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Ultimate Classic Rock

Top 50 Yacht Rock Songs

Yacht rock was one of the most commercially successful genres to emerge from the '70s and yet has managed to evade concise definition since its inception. For many listeners, it boils down to a feeling or mood that cannot be found in other kinds of music: Simply put, you know it when you hear it.

Some agreed-upon elements are crucial to yacht rock. One is its fluidity, with more emphasis on a catchy, easy-feeling melody than on beat or rhythm. Another is a generally lighthearted attitude in the lyrics. Think Seals & Crofts ' "Summer Breeze," Christopher Cross ' "Ride Like the Wind" or Bill Withers ' "Just the Two of Us." Yes, as its label suggests, music that would fit perfectly being played from the deck of a luxurious boat on the high seas.

But even these roughly outlined "rules" can be flouted and still considered yacht rock. Plenty of bands that are typically deemed "nyacht" rock have made their attempts at the genre: Crosby, Stills & Nash got a bit nautical with "Southern Cross," leading with their famed tightly knit harmonies, and Fleetwood Mac also entered yacht rock territory with "Dreams" – which, although lyrically dour, offers a sense of melody in line with yacht rock.

Given its undefined parameters, the genre has become one of music's most expansive corners. From No. 1 hits to deeper-cut gems, we've compiled a list of 50 Top Yacht Rock Songs to set sail to below.

50. "Thunder Island," Jay Ferguson (1978)

Younger generations might be more apt to recognize Jay Ferguson from his score for NBC's The Office , where he also portrayed the guitarist in Kevin Malone's band Scrantonicity. But Ferguson's musical roots go back to the '60s band Spirit; he was also in a group with one of the future members of Firefall, signaling a '70s-era shift toward yacht rock and "Thunder Island." The once-ubiquitous single began its steady ascent in October 1977 before reaching the Top 10 in April of the following year. Producer Bill Szymczyk helped it get there by bringing in his buddy Joe Walsh for a soaring turn on the slide. The best showing Ferguson had after this, however, was the quickly forgotten 1979 Top 40 hit "Shakedown Cruise." (Nick DeRiso)

49. "Southern Cross," Crosby, Stills & Nash (1982)

CSN's "Southern Cross" was an example of a more literal interpretation of yacht rock, one in which leftover material was revitalized by Stephen Stills . He sped up the tempo of a song titled " Seven League Boots " originally penned by brothers Rick and Michael Curtis, then laid in new lyrics about, yes, an actual boat ride. "I rewrote a new set of words and added a different chorus, a story about a long boat trip I took after my divorce," Stills said in the liner notes  to 1991's CSN box. "It's about using the power of the universe to heal your wounds." The music video for the song, which went into heavy rotation on MTV, also prominently displayed the band members aboard a large vessel. (Allison Rapp)

48. "Jackie Blue," the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (1974)

Drummer Larry Lee only had a rough idea of what he wanted to do with "Jackie Blue," originally naming it after a bartending dope pusher. For a long time, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils' best-known single remained an instrumental with the place-keeper lyric, " Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh Jackie Blue. He was dada, and dada doo. He did this, he did that ... ." Producer Glyn Johns, who loved the track, made a key suggestion – and everything finally snapped into place: "No, no, no, mate," Johns told them. "Jackie Blue has to be a girl." They "knocked some new lyrics out in about 30 minutes," Lee said in It Shined: The Saga of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils . "[From] some drugged-out guy, we changed Jackie into a reclusive girl." She'd go all the way to No. 3. (DeRiso)

47. "Sailing," Christopher Cross (1979)

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more quintessential yacht rock song than “Sailing.” The second single (and first chart-topper) off Christopher Cross’ 1979 self-titled debut offers an intoxicating combination of dreamy strings, singsong vocals and shimmering, open-tuned guitar arpeggios that pay deference to Cross’ songwriting idol, Joni Mitchell . “These tunings, like Joni used to say, they get you in this sort of trance,” Cross told Songfacts in 2013. “The chorus just sort of came out. … So I got up and wandered around the apartment just thinking, ‘Wow, that's pretty fuckin' great.’” Grammy voters agreed: “Sailing” won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Arrangement at the 1981 awards. (Bryan Rolli)

46. "Just the Two of Us," Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. (1980)

A collaboration between singer Bill Withers and saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. resulted in the sleek "Just the Two of Us." When first approached with the song, Withers insisted on reworking the lyrics. "I'm a little snobbish about words," he said in 2004 . "I said, 'Yeah, if you'll let me go in and try to dress these words up a little bit.' Everybody that knows me is kind of used to me that way. I probably threw in the stuff like the crystal raindrops. The 'Just the Two of Us' thing was already written. It was trying to put a tuxedo on it." The track was completed with some peppy backing vocals and a subtle slap bass part. (Rapp)

45. "Sara Smile," Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975)

It doesn't get much smoother than "Sara Smile," Daryl Hall & John Oates ' first Top 10 hit in the U.S. The song was written for Sara Allen, Hall's longtime girlfriend, whom he had met when she was working as a flight attendant. His lead vocal, which was recorded live, is clear as a bell on top of a velvety bass line and polished backing vocals that nodded to the group's R&B influences. “It was a song that came completely out of my heart," Hall said in 2018 . "It was a postcard. It’s short and sweet and to the point." Hall and Allen stayed together for almost 30 years before breaking up in 2001. (Rapp)

