Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

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Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes cover
Studio album by Jimmy Buffett
Released January 1977
Recorded November 1976
Genre Rock
Length 41:28
Label MCA
Producer(s) Norbert Putman
Professional reviews
Jimmy Buffett chronology
Havana Daydreamin'
(1976)
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
(1977)
Son of a Son of a Sailor
(1978)


Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes is the breakthrough 1977 (see 1977 in music) album by Jimmy Buffett. The album remains the best selling album of Buffett's career, and contains his biggest single, "Margaritaville".

Changes, although very popular and critiquely well received, was a transitional album on several levels for Buffett. In a commercial sense, it ushered in Buffett's greatest period of chart/airplay popularity - changing him from an FM cult favorite and minor hitmaker to a top-draw touring artist who's albums sold in the millions, receiving regular AM airplay at the time. Changes would be followed by equally popular and more grandiose expressions of Buffett's "Caribbean Soul" on Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978) and Volcano (1979). All of these albums would combine pop, bar-band rock, country, folk, and reggae influences with the professional production of Norbert Putnam.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes peaked at #2 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, and at #12 on the Pop Albums chart.

Changes also represented the beginning of the end of the "Key West Albums" (White Sportcoat & A Pink Crustacean (1973), A1A (1974), Havana Daydreamin' (1975)). It is these four albums that capture the feel of early 1970s Key West and Buffett's experiences as a struggling musician and storyteller. Although the albums are not exclusively about Key West, they detail the laid back island ethos of the small island city and its pre-"condo commando" status as an American Casablanca...a place where no one knows your name and would not care if they did. At the time, Key West was a derelict navy town looking for a direction and was filled with small bars and restaurants craving troubadours like Buffett, Steve Goodman, Jerry Jeff Walker, and others who would play for bar money. The albums document life in the Gulf Region ("Biloxi", "Banana Republics", "Wonder Why We Never Go Home") with displays of touring craziness ("Miss You So Badly"). After Changes, Buffett's scope grew to include the entire Caribbean and, later, the vast expanse of what became "world music". Buffett's Key West experiences would pepper his later work (even recording his albums in Key West's Shrimpboat Sound), but not like it did in the 1973-1977 period. It is this period, along with the 1978 and 1979 albums that created the mythos Jimmy Buffett has parlayed into icon status as a performer, restaurateur, entrepreneur, author, and celebrity.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (Buffett) – 3:15
  2. "Wonder Why We Ever Go Home" (Buffett) – 3:51
  3. "Banana Republics" (Burgh/Goodman/Rothermel) – 5:11
  4. "Tampico Trauma" (Buffett) – 4:35
  5. "Lovely Cruise" (Baham) – 3:54
  6. "Margaritaville" (Buffett) – 4:09
  7. "In the Shelter" (Buffett) – 4:00
  8. "Miss You So Badly" (Buffett/Taylor) – 3:41
  9. "Biloxi" (Winchester) – 5:38
  10. "Landfall" (Buffett) – 3:14

[edit] Personnel

  • Jimmy Buffett - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Vocals
  • Roger Bartlett - Guitar
  • David Bryant - Vocals
  • Kenneth A. Buttrey - Conga, Drums
  • Harry Dailey - Bass, Vocals
  • Michael Gardner - Drums
  • Michael Jeffrey - Guitar, Vocals
  • Sheldon Kurland - Strings
  • Marty Lewis - Engineer
  • Farrell Morris - Percussion
  • Billy Puett - Flute, Horn, Recorder
  • Norbert Putnam - Producer, String Arrangements
  • Alex Sadkin - Assistant Engineer
  • Greg "Fingers" Taylor - Harmonica
  • Mike Utley - Keyboards
  • Michael Utley - Organ, Piano, Arranger, String Arrangements
  • Frank Mulvey - Art Direction
  • Norbert Putman - Producer
  • Tim Bryant - Design
  • Tom Corcoran - Photography

[edit] Charting singles

Billboard (North America)

1977       Margaritaville                              Adult Contemporary   No. 1
1977    Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes  Country Singles      No. 24
1977    Margaritaville                              Country Singles      No. 13
1977    Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes  Pop Singles          No. 37
1977    Margaritaville                              Pop Singles          No. 8