ethos in this song.

He had always loved sailing, and when this song became a hit, he was thrilled because it meant he could finally buy his own boat. He said that even if he were a one-hit wonder, he would have been happy with his boat sailing around the islands.

Without further ado, here’s the late great Jimmy Buffett with “Margaritaville”:

And just for fun, here’s the version when Jimmy performed the song with Zac Brown Band:

That’s a wrap for this week – have a great Monday! See you on the dance floor!

Now, onto the particulars of Monday’s Music Moves Me:

I have the supreme honor and privilege of being a co-host with the inimitable Xmas Dolly and our musical cohort, the awesome Cathy from Curious as a CAThy, and Alana of Ramblin’ with AM!

Want to join in the fun? It’s easy – just find a tune that rocks your boat, post it and link up – don’t forget to grab Xmas Dolly…er, um, I mean her button…over at her place here. Check out Xmas Dolly’s sidebar for the random themes we sport each week – and you can always ask for a specific theme of music you like, too. Check out the other music lovahs and let’s jam!