One Margarita

Album: Born Here Live Here Die Here (2020)
Charted: 19
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "One Margarita" is a tropical drinking tune where a carefree Luke Bryan is sitting by the waterside sipping the tequila-based cocktail. A mariachi band accompanies the singer during the feel-good number.
  • A margarita is a Mexican-American cocktail consisting of tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice. It's believed to have been named after Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth. (The film star's real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino.) The drink was first mixed in the 1940s and named the "Drink of the Month" in Esquire magazine, December 1953. Jimmy Buffet's 1977 song "Margaritaville" further popularized the tropical cocktail, which has since been used by songwriters to symbolize a carefree Caribbean lifestyle.
  • Michael Carter, Matt Dragstrem and Josh Thompson co-wrote the tropical drinking tune.
  • The video finds Bryan cavorting on a Mexican beach at his January 2020 Crash My Playa concert event. The singer enlisted the help of a few of his friends for the clip. Caylee Hammack, Jon Langston, Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley, songwriter Dallas Davidson, as well as his wife Caroline and mom LeClaire join him out on the sand.
  • Luke Bryan actually sings of drinking three margaritas and a shot. Speaking during a conversation with late-night TV host Seth Meyers, Bryan shared how the lyric has become a popular drink order for fans to send him and his wife when they're dining out in Nashville.

    "I'm like, well, guys, I appreciate the sentiment and the gesture, but I don't really need to black out here at me and my wife's go-to restaurant," he said. "It's becoming the thing where people just expect me to down three margaritas and take a shot of tequila and just, you know, hop in the car and start rammin' cars as I fly out of the parking lot."

Comments: 2

  • Jay from New YorkWho sings along with Luke in One Margarita? I love his deep voice!
  • Mccurry from Manitoba CanadaCopy write. One magareta was written by me nearly ten years ago. I only told it to one person. How is it that now others are profiting from my work! How do I confront this use of my unpublished work? If I had a nickle for everytime I have heard it played I would be debit free! How did it become credited to someone else!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Rupert Hine

Rupert HineSongwriter Interviews

Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke ParksSongwriter Interviews

U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.

Trucking Songs That Were #1 Hits

Trucking Songs That Were #1 HitsSong Writing

The stories behind the biggest hit songs about trucking.

Jimmy Jam

Jimmy JamSongwriter Interviews

The powerhouse producer behind Janet Jackson's hits talks about his Boyz II Men ballads and regrouping The Time.

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top Proverb

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top ProverbSong Writing

How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.

David Bowie Leads the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men

David Bowie Leads the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired MenSong Writing

Bowie's "activist" days of 1964 led to Ziggy Stardust.