44. "Rosanna," Toto (1982)

One of the most identifiable hits of 1982 was written by Toto co-founder David Paich – but wasn't about Rosanna Arquette, as some people have claimed, even though keyboardist Steve Porcaro was dating the actress at the time. The backbeat laid down by drummer Jeff Porcaro – a "half-time shuffle" similar to what John Bonham played on " Fool in the Rain " – propels the track, while vocal harmonies and emphatic brass sections add further layers. The result is an infectious and uplifting groove – yacht rock at its finest. (Corey Irwin)

43. "Diamond Girl," Seals & Crofts (1973)

Seals & Crofts were soft-rock stylists with imagination, dolling up their saccharine melodies with enough musical intrigue to survive beyond the seemingly obvious shelf life. Granted, the lyrics to “Diamond Girl,” one of the duo’s three No. 6 hits, are as sterile as a surgery-operating room, built on pseudo-romantic nothing-isms ( “Now that I’ve found you, it’s around you that I am” — what a perfectly natural phrase!). But boy, oh boy does that groove sound luxurious beaming out of a hi-fi system, with every nuance — those stacked backing vocals, that snapping piano — presented in full analog glory. (Ryan Reed)

42. "What You Won't Do for Love," Bobby Caldwell (1978)

Smooth. From the opening horn riffs and the soulful keyboard to the funk bass and the velvety vocals of Bobby Caldwell, everything about “What You Won’t Do for Love” is smooth. Released in September 1978, the track peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become the biggest hit of Caldwell’s career. It was later given a second life after being sampled for rapper 2Pac's posthumously released 1998 hit single “Do for Love.” (Irwin)

41. "We Just Disagree," Dave Mason (1977)

Dave Mason's ace in the hole on the No. 12 smash "We Just Disagree" was Jim Krueger, who composed the track, shared the harmony vocal and played that lovely guitar figure. "It was a song that when he sang it to me, it was like, 'Yeah, that's the song,'" Mason told Greg Prato in 2014. "Just him and a guitar, which is usually how I judge whether I'm going to do something. If it holds up like that, I'll put the rest of the icing on it." Unfortunately, the multitalented Krueger died of pancreatic cancer at age 43. By then, Mason had disappeared from the top of the charts, never getting higher than No. 39 again. (DeRiso)

40. "Crazy Love," Poco (1978)

Rusty Young was paneling a wall when inspiration struck. He'd long toiled in the shadow of Stephen Stills , Richie Furay and Neil Young , serving in an instrumentalist role with Buffalo Springfield and then Poco . "Crazy Love" was his breakout moment, and he knew it. Rusty Young presented the song before he'd even finished the lyric, but his Poco bandmates loved the way the stopgap words harmonized. "I told the others, 'Don't worry about the ' ooh, ooh, ahhhh haaa ' part. I can find words for that," Young told the St. Louis Dispatch in 2013. "And they said, 'Don't do that. That's the way it's supposed to be.'" It was: Young's first big vocal became his group's only Top 20 hit. (DeRiso)

39. "Suspicions," Eddie Rabbitt (1979)

Eddie Rabbitt 's move from country to crossover stardom was hurtled along by "Suspicions," as a song about a cuckold's worry rose to the Top 20 on both the pop and adult-contemporary charts. Behind the scenes, there was an even clearer connection to yacht rock: Co-writer Even Stevens said Toto's David Hungate played bass on the date. As important as it was for his career, Rabbitt later admitted that he scratched out "Suspicions" in a matter of minutes, while on a lunch break in the studio on the last day of recording his fifth album at Wally Heider's Los Angeles studio. "Sometimes," Rabbitt told the Associated Press in 1985, "the words just fall out of my mouth." (DeRiso)

38. "Moonlight Feels Right," Starbuck (1976)

No sound in rock history is more yacht friendly than Bruce Blackman’s laugh: hilarious, arbitrary, smug, speckled with vocal fry, arriving just before each chorus of Starbuck’s signature tune. Why is this human being laughing? Shrug. Guess the glow of night will do that to you. Then again, this is one of the more strange hits of the '70s — soft-pop hooks frolicking among waves of marimba and synthesizers that could have been plucked from a classic prog epic. “ The eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss ,” Blackman croons, “ to make the tide rise again .” It’s a lunar make-out session, baby. (Reed)

37. "Same Old Lang Syne," Dan Fogelberg (1981)

“Same Old Lang Syne” is a masterclass in economic storytelling, and its tragedy is in the things both protagonists leave unsaid. Dan Fogelberg weaves a devastating tale of two former lovers who run into each other at a grocery store on Christmas Eve and spend the rest of the night catching up and reminiscing. Their circumstances have changed — he’s a disillusioned professional musician, she’s stuck in an unhappy marriage — but their love for each other is still palpable if only they could overcome their fears and say it out loud. They don’t, of course, and when Fogelberg bids his high-school flame adieu, he’s left with only his bittersweet memories and gnawing sense of unfulfillment to keep him warm on that snowy (and later rainy) December night. (Rolli)

36. "Eye in the Sky," the Alan Parsons Project (1982)

Few songs strike a chord with both prog nerds and soft-rock enthusiasts, but the Alan Parsons Project's “Eye in the Sky” belongs to that exclusive club. The arrangement is all smooth contours and pillowy textures: By the time Eric Woolfson reaches the chorus, shyly emoting about romantic deception over a bed of Wurlitzer keys and palm-muted riffs, the effect is like falling slow motion down a waterfall onto a memory foam mattress. But there’s artfulness here, too, from Ian Bairnson’s seductive guitar solo to the titular phrase conjuring some kind of god-like omniscience. (Reed)

