Mexico

Mexico opens Gorilla. It imagines a night in a border town, then turns near the end, when the singer confesses he has never been to Mexico. Taylor told Leeza Gibbons in 1992 that it came to him on a break from recording, during a long weekend with friends in Puerto Vallarta. The musicologist James Perone points to an abrupt key change, from E major up to F-sharp major, going into the refrain. David Crosby and Graham Nash sing harmony, with Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel in the band, and Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker producing.

Released as a single backed with Gorilla, it reached number 49 on the Hot 100 and number five on the adult contemporary chart. Cash Box praised its Latin beat, and Bud Scoppa in Rolling Stone called it delightful.

Live

setlist.fm logs more than 800 Taylor performances, from Columbus, Ohio, in May 1975 to Hollywood, Florida, in September 2026, which makes it the fifth most played song in his sets. Live versions appear on Live (1993) and Live at the Beacon Theatre (1998). Jimmy Buffett covered it on Barometer Soup in 1995, and Phoenix sampled it in 2010.