To get you into the Holiday spirit, here’s Jimmy Buffett performing “Ho, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Rhum” on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1996.

Is that a lion playing the guitar or Mac McAnally? 🙂

We’ve parsed the numbers… here’s the top Buffett World headlines from 2010, taking into account page views and Facebook ‘Likes’.

What do you think is the biggest Jimmy Buffett story of the year?

1. Jul. 11th – Buffett & Friends Play for The Gulf Coast
2. Jan. 20th – Margaritaville to Open in Niagara Falls This Spring
3. Nov. 24th – Buffett to Play Australia in January
4. May 13th – Margaritaville Hotel Coming to Pensacola Beach
5. Mar. 19th – Jimmy Buffett and Zac Brown do CMT Crossroads
6. Feb. 12th – Buffett Releases Live Acoustic Album “Encores”
7. Mar. 25th – Buffett Being Considered for 2011 Super Bowl
8. Jun. 13th – Margaritaville Beach Hotel Planned for Myrtle Beach
9. Jun. 28th – Gulf Coast Concert Rescheduled for July 11th
10. Jun. 20th – Buffett Announces Free Show for the Gulf

We’ll do a full 2010 Year In Review in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for that!

After beating out Planet Hollywood back in April, a Margaritaville hotel and resort received final approval from Hollywood, Florida city commissioners on Wednesday:

Hollywood commissioners gave their blessing for Margaritaville, a vast 17-story resort hotel that promises to change the face of the beach.

The Jimmy Buffett-themed resort won’t break ground for another year, but visitors and locals already are waking up to the clatter of saws, hammers and construction trucks.

Lon Tabatchnick, developer for the $130-million Margaritaville, believes that the Jimmy-Buffett-themed hotel/resort will finally be the catalyst that the beach needs to make it a sought-after vacation destination — and, in time, lure other investors.

The resort, to be built on a six-acre stretch at Johnson Street and the Broadwalk, will have 350 rooms, a pool with a wave simulator, restaurants, a 22,000-square-foot banquet room, parking garage, shops and event areas.

The new entertainment complex, with eateries like Captain Tony’s and dishes like Volcano Nachos, will fit right in with Hollywood’s no-fuss vibe, Tabatchnick said.

The Margaritaville resort is expected to open in three years.

Check this out…. a home Christmas light display set to the tune of Jimmy Buffett’s Christmas Island:

(hat tip Rick)

Sam Gazdziak at The 9513 has a good writeup on how “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” came to be a song, and how it fell into the hands of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett:

The timing on the song was so perfect, that the time from when it was written to when it was released to radio was about three months, a rarity in the industry. Brown recorded the demo, which was initially pitched to Kenny Chesney, but his team passed.

“I think they wanted to not do so much beachy stuff anymore,” he says. “If we had gotten it to him three years earlier, he probably would have jumped on it, but the timing wasn’t right.”

Fortunately, Alan Jackson was looking for a song that he could cut with his friend Jimmy Buffett, and Gary Overton, then the head of EMI Publishing Nashville, turned him on to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”

The song was released in June, 2003, and was an immediate hit, debuting at #31 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It eventually spent a total of eight weeks at #1 and made it to #17 on the pop charts. It also won the Country Music Association Vocal Event of the Year award in 2003. Not bad for Brown’s first ever single.

Read the full article here.

Watch Alan and Jimmy perform the song at the 2003 CMA Awards, and also watch their acceptance speech for Vocal Event of the Year.