35. "Somebody's Baby," Jackson Browne (1982)

Jackson Browne 's highest-charting single, and his last Top 10 hit, was originally tucked away on the soundtrack for the 1982 teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High . That placed Browne, one of the most earnest of singer-songwriters, firmly out of his element. "It was not typical of what Jackson writes at all, that song," co-composer Danny Kortchmar told Songfacts in 2013. "But because it was for this movie, he changed his general approach and came up with this fantastic song." Still unsure of how it would fit in, Browne refused to place "Somebody's Baby" on his next proper album – something he'd later come to regret . Lawyers in Love broke a string of consecutive multiplatinum releases dating back to 1976. (DeRiso)

34. "Still the One," Orleans (1976)

Part of yacht rock’s charm is being many things but only to a small degree. Songs can be jazzy, but not experimental. Brass sections are great but don’t get too funky. And the songs should rock, but not rock . In that mold comes Orleans’ 1976 hit “Still the One.” On top of a chugging groove, frontman John Hall sings about a romance that continues to stand the test of time. This love isn’t the white-hot flame that leaves passionate lovers burned – more like a soft, medium-level heat that keeps things comfortably warm. The tune is inoffensive, catchy and fun, aka yacht-rock gold. (Irwin)

33. "New Frontier," Donald Fagen (1982)

In which an awkward young man attempts to spark a Cold War-era fling — then, hopefully, a longer, post-apocalyptic relationship — via bomb shelter bunker, chatting up a “big blond” with starlet looks and a soft spot for Dave Brubeck. Few songwriters could pull off a lyrical concept so specific, and almost no one but Donald Fagen could render it catchy. “New Frontier,” a signature solo cut from the Steely Dan maestro, builds the sleek jazz-funk of Gaucho into a more digital-sounding landscape, with Fagen stacking precise vocal harmonies over synth buzz and bent-note guitar leads. (Reed)

32. "Sail On, Sailor," the Beach Boys (1973)

The Beach Boys were reworking a new album when Van Dyke Parks handed them this updated version of an unfinished Brian Wilson song. All that was left was to hand the mic over to Blondie Chaplin for his greatest-ever Beach Boys moment. They released "Sail On, Sailor" twice, however, and this yearning groover somehow barely cracked the Top 50. Chaplin was soon out of the band, too. It's a shame. "Sail On, Sailor" remains the best example of how the Beach Boys' elemental style might have kept growing. Instead, Chaplin went on to collaborate with the Band , Gene Clark of the  Byrds  and the Rolling Stones – while the Beach Boys settled into a lengthy tenure as a jukebox band. (DeRiso)

31. "Time Passages," Al Stewart (1978)

Al Stewart followed up the first hit single of his decade-long career – 1976's "Year of the Cat" – with a more streamlined take two years later. "Time Passages" bears a similar structure to the earlier track, including a Phil Kenzie sax solo and production by Alan Parsons. While both songs' respective album and single versions coincidentally run the same time, the 1978 hit's narrative wasn't as convoluted and fit more squarely into pop radio playlists. "Time Passages" became Stewart's highest-charting single, reaching No. 7 – while "Year of the Cat" had stalled at No. 8. (Michael Gallucci)

30. "I Go Crazy," Paul Davis (1977)

Paul Davis looked like he belonged in the Allman Brothers Band , but his soft, soulful voice took him in a different direction. The slow-burning nature of his breakthrough single "I Go Crazy" was reflected in its chart performance: For years the song held the record for the most weeks spent on the chart, peaking at No. 7 during its 40-week run. Davis, who died in 2008, took five more songs into the Top 40 after 1977, but "I Go Crazy" is his masterpiece – a wistful and melancholic look back at lost love backed by spare, brokenhearted verses. (Gallucci)

29. "Biggest Part of Me," Ambrosia (1980)

Songwriter David Pack taped the original demo of this song on a reel-to-reel when everyone else was running late, finishing just in time: "I was waiting for my family to get in the car so I could go to a Fourth of July celebration in Malibu," he told the Tennessean in 2014. "I turned off my machine [and] heard the car horn honking for me." Still, Pack was worried that the hastily written first verse – which rhymed " arisin ,'" " horizon " and " realizin '" – might come off a little corny. So he followed the time-honored yacht-rock tradition of calling in Michael McDonald to sing heartfelt background vocals. Result: a Top 5 hit on both the pop and adult-contemporary charts. (DeRiso)

28. "Africa," Toto (1982)

Remove the cover versions, the nostalgia sheen and its overuse in TV and films, and you’re left with what makes “Africa” great: one of the best earworm choruses in music history. Never mind that the band is made up of white guys from Los Angeles who'd never visited the titular continent. Verses about Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti paint a picture so vivid that listeners are swept away. From the soaring vocals to the stirring synth line, every element of the song works perfectly. There’s a reason generations of music fans continue to proudly bless the rains. (Irwin)

27. "Hello It's Me," Todd Rundgren (1972)

