#102 – Ragtop Day
#102 – Ragtop Day
-by Stacy Garwood-
There is nothing like a convertible car, top down, sunlight shining on you and wind streaming by as you cruise around enjoying an open top view of the world. And Jimmy Buffett was not a person to miss such a great opportunity for a song, and a great one he has given fans is his lovely and catchy song Ragtop Day, which paints a picture of a beautiful weekend adventure on a classy “ragtop” automobile.
“Throw all our cares away, It’s a ragtop day, It’s a ragtop day…”
Ragtop Day was recorded for and released on the 1984 album Riddles In The Sand. It was Jimmy’s thirteenth studio album and marked a feeling of moving more towards country music than the “Key West” and “island” vibration of his previous albums. The original working title of the album was Gulf And Western Music, which is a tag that Jimmy’s music has become known for. Honestly, the man created his own genre of music.
Riddles In The Sand was produced by Jimmy Bowen. Bowen had been a teenage singing star, with his 1957 song I’m Stickin’ With You selling over one million copies and hit #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Even with that hit, Bowen’s singing career struggled, and he moved into production and found his niche in the music industry. He was hired by Frank Sinatra to work for Reprise Records, and he worked with and produced hits for Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bert Kaempfert, as well as Frank Sinatra. With Sinatra, Jimmy Bowen produced the fabulous hit song Strangers In The Night, which went to #1 for Sinatra on charts all over the United States, Canada and Europe, won three Grammy’s and Record of the Year.
In the early seventies, Bowen left the Los Angeles music scene and headed for Nashville, where he produced hits with Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Sr., George Strait, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and the Oak Ridge Boys. His ability to blend both country and popular music must have felt like a great fit for Jimmy Buffett, who was forging forward in his own career, skirting the edges of country, folk, pop and soft rock.
And since Jimmy Bowen, who produced this album with Jimmy Buffett, had his arguably greatest production success working with Frank Sinatra, it feels like a good time to mention that Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Buffett also have a song connection. Jimmy Buffett also worked with Frank Sinatra, at least in a way. Frank Sinatra was doing a duet’s album and Jimmy was asked to sing along with Frank on the song Mack The Knife. Jimmy agreed immediately, because it was such an amazing honor. The song turned out wonderful, and I really enjoy the Frank and Jimmy duet version, but because of scheduling and studio conflicts, the two men recorded their versions separately, although with a little studio magic, you would never know they weren’t in the same studio while it was recorded. However it worked out, it was certainly an honor to be chosen to sing along with Frank Sinatra, as Jimmy has mentioned in several interviews.
Ragtop Day was the B-side to the single When The Wildlife Betrays Me, which was released in August of 1984.
“The five o-clock Friday blows, I let it go, I got to let it go, I put on my weekend clothes, Turn on the rock n’ roll…”
This song was cowritten by Jimmy Buffett and his long-time bandmate and friend Michael Utley, the very famous “Mr. Utley” from the song Volcano, and Will Jennings, who was starting to work with Jimmy as part of a songwriting team. Eventually they would be seen as long-term collaborators, but Riddles In The Sand marked the first time they wrote songs for an entire album together.
Last weeks’ song, Bring Back The Magic, was also cowritten by Will Jennings, and he worked with Jimmy on several future album sessions as well.
Jimmy, Michael Utley and Will Jennings have combined credits for eight of the ten songs on Riddles In The Sand, including Ragtop Day as well as Who’s The Blonde Stranger, When The Wildlife Betrays Me, Come To The Moon, Love in Decline, Burn That Bridge, Knee’s Of My Heart and La Vie Dasante.
Besides his cowriting with Jimmy, Will Jennings is known for cowriting Tears In Heaven with Eric Clapton and for writing My Heart Will Go On, made famous by Celine Dion for the Titanic Soundtrack, both of which were huge number one hits. He also has written or cowritten with Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, BB King, Rodney Crowell, Mariah Carey, Barry Manilow and the incomparable Roy Orbison.
“Classy little white and red turns everybody’s head, My baby meets me at the Five and Dime, She’s always right on time…”
Jimmy Buffett liked boats and he liked airplanes and over the years, he collected several. But he also liked cars and had a sweet spot for convertibles and owned several in his lifetime. In the Parrothead Handbook that came with the Boats, Beaches, Bar’s and Ballads box set, Ragtop Day made the Beaches disk and Jimmy wrote this about the song: “My mother was thought to be a little crazy by our neighbors when she bought a gold Ford Fairlane convertible instead of the standard housewife station wagon. I loved it. It started my convertible “thing” which still infects me. I’ve owned a long list of convertibles since that one, and I just don’t think that cars look right with tops on them.”
