Jimmy Buffett – Door Number Three

No I didn’t get rich you son of a bitch
I’ll be back just wait and see
Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

lets make a deal.png

Jimmy Buffett passed away recently. In the mid-eighties, I found his music and really liked what I heard. He wasn’t country and he wasn’t pop…he was on his own island so to speak. His concerts were like parties…a perfect place to take a date. I was lucky to see him twice.

Songs like A Pirate Looks At 40 is a fine song. Come Monday has its charm also. This one is a silly one and not one of his greats but I always liked it.

Does anyone remember Let’s Make a Deal? It was a game show in the 1970s where contestants would dress up to get the host  Monty Hall’s (host) attention and try to win prizes.

This game show originally aired from 1963-1977. The premise of this is that the studio audience participated in the show. Other game shows at the time were comprised of contestants that were pre-selected and the audience was merely there to observe. Let’s Make a Deal was surprisingly different. Monty Hall, the host, began the show by wandering throughout the studio, choosing audience members at random to try their hand at a game of chance.

Monty Hall was a likable host and it is evident that he had fun with his job. He hosted around 5,000 episodes before handing his position off to Wayne Brady. People would dress in the most outlandish costumes so Monty would pick them. He would ask…do you want $200 or what’s behind door number 1, 2, or 3? Sometimes the prizes were cars and furniture and sometimes it would be a donkey or something else ridiculous. Box Carol Merrill is the lady who would reveal the “prizes” that you won. 

Box Carol Merrill

A friend of mine, a guitar player, started to sing this song while we were learning some cover songs. I thought it was one of his, that happened a lot, but when I found it was Buffett I had to hear it. Of course, we never learned it but it sounds like a parody of a country song.

In the 1980s I worked on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville. I was with a work friend and we went to see one of his buddies who worked in a huge car lot. It was one of those huge semi-circle buildings with large windows. His buddy had this old wood desk and he was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. He told us that Jimmy Buffett would come to that car lot in the 70s and sit at a certain desk drinking with the owner. He said when he left that job he was going to try keeping the desk…and I have to wonder if he ever got it?  The building is gone now.

Love this song by Jimmy Buffett. It was released in 1974 on the A1A album. The album did include the song “A Pirate Looks at 40.” Door Number Three did manage to make it to #88 in the Country Charts.

Paul McCartney on Jimmy Buffett: It seems that so many wonderful people are leaving this world, and now Jimmy Buffett is one of them. I’ve known Jimmy for some time and found him to be one of the kindest and most generous people.

I remember once on holiday when I had forgotten to bring my guitar and was itching to play. He said he would get me one of his, but I said, ‘I’m left-handed’. So, Jimmy had his roadie restring one of his guitars which he loaned me for the duration of the holiday. He then followed this act of generosity by giving me my own beautiful left-handed guitar that had been made by one of his guitar-making pals. It’s a beautiful instrument, and every time I play it now it’ll remind me of what a great man Jimmy was.

He had a most amazing lust for life and a beautiful sense of humour. When we swapped tales about the past his were so exotic and lush and involved sailing trips and surfing and so many exciting stories that it was hard for me to keep up with him.

Right up to the last minute his eyes still twinkled with a humour that said, ‘I love this world and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it’.

So many of us will miss Jimmy and his tremendous personality. His love for us all, and for mankind as a whole.

Last, but not least, is his songwriting and vocal ability. If someone made an interesting remark he repeated it in his gorgeous Louisiana drawl and said, ‘That’s a good idea for a song’. Most times it didn’t take too long for that song to appear. I was very happy to have played on one of his latest songs called ‘My Gummy Just Kicked In’. We had a real fun session and he played me some of his new songs. One, in particular, I loved was the song, ‘Bubbles Up’. And I told him that not only was the song great but the vocal was probably the best I’ve heard him sing ever. He turned a diving phrase that is used to train people underwater into a metaphor for life when you’re confused and don’t know where you are just follow the bubbles – they’ll take you up to the surface and straighten you out right away.

So long, Jim. You are a very special man and friend and it was a great privilege to get to know you and love you. Bubbles up, my friend.