“Hello It’s Me” is the first song Todd Rundgren ever wrote, recorded by his band Nazz and released in 1968. He quickened the tempo, spruced up the instrumentation and delivered a more urgent vocal for this 1972 solo rendition (which became a Top 5 U.S. hit), but the bones of the tune remain the same. “Hello It’s Me” is a wistful, bittersweet song about the dissolution of a relationship between two people who still very much love and respect each other a clear-eyed breakup ballad lacking the guile, cynicism and zaniness of Rundgren’s later work. “The reason those [early] songs succeeded was because of their derivative nature,” Rundgren told Guitar World in 2021. “They plugged so easily into audience expectations. They’re easily absorbed.” That may be so, but there’s still no denying the airtight hooks and melancholy beauty of “Hello It’s Me.” (Rolli)

26. "Smoke From a Distant Fire," the Sanford/Townsend Band (1977)

There are other artists who better define yacht rock - Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Christopher Cross - but few songs rival the Sanford/Townsend Band's "Smoke From a Distant Fire" as a more representative genre track. (It was a Top 10 hit in the summer of 1977. The duo never had another charting single.) From the vaguely swinging rhythm and roaring saxophone riff to the light percussion rolls and risk-free vocals (that nod heavily to Daryl Hall and John Oates' blue-eyed soul), "Smoke" may be the most definitive yacht rock song ever recorded. We may even go as far as to say it's ground zero. (Gallucci)

25. "Dream Weaver," Gary Wright (1975)

Unlike many other songs on our list, “Dream Weaver” lacks lush instrumentation. Aside from Gary Wright’s vocals and keyboard parts, the only added layer is the drumming of Jim Keltner. But while the track may not have guitars, bass or horns, it certainly has plenty of vibes. Inspired by the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda – which Wright was turned on to by George Harrison – “Dream Weaver” boasts a celestial aura that helped the song peak at No. 2 in 1976. (Irwin)

24. "Reminiscing," Little River Band (1978)

The third time was the charm with Little River Band 's highest-charting single in the U.S. Guitarist Graeham Goble wrote "Reminiscing" for singer Glenn Shorrock with a certain keyboardist in mind. Unfortunately, they weren't able to schedule a session with Peter Jones, who'd played an important role in Little River Band's first-ever charting U.S. single, 1976's "It's a Long Way There ." They tried it anyway but didn't care for the track. They tried again, with the same results. "The band was losing interest in the song," Goble later told Chuck Miller . "Just before the album was finished, Peter Jones came back into town, [and] the band and I had an argument because I wanted to give 'Reminiscing' a third chance." This time they nailed it. (DeRiso)

23. "Heart Hotels," Dan Fogelberg (1979)

Ironically enough, this song about debilitating loneliness arrived on an album in which Dan Fogelberg played almost all of the instruments himself. A key concession to the outside world became the most distinctive musical element on "Heart Hotels," as well-known saxophonist Tom Scott took a turn on the Lyricon – a pre-MIDI electronic wind instrument invented just a few years earlier. As for the meaning of sad songs like these, the late Fogelberg once said : "I feel experiences deeply, and I have an outlet, a place where I can translate those feelings. A lot of people go to psychoanalysts. I write songs." (DeRiso)

22. "Year of the Cat," Al Stewart (1976)

Just about every instrument imaginable can be heard in Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat." What begins with an elegant piano intro winds its way through a string section and a sultry sax solo, then to a passionate few moments with a Spanish acoustic guitar. The sax solo, often a hallmark of yacht-rock songs, was not Stewart's idea. Producer Alan Parsons suggested it at the last minute, and Stewart thought it was the "worst idea I'd ever heard. I said, 'Alan, there aren’t any saxophones in folk-rock. Folk-rock is about guitars. Sax is a jazz instrument,'" Stewart said in 2021 . Multiple lengthy instrumental segments bring the song to nearly seven minutes, yet each seems to blend into the next like a carefully arranged orchestra. (Rapp)

21. "How Long," Ace (1974)

How long does it take to top the charts? For the Paul Carrack-fronted Ace: 45 years . "I wrote the lyric on the bus going to my future mother-in-law's," he later told Gary James . "I wrote it on the back of that bus ticket. That's my excuse for there only being one verse." Ace released "How Long" in 1975, reaching No. 3, then Carrack moved on to stints with Squeeze and Mike and the Mechanics . Finally, in 2020, "How Long" rose two spots higher, hitting No. 1 on Billboard's rock digital song sales chart after being featured in an Amazon Prime advertisement titled "Binge Cheat." (DeRiso)

20. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)," Looking Glass (1972)

Like "Summer Breeze" (found later in our list of Top 50 Yacht Rock Songs), Looking Glass' tale of an alluring barmaid in a busy harbor town pre-dates the classic yacht-rock era. Consider acts like Seals & Crofts and these one-hit wonders pioneers of the genre. Ironically, the effortless-sounding "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" was quite difficult to complete. "We recorded 'Brandy' two or three different times with various producers before we got it right," Looking Glass' principal songwriter Elliot Lurie told the Tennessean in 2016. The chart-topping results became so popular so fast, however, that Barry Manilow had to change the title of a new song he was working on to " Mandy ." (DeRiso)

19. "I Can't Tell You Why," Eagles (1979)

Timothy B. Schmit joined just in time to watch the  Eagles disintegrate. But things couldn't have started in a better place for the former Poco member. He arrived with the makings of his first showcase moment with the group, an unfinished scrap that would become the No. 8 hit "I Can't Tell You Why." For a moment, often-contentious band members rallied around the outsider. Don Henley and Glenn Frey both made key contributions, as Eagles completed the initial song on what would become 1979's The Long Run . Schmit felt like he had a reason to be optimistic. Instead, Eagles released the LP and then promptly split up. (DeRiso)