I don’t know how old Jimmy was when his mother brought that gold convertible home, but it obviously made an impression on him. I don’t know how many convertibles Jimmy might have owned over the years, but one of his cars made news a while back for being sold at auction. Jimmy had owned the car and sold it previously, but his fame and style was tied to that car, and I seen several news articles about it when it went up for auction in February of 2024.
It was a 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint convertible, and it was a lovely shade of blue that Jimmy seemed to like, although not the exact shade one will see on many of the boats Jimmy has owned over the years. This car is blue, a lovely shade of blue. I don’t know when Jimmy bought it or when he sold it, but while he had it, he modified it up by rodding up the engine for power and added a roll bar that was capable of carrying a surfboard, another thing that Jimmy was quite fond of as a past time. I know there have been a long list of vehicles over the years, but this one was recently making news, and I decided to mention it because I love that he had it modified to carry his surfboard.
The song lyrics mention a classy white and red car, and while I’m not sure of that was a car he owned, or dreamed of, or if it just fit the lyrics, but I can totally see the car from the song, rolling down a gulf coast highway with the top down and great tunes blasting as it passed by. Jimmy had a talent for painting a pretty accurate picture with his lyrics and that is one of the beautiful aspects of his song writing.
“Cruise across the county line, A little dance and dine, A drive in picture show, An when the midnight’s comin’ down, We’re heading back to town, She lets her lovin’ show…”
The lyrics paint a lovely picture of a road trip that starts in the late afternoon and ends sometime after the midnight hour and mentions several activities the couple in the convertible take part in, including some dancing and dining, a drive-in movie and a little lovin’. Jimmy performed this song live in concert many times over the years, and one of my favorite live albums of Jimmy’s was Live At Wrigley Field, and this song is given a staring roll in that concert. He mentions a little drive down Lake Shore Drive for this “ragtop day” and that “the top is down at Wrigley Field”. One thing that Jimmy was fabulous about with connecting both to his audience as well as the location of the venue where he was performing.
But even without a specific location in mind, a person can imagine themselves driving down any sunny highway, or any moonlit road, whether you are on the coast or not. It’s really an any time, any place song, and that is one of the things that connects so beautifully for this song. Cruising down A1A to Key West, Lake Shore Drive to Wrigley Field, Beach Boulevard Highway to the Flora-Bama, Route 61 to New Orleans, Route 91 to Aspen- it doesn’t matter where you are or where you are going, this song gets you there and connects to an audience no matter where you are from or where you have visited.
“Feels like we’re the only ones to see the morning sun, Sleepin’ through the afternoon and risin’ with the moon…”
“Oh don’t the stars look bright, It’s a ragtop night, It’s a rag top night…
Another thing this song does so well is the transition to sunny and shiny daytime to star-strewn nighttime. I love the day to night transition and how the lyrics seem to fit, no matter what aspect of the day or night a person is partaking of.
And convertible travel is great for any time of the day or night, as this song so beautifully points out. I think Jimmy must have enjoyed this song. He put it on several albums, both studio and live, and always seems to have fun while he and the Coral Reefers were performing.
An annual Father’s Day car show put this song on my mind, and of course there were several classic convertibles on display, and while none of them happened to be a classy red and white convertible, there was a yellow and white 1956 Thunderbird that really would be fun to take a cruise in, top down, of course. Looking at the cars on display, this song popped into my head and stayed there, prompting this post, and reminding me that every once in a while, it’s the right time for a “ragtop” day… or night!
“Throw all our cares away, It’s a ragtop day, It’s a ragtop day…”
“We roll all our cares away, It’s a ragtop day, It’s a ragtop day…”
“Oh don’t the stars look bright, It’s a ragtop night, It’s a rag top night…”
Stacy
Please enjoy Ragtop Day. I have included the links to both the 1984 studio version of this song, as well as a 2006 live version of the song, with Jimmy singing from the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, in the links below. Enjoy!
The links are from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
Other links that might be of interest:
https://www.mixonline.com/recording/jimmy-bowen-365891
Jimmy Buffett: The Pollstar Interview (Video) – Pollstar News
Jimmy Buffett’s Personal Falcon Convertible Is Ready for Beach Duty – Hagerty Media
