Yacht Rock

Twice over the past week, I've been reminded of the music genre “yacht rock”. Wikipedia describes this type of music as “the West Coast sound” or “adult-oriented rock”, commonly associated with soft rock in the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.

It’s music that focuses on light, catchy melodies along with clean vocals and the name was actually coined in 2005 by the makers of the online video series Yacht Rock. It was derived from its association with the popular Southern Californian leisure activity of sailing.

The music typically combines elements of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock. You’ll hear very little acoustic guitar but a lot of Fender Rhodes electric piano. Lyrically, songs can go from loving to torturous and some combine both! There are stories of love, lost love and of course boats.

The names of the bands were usually terrible - Bread, Looking Glass, Ace and Pilot (just to name a few). But at this period of time, they were the hit makers of AM radio.

Music producers like Ted Templeman and Gary Katz brought intense precision to their soft rock and jazz fusion recordings. This production has helped define the sound of a yacht rock song.

Personally, I always felt there was a mystical, magical-ness to each song. Aside from hoisting the jib, there were probably mermaids around or laser shows happening at the same time. If you weren’t on an actual yacht, you’d probably listen to a lot of this while on roller skates.

We kick everything off with “Sailing” by Christoper Cross. The song also won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Arrangement of the Year, and helped Cross win the Best New Artist award.

Other highlights include “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan & John Ford Coley. Hat-tip to my friend Dave Festini for his true love of this song. It’s a beautiful piece of schlock about a guy who isn’t talking about moving in - but when the warm wind blows the stars around - he’d really like to see you tonight. How could any woman resist?

The other one I’ll highlight basically asks the musical question - what things would you do for love (pre-Meatloaf musical question). Well, the band 10cc wrote a three-minute song about it. Like walking in the rain and the snow when there’s nowhere to go. Is that something you’d do for love?

So grab your ascot and captain's hat and let’s get to the music. The playlist (link here) is 30 songs strong, almost two full hours of chart-topping tunes. Now maybe you think I’m sounding like a Time-Life infomercial - and maybe you’re right. I hope you have as much fun listening to this as I did putting it together. If you’ve got a favorite I forgot, let me know in the comments.