18. "Sentimental Lady," Bob Welch (1977)

Bob Welch  first recorded "Sentimental Lady" in 1972 as a member of Fleetwood Mac . Five years later, after separating from a band that had gone on to way bigger things , Welch revisited one of his best songs and got two former bandmates who appeared on the original version – Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie – to help out (new Mac member Lindsey Buckingham also makes an appearance). This is the better version, warmer and more inviting, and it reached the Top 10. (Gallucci)

17. "So Into You," Atlanta Rhythm Section (1976)

Atlanta Rhythm Section is often wrongly categorized as a Southern rock band, simply because of their roots in Doraville, Ga. Songs like the seductively layered "So Into You" illustrate how little they had in common with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd . As renowned Muscle Shoals sessions ace David Hood once said, they're more like the " Steely Dan of the South ." Unfortunately, time hasn't been kind to the group. Two of this best-charting single's writers have since died , while keyboardist Dean Daughtry retired in 2019 as Atlanta Rhythm Section's last constant member. (DeRiso)

16. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac (1977)

Stevie Nicks was trying to channel the heartbreak she endured after separating from Lindsey Buckingham into a song, but couldn't concentrate among the bustle of Fleetwood Mac's sessions for Rumours . "I was kind of wandering around the studio," she later told Yahoo! , "looking for somewhere I could curl up with my Fender Rhodes and my lyrics and a little cassette tape recorder." That's when she ran into a studio assistant who led her to a quieter, previously unseen area at Sausalito's Record Plant. The circular space was surrounded by keyboards and recording equipment, with a half-moon bed in black-and-red velvet to one side. She settled in, completing "Dreams" in less than half an hour, but not before asking the helpful aide one pressing question: "I said, 'What is this?' And he said, 'This is Sly Stone 's studio.'" (DeRiso)

15. "Minute by Minute," the Doobie Brothers (1978)

Michael McDonald was so unsure of this album that he nervously previewed it for a friend. "I mean, all the tunes have merit, but I don't know if they hang together as a record," McDonald later told UCR. "He looked at me and he said, 'This is a piece of shit.'" Record buyers disagreed, making Minute by Minute the Doobie Brothers' first chart-topping multiplatinum release. Such was the mania surrounding this satiny-smooth LP that the No. 14 hit title track lost out on song-of-the-year honors at the Grammys to "What a Fool Believes" (found later in our list of Top 50 Yacht Rock Songs) by the Doobie Brothers. (DeRiso)

14. "Lonely Boy," Andrew Gold (1976)

Andrew Gold’s only Top 10 U.S. hit is a story of parental neglect and simmering resentment, but those pitch-black details are easy to miss when couched inside such a deliciously upbeat melody. Gold chronicles the childhood of the titular lonely boy over a propulsive, syncopated piano figure, detailing the betrayal he felt when his parents presented him with a sister two years his junior. When he turns 18, the lonely boy ships off to college and leaves his family behind, while his sister gets married and has a son of her own — oblivious to the fact that she’s repeating the mistakes of her parents. Gold insisted “Lonely Boy” wasn’t autobiographical, despite the details in the song matching up with his own life. In any case, you can’t help but wonder what kind of imagination produces such dark, compelling fiction. (Rolli)

13. "Baby Come Back," Player (1977)

Liverpool native Peter Beckett moved to the States, originally to join a forgotten act called Skyband. By the time he regrouped to found Player with American J.C. Crowley, Beckett's wife had returned to England. Turns out Crowley was going through a breakup, too, and the Beckett-sung "Baby Come Back" was born. "So it was a genuine song, a genuine lyric – and I think that comes across in the song," Beckett said in The Yacht Rock Book . "That's why it was so popular." The demo earned Player a hastily signed record deal, meaning Beckett and Crowley had to assemble a band even as "Baby Come Back" rose to No. 1. Their debut album was released before Player had ever appeared in concert. (DeRiso)

12. "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight," England Dan & John Ford Coley (1976)

There aren't too many songs with choruses as big as the one England Dan & John Ford Coley pump into the key lines of their first Top 40 single. Getting there is half the fun: The conversational verses – " Hello, yeah, it's been a while / Not much, how 'bout you? / I'm not sure why I called / I guess I really just wanted to talk to you " – build into the superpowered come-on line " I'm not talking 'bout moving in ...  ." Their yacht-rock pedigree is strong: Dan Seals' older brother is Seals & Croft's Jim Seals. (Gallucci)

11. "Hey Nineteen," Steely Dan (1980)

At least on the surface, “Hey Nineteen” is one of Steely Dan’s least ambiguous songs: An over-the-hill guy makes one of history’s most cringe-worthy, creepiest pick-up attempts, reminiscing about his glory days in a fraternity and lamenting that his would-be companion doesn’t know who Aretha Franklin is. (The bridge is a bit tougher to crack. Is anyone sharing that “fine Colombian”?) But the words didn’t propel this Gaucho classic into Billboard's Top 10. Instead, that credit goes to the groove, anchored by Walter Becker ’s gently gliding bass guitar, Donald Fagen’s velvety electric piano and a chorus smoother than top-shelf Cuervo Gold. (Reed)

10. "Rich Girl," Daryl Hall & John Oates (1976)

