Yacht Rock ... Now that's some smooooth music!

IMO, that list is very wrong. There’s too much on there that isn’t remotely Yacht Rock. If you’re new to the genre, that list can give the wrong idea and create a lot of confusion.

 

Yeah, I saw the other thread and garnered that it's a Michael McDonald yacht party.

 

I created a playlist just now on Spotify for "Yacht Rock". Spotify immediately recommended the following songs, even before I'd added a single track:

What A Fool Believes
I Keep Forgettin'
This Is It
Sailing
Rosanna
Hey Nineteen
Biggest Part Of Me
Summer Breeze
Lowdown
Baker Street

For anybody who argued Steely Dan weren't Yacht Rock...you lose!

 

Well, "Hey Nineteen" is from the one album there isn't much of an argument against, as far as it being Yacht. Not that Spotify's algorithm gives a hoot.

 

This very fine new track from Young Gun Silver Fox has a yacht rock vibe to my ears, sounding like it would have blended well in a FM rock mix from around 1981 or ‘82.

 

For 21st Century "yacht" rock:


Cody Simpson: Free (2015)
Sugar Ray (from the '90s): Little Yachty. Released 7/26/2019



CODY SIMPSON - "Free" Full Album 2015

 

Thankfully there is a separate thread for those songs.
Death to false yacht rock!

 

As to the debate about Steely Dan, they definitely had a lot of the musical qualifications, but their lyrics didn't really cover the typical Yacht Rock territory. Remember, Becker and Fagen prided themselves on the fact that they never wrote a love song, their lyrics were often cynical and even acerbic. So in my humble opinion, they actually created a separate category: they were the founding fathers of Yacht Punk. Makes sense to me anyway.

 

They were definitely les enfants terribles of Yacht Rock.

 

So Aja is NOT yacht rock, then?

 

Great way to put it.

 

Didn't say that. I said there wasn't much of an argument against Gaucho being Yacht. Aja could be considered "Ground Zero" for Yacht, as its sound was the basis for pretty much anything considered Yacht that came after. It's not, however, as fully Yacht as Gaucho is on a track-by-track basis.

 

Okay, that makes sense, thanks for replying I actually spun Aja earlier today and thought it was quite a proto-Yacht album. The lyrics aren't as openly decadent and hedonistic as Gaucho's, but the direction is already the right one. And the 'loser' type, typical of many a yacht rock track, is already very much present on Aja.

 

I recently listened to Player albums and found a few other enjoyable songs on there....good soft rock band..
but Baby Come Back is definitely one for smooth sailing

 

I like their followup single "Prisoner Of Your Love." Only reached #27 in Billboard for some reason.

 

my online discovery was this one album artist, not sure if it's been mentioned here, smooth and catchy soft rock tunes

Wilson Bros - Take me to your heaven

 

I think this project of Richard Page should have received more recognition, smooth soft rock

Pages - If I Saw You Again (1978)

 

All three albums are currently available on iTunes.

 

Help a brother out finding a yacht rock song. Well folks I need some help finding a song.

 

'The Weekend' by Steve Wariner

 

They are NOT yacht rock---but some of their songs fit smoothly into the format.

Similarly, it would be sacrilegious to call Roxy Music's Avalon Yacht rock, but it also fits the format.

 

Steely Dan and Michael McDonald are both squarely in the Yacht Rock bullseye. Can't get any more Yachty than that.

Sirius/XM radio has featured a Yacht Rock station for about 5 years now. I've noticed suddenly this year they are including some songs on the station that they've never played before and, frankly, aren't Yacht Rock. They're playing Simon & Garfunkel, "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins, early Chicago (i.e. pre-Peter Cetera), "Kyrie" by Mr. Mister - I don't consider any of that to be Yacht Rock. But the debate rages on I suppose...

 

OK well then Nick Drake is Yacht! Take that! (One of these things first? Hazey Jane? Ah...River Man)

 

The darker side of yacht rock, for sure.