Artist Jimmy Buffett

As curious an icon as pop music has churned out in decades (if not ever), Jimmy Buffett owes his staying power to breezy innocuousness and a cross-platform career strategy that has spanned three decades. He continues to draw on his remarkable ability to package himself and a few hit songs—“Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger In Paradise,” and so forth—as something as welcome and inevitable as the changing of the seasons. And here he is, yet again, to remind his legions of Parrotheads of all the luxuries that summer has to offer, getting drunk and screwing not least among them.

Updated 08/26/2010