It’s one of the most economical pop songs ever written: two A sections, two B sections (the second one extended), a fade-out vocal vamp. In and out. Wham, bam, boom. Perhaps that's why it’s easy to savor “Rich Girl” 12 times in a row during your morning commute, why hearing it just once on the radio is almost maddening. This blue-eyed-soul single, the duo’s first No. 1 hit, lashes out at a supposedly entitled heir to a fast-food chain. (The original lyric was the less-catchy “rich guy ”; that one change may have earned them millions.) But there’s nothing bitter about that groove, built on Hall’s electric piano stabs and staccato vocal hook. (Reed)

9. "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," Elvin Bishop (1975)

Elvin Bishop made his biggest pop-chart splash with "Fooled Around and Fell In Love," permanently changing the first line of his bio from a  former member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to a solo star in his own right. There was only one problem: "The natural assumption was that it was Elvin Bishop who was singing,” singer  Mickey Thomas told the Tahoe Daily Tribune in 2007. Thomas later found even greater chart success with Starship alongside Donny Baldwin, who also played drums on Bishop's breakthrough single. "A lot of peers found out about me through that, and ultimately I did get credit for it," Thomas added. "It opened a lot of doors for me." (DeRiso)

8. "Baker Street," Gerry Rafferty (1978)

Gerry Rafferty already had a taste of success when his band Stealers Wheel hit the Top 10 with the Dylanesque "Stuck in the Middle With You" in 1973. His first solo album after the group's split, City to City , made it to No. 1 in 1978, thanks in great part to its hit single "Baker Street" (which spent six frustrating weeks at No. 2). The iconic saxophone riff by Raphael Ravenscroft gets much of the attention, but this single triumphs on many other levels. For six, mood-setting minutes Rafferty winds his way down "Baker Street" with a hopefulness rooted in eternal restlessness. (Gallucci)

7. "Dirty Work," Steely Dan (1972)

In just about three minutes, Steely Dan tells a soap-opera tale of an affair between a married woman and a man who is well aware he's being played but is too hopelessly hooked to end things. " When you need a bit of lovin' 'cause your man is out of town / That's the time you get me runnin' and you know I'll be around ," singer David Palmer sings in a surprisingly delicate tenor. A saxophone and flugelhorn part weeps underneath his lines. By the time the song is over, we can't help but feel sorry for the narrator who is, ostensibly, just as much part of the problem as he could be the solution. Not all yacht rock songs have happy endings. (Rapp)

6. "Ride Like the Wind," Christopher Cross (1979)

“Ride Like the Wind” is ostensibly a song about a tough-as-nails outlaw racing for the border of Mexico under cover of night, but there’s nothing remotely dangerous about Christopher Cross’ lithe tenor or the peppy piano riffs and horns propelling the tune. Those contradictions aren’t a detriment. This is cinematic, high-gloss pop-rock at its finest, bursting at the seams with hooks and elevated by Michael McDonald’s silky backing vocals. Cross nods to his Texas roots with a fiery guitar solo, blending hard rock and pop in a way that countless artists would replicate in the next decade. (Rolli)

5. "Summer Breeze," Seals & Crofts (1972)

Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were childhood friends in Texas, but the mellow grandeur of "Summer Breeze" makes it clear that they always belonged in '70s-era Southern California. "We operate on a different level," Seals once said , sounding like nothing if not a Laurel Canyon native. "We try to create images, impressions and trains of thought in the minds of our listeners." This song's fluttering curtains, welcoming domesticity and sweet jasmine certainly meet that standard. For some reason, however, they released this gem in August 1972 – as the season faded into fall. Perhaps that's why "Summer Breeze" somehow never got past No. 6 on the pop chart. (DeRiso)

4. "Lowdown," Boz Scaggs (1976)

As you throw on your shades and rev the motor, the only thing hotter than the afternoon sun is David Hungate’s sweet slap-bass blasting from the tape deck. “This is the good life,” you say to no one in particular, casually tipping your baseball cap to the bikini-clad crew on the boat zooming by. Then you press “play” again. What else but Boz Scaggs ’ silky “Lowdown” could soundtrack such a moment in paradise? Everything about this tune, which cruised to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, is equally idyllic: Jeff Porcaro’s metronomic hi-hat pattern, David Paich’s jazzy keyboard vamp, the cool-guy croon of Scaggs — flexing about gossip and “schoolboy game.” You crack open another cold one — why not? And, well, you press play once more. (Reed)

3. "Lido Shuffle," Boz Scaggs (1976)

Scaggs' storied career began as a sideman with Steve Miller  and already included a scorching duet with Duane Allman . Co-writer David Paich would earn Grammy-winning stardom with songs like "Africa." Yet they resorted to theft when it came to this No. 11 smash. Well, in a manner of speaking: "'Lido' was a song that I'd been banging around, and I kind of stole – well, I didn't steal anything. I just took the idea of the shuffle," Scaggs told Songfacts in 2013. "There was a song that Fats Domino did called 'The Fat Man ' that had a kind of driving shuffle beat that I used to play on the piano, and I just started kind of singing along with it. Then I showed it to Paich, and he helped me fill it out." Then Paich took this track's bassist and drummer with him to form Toto. (DeRiso)

2. "Peg," Steely Dan (1977)