“Door Number Three”

Oh I took a wrong turn, it was the right turn
My turn to have me a ball
Boys at the shop told me just where to stop
If I wanted to play for it all
I didn’t know I’d find her on daytime TV
My whole world lies waiting behind door number three

I chose my apparel, wore a beer barrel
And they rolled me to the very first row
I held a big sign that said “Kiss me I’m a baker,
and Monty I sure need the dough!”
Then I grabbed that sucker by the throat
Until he called on me
Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

And I don’t want what Jay’s got on his table
Or the box Carol Merrill points to on the floor
No, I’ll hold out just as long as I am able
Until I can unlock that lucky door
Well, she’s no big deal to most folks
But she’s everything to me
Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

Oh Monty, Monty, Monty, I am walking down your hall
Got beat, I lost my seat but I’m not a man to crawl
No I didn’t get rich you son of a bitch
I’ll be back just wait and see
Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three
Yes my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

37 thoughts on “Jimmy Buffett – Door Number Three”

      1. Probably the worst show of that era was “Supermarket Sweep”. Contestants raced the clock (and each other) to fill a shopping cart. The contestant with the highest value of food won. It quickly devolved when folks figured out to go straight to the meat counter and load up on steaks. It could have gotten to “Jerry Springer” or “Rollerball” level as folks fought over tenderloins and T-bones, but I think it was canceled before that.

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      2. I’ve seen an upadated game show like that..but now I will have to look that up! The game shows I grew up on were Match Game (my favorite), Lets Make a Deal, and The Price Is Right.

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  5. a fun song. Jimmy really had a pretty great life, having fun, making a lot of people happier at his concerts, and with him hitting it lucky with ‘Margaritaville’, able to do anything much he wanted to. Thankfully he seemed like a really good guy, as Paul M made reference to.
    I sometimes watched ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ as a kid. It’s remarkable Monty Hall is still more or less a household name all these years later.

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    1. I watched that show as a kid also. I guess it was the costumes and all of the colors that people would dress in. I loved when they picked the curtain…a goat or something would be there after giving up a car.
      It’s a fun song.

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    1. Oh yea…he had a good time…I’m sure of it. That story I told about the desk…well it wasn’t beer or whiskey… it was a certain white powder but I didnt’ want to leave that in…but it was the seventies.

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  8. I went to look up something about Carol Merrill and learned that “Door Number Three” was co-written by Jimmy Buffett and Steve Goodman (“City of New Orleans”). Looks like they co-wrote 5 songs and Buffett recorded several other Goodman songs. On an unrelated note (except that it’s 1974), PBS just made the first episode of “Austin City Limits” available to stream. It features Willie Nelson, recorded in October 1974.

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    2. Christian our internet is down…I’m on my phones hot spot service…it’s weak where I live…I’ll get to your blog when we have internet again…I can’t play videos.

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      4. Oh I meant “internet” only…we have power thankfully…but we live in the middle of nowhere and our cell service is spotty at best…so my phone is not exactly lightning fast with service. I turned my hotspot on my phone and I’m connected to it with my laptop. I hate commenting on a phone.

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  11. Good post, Max. Macca went on at length about the old gent and that is saying something. Cute song and I may get a boo for saying this but it reminds me that Gram Parsons tune you posted not that long ago.

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    1. Oh that wouldn’t be surprising…that Gram Parsons and Emmylou song I posted got more views than anything I’ve posted in years. I can’t figure that one out Lisa. I love it…but…I had no clue that many people would want to view it.

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  12. I associate this song with the late, great Steve Goodman. Steve Goodman, in addition to writing the beautiful “City of New Orleans” that Arlo Guthrie had a hit with, wrote some fantastic, and hilarious songs, and was a wonderful entertainer. Had the chance to see him one night at the Troubadour and it was so much fun. He and John Prine were good buddies. This song appears on his second (I think) album, with Marvin Gardens (pseudo Jimmy Buffett) appearing.

    Steve wrote, and gave credit to his good friend John Prine for helping, what Steve would introduce as the greatest country song of all time, “You Never Even Call Me By My Name”. I don’t follow country well enough to remember who had a hit with it, but it is a Steve Goodman song.

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