- Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha" who runs Berkshire Hathaway, writes an annual letter to shareholders reviewing the company's performance.
- He often uses song lyrics to describe his feelings about certain deals.
- Here are 10 songs that Buffett's reference over two decades of annual shareholder letters.
- Read more on Business Insider.
Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha" and leader of Berkshire Hathaway, is a long-time value investor, a mega Coca-Cola consumer, and avid ukulele player. He's also apparently a country music fan.
Over two decades of Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder letters, Buffett has used song lyrics to describe his feelings around an event or deal that occurred during the year many times. In fact, there are only a handful of years where Buffett doesn't mention a song lyric or title in an annual shareholder letter.
Of the 10 songs identified by Markets Insider that Buffett references in his annual shareholder letters from 1995 to present, only two aren't country.
One is "Some Enchanted Evening" by Richard Rodgers, a famous song from "South Pacific," the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The other is "Where or When," by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Buffett also references some songs multiple times. His favorite lyric to call upon is "When the phone don't ring, you'll know it's me," from a similarly titled song by George Jones. He uses the lyric to express "our feelings about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales," which has been a part of the company's acquisition criteria since at least 1995.
Even when song lyrics or titles aren't directly referenced, it's clear Buffett is a country music fan. In the 1996 annual shareholder letter, and a handful of letters since, he talked about the genre in trying to "reverse engineer" the future.
"Inverting really works: Try singing country western songs backwards and you will quickly regain your house, your car and your wife," he wrote.
Here are the 10 songs that Buffett has called upon in annual shareholder letters over the last two decades, plus what the song was in reference to.