"Peg" is blessed with several yacht-rock hallmarks: a spot on Steely Dan's most Steely Dan-like album, Aja , an impeccable airtightness that falls somewhere between soft-pop and jazz and yacht rock's stalwart captain, Michael McDonald, at the helm. (He may be a mere backing singer here, but his one-note chorus chirps take the song to another level.) Like most Steely Dan tracks, this track's meaning is both cynical and impenetrable, and its legacy has only grown over the years – from hip-hop samples to faithful cover versions. (Gallucci)

1. "What a Fool Believes," the Doobie Brothers (1978)

Michael McDonald not only steered the Doobie Brothers in a new direction when he joined in 1975, but he also made them a commercial powerhouse with the 1978 album Minute by Minute . McDonald co-wrote "What a Fool Believes" – a No. 1 single; the album topped the chart, too – with Kenny Loggins and sang lead, effectively launching a genre in the process. The song's style was copied for the next couple of years (most shamelessly in Robbie Dupree's 1980 Top 10 "Steal Away"), and McDonald became the bearded face of yacht rock. (Gallucci)

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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff

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The 20 greatest yacht rock songs ever, ranked

27 July 2022, 17:50

The greatest yacht rock songs ever

By Tom Eames

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We can picture it now: lounging on a swish boat as it bobs along the water, sipping cocktails and improving our tan. Oh, and it's the 1980s.

There's only one style of music that goes with this image: Yacht rock.

What is Yacht Rock?

Also known as the West Coast Sound or adult-oriented rock, it's a style of soft rock from between the late 1970s and early 1980s that featured elements of smooth soul, smooth jazz, R&B, funk, rock and disco.

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Although its name has been used in a negative way, to us it's an amazing genre that makes us feel like we're in an episode of Miami Vice wearing shoulder pads and massive sunglasses.

Here are the very best songs that could be placed in this genre:

Player - 'Baby Come Back'

80s yacht rock songs

Player - Baby Come Back

Not the reggae classic of the same name, this 1977 track was Player's biggest hit.

After Player disbanded, singer Peter Beckett joined Australia's Little River Band, and he also wrote 'Twist of Fate' for Olivia Newton-John and 'After All This Time' for Kenny Rogers.

Steely Dan - 'FM'

80s yacht rock songs

It's tough just choosing one Steely Dan song for this list, but we've gone for this banger.

Used as the theme tune for the 1978 movie of the same name, the song is jazz-rock track, though its lyrics took a disapproving look at the genre as a whole, which was in total contrast to the film's celebration of it. Still, sounds great guys!

Bobby Goldsboro - 'Summer (The First Time)'

80s yacht rock songs

Bobby Goldsboro - Summer (The First Time)

A bit of a questionable subject matter, this ballad was about a 17-year-old boy’s first sexual experience with a 31-year-old woman at the beach.

But using a repeating piano riff, 12-string guitar, and an orchestral string arrangement, this song just screams yacht rock and all that is great about it.

Kenny Loggins - 'Heart to Heart'

80s yacht rock songs

Kenny Loggins - Heart To Heart (Official Music Video)

If Michael McDonald is the king of yacht rock, then Kenny Loggins is his trusted advisor and heir to the throne.

This track was co-written with Michael, and also features him on backing vocals. The song is about how most relationships do not stand the test of time, yet some are able to do so.

Airplay - 'Nothing You Can Do About It'

80s yacht rock songs

Nothin' You Can Do About It

You might not remember US band Airplay, but they did have their moment on the yacht.

Consisting of David Foster (who also co-wrote the Kenny Loggins song above), Jay Graydon and the brilliantly-named Tommy Funderburk, this tune was a cover of a Manhattan Transfer song, and was a minor hit in 1981.

Boz Scaggs - 'Lowdown'

80s yacht rock songs

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown (Official Audio)

We've moved slightly into smooth jazz territory with this track, which is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

The song was co-written by David Paich, who would go on to form Toto along with the song's keyboardist David Paich, session bassist David Hungate, and drummer Jeff Porcaro.

Steve Winwood - 'Valerie'

80s yacht rock songs

Steve Winwood - Valerie (Official Video)

This song is probably as far as you can get into pop rock without totally leaving the yacht rock dock.

Legendary singer-songwriter Winwood recorded this gong about a man reminiscing about a lost love he hopes to find again someday.

Eric Prydz later sampled it in 2004 for the house number one track ‘Call on Me’, and presented it to Winwood, who was so impressed he re-recorded the vocals to better fit the track.

Toto - 'Rosanna'

80s yacht rock songs

Toto - Rosanna (Official HD Video)

We almost picked 'Africa' , but we reckon this tune just about pips it in the yacht rock game.

Written by David Paich, he has said that the song is based on numerous girls he had known.

As a joke, the band members initially played along with the common assumption that the song was based on actress Rosanna Arquette, who was dating Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro at the time and coincidentally had the same name.

Chicago - 'Hard to Say I'm Sorry'

80s yacht rock songs

Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry (Official Music Video)

Chicago began moving away from their horn-driven soft rock sound with their early 1980s output, including this synthesizer-filled power ballad.

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The album version segued into a more traditional Chicago upbeat track titled ‘Get Away’, but most radio stations at the time opted to fade out the song before it kicked in. Three members of Toto played on the track. Those guys are yacht rock kings!

Michael Jackson - 'Human Nature'

80s yacht rock songs

Michael Jackson - Human Nature (Audio)

A few non-rock artists almost made this list ( George Michael 's 'Careless Whisper' and Spandau Ballet 's 'True' are almost examples, but not quite), yet a big chunk of Thriller heavily relied on the yacht rock sound.

