US musician Jimmy Buffett, best known for his hit song Margaritaville, dies aged 76

American singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett has died, his family has said.(AP: Matt Sayles)

US singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, best known for his hit songs Margaritaville and Come Monday, has died aged 76.

Buffett died on Friday "surrounded by his family, friends music and dogs", according to a post on social media platform X.

"He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many," the post read.

The news was also on his official website.

The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death.

Illness had forced him to reschedule concerts in May and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalised but provided no specifics.

Margaritaville

Buffett was a little-known singer songwriter when, after a rough night in Texas, he had a margarita at a bar.

Still sipping, he started scribbling a song on a cocktail napkin about "wastin' away again in Margaritaville". 

Released on February 14, 1977, the song quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those "wastin' away," an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those "growing older, but not up."

The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil.

Jimmy Buffet performs Margaritaville in 2016. Watch on YouTube! Click here!

The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love.

Somewhere there is a misplaced salt shaker.

"What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling," Spin magazine wrote in 2021.

"The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you're not even sure when."

The song — from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at Number 8.

Jimmy Buffett, pictured here in 2009, has died aged 76. 
(Carlos Barria, file photo: Reuters)

The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historic significance, became a karaoke standard and helped brand Key West, Florida, as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over.

"There was no such place as Margaritaville," Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021.

"It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach."

Margaritaville is also the namesake of a chain of businesses and products — including books, restaurants, a radio channel, a cruise line and 55-and-older living communities — that Buffett oversaw.

He landed at Number 13 in Forbes' America's Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $US550 million ($A851 million).

Buffett was also due to release a new album this year.

ABC/AP

First published at ABC News, September 2, 2023