Michael Jackson proved just how popular the genre could get with several songs on the album, but 'Human Nature' is the finest example.

The Doobie Brothers - 'What a Fool Believes'

80s yacht rock songs

The Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes (Official Music Video)

Possibly THE ultimate yacht rock song on the rock end of the spectrum, and it's that man Michael McDonald.

Written by McDonald and Kenny Loggins, this was one of the few non-disco hits in America in the first eight months of 1979.

The song tells the story of a man who is reunited with an old love interest and attempts to rekindle a romantic relationship with her before discovering that one never really existed.

Michael Jackson once claimed he contributed at least one backing track to the original recording, but was not credited for having done so. This was later denied by the band.

Christopher Cross - 'Sailing'

80s yacht rock songs

Christopher Cross - Sailing (Official Audio)

We're not putting this in here just because it's called 'Sailing', it's also one of the ultimate examples of the genre.

Christopher Cross reached number one in the US in 1980, and VH1 later named it the most "softsational soft rock" song of all time.

Don Henley - 'The Boys of Summer'

80s yacht rock songs

The Boys Of Summer DON HENLEY(1984) OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Mike Campbell wrote the music to this track while working on Tom Petty’s Southern Accents album, but later gave it to Eagles singer Don Henley, who wrote the lyrics.

The song is about the passing of youth and entering middle age, and of a past relationship. It was covered twice in the early 2000s: as a trance track by DJ Sammy in 2002, and as a pop punk hit by The Ataris in 2003.

England Dan and John Cord Foley - 'I'd Really Love to See You Tonight'

80s yacht rock songs

England Dan & John Ford Coley - I'd Really Love To See You Tonight.avi

A big hit for this duo in 1976, it showcases the very best of the sock rock/AOR/yacht rock sound that the 1970s could offer.

Dan Seals is the younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts fame. Which leads to...

Seals & Crofts - 'Summer Breeze'

80s yacht rock songs

Summer Breeze - Seals & Croft #1 Hit(1972)

Before The Isley Brothers recorded a slick cover, 'Summer Breeze' was an irresistible folk pop song by Seals & Crofts.

While mostly a folk song, its summer vibes and gorgeous melody make for a perfect yacht rock number.

Christopher Cross - 'Ride Like the Wind'

80s yacht rock songs

Ride Like The Wind Promo Video 1980 Christopher Cross

If Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins are in charge of the yacht rock ship, then Christopher Cross has to be captain, right? Cabin boy? Something anyway.

The singer was arguably the biggest success story of the relatively short-lived yacht rock era, and this one still sounds incredible.

Eagles - 'I Can't Tell You Why'

80s yacht rock songs

The eagles - I can't tell you why (AUDIO VINYL)

Many Eagles tunes could be classed as yacht rock, but we reckon their finest example comes from this track from their The Long Run album in 1979.

Don Henley described the song as "straight Al Green", and that Glenn Frey, an R&B fan, was responsible for the R&B feel of the song. Frey said to co-writer Timothy B Schmit: "You could sing like Smokey Robinson . Let’s not do a Richie Furay, Poco-sounding song. Let’s do an R&B song."

Gerry Rafferty - 'Baker Street'

80s yacht rock songs

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (Official Video)

Gerry Rafferty probably didn't realise he was creating one of the greatest yacht rock songs of all time when he wrote this, but boy did he.

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With the right blend of rock and pop and the use of the iconic saxophone solo, you can't not call this yacht rock at its finest.

Michael McDonald - 'Sweet Freedom'

80s yacht rock songs

Michael McDonald - Sweet Freedom (1986)

If you wanted to name the king of yacht rock, you'd have to pick Michael McDonald . He could sing the phone book and it would sound silky smooth.

Possibly his greatest solo tune, it was used in the movie  Running Scared , and its music video featured actors Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines.

Hall & Oates - 'I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)'

80s yacht rock songs

Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) (Official Video)

This duo knew how to make catchy hit after catchy hit. This R&B-tinged pop tune was co-written with Sara Allen (also the influence for their song 'Sara Smile').

  • Hall and Oates' 10 best songs, ranked

John Oates has said that the song is actually about the music business. "That song is really about not being pushed around by big labels, managers, and agents and being told what to do, and being true to yourself creatively."

Not only was the song sampled in De La Soul's 'Say No Go' and Simply Red 's 'Home', but Michael Jackson also admitted that he lifted the bass line for 'Billie Jean'!

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Playlist of the Week: Top 100 Songs of Yacht Rock

Featured Playlist

Each week we’re featuring a playlist to get your mind going and help you assemble your favorites. This week we take a deep dive into the soft rock hits of the late ’70s and early ’80s, which have come to be known in some circles as Yacht Rock. The term Yacht Rock generally refers to music in the era where yuppies enjoyed sipping champaign on their yachts — a concept explored in the original web series Yacht Rock, which debuted in 2005 and has developed a cult following. Artists most commonly thought of in the Yacht Rock era include Michael McDonald, Ambrosia, 10cc, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Boz Scaggs, and Christopher Cross. Yacht Rock has become the muse of a great number of tribute bands, and is the current subject of a short-run channel on Sirius XM.

Here is a stab at the Top 100 Songs of Yacht Rock — not necessarily in rank order, with a few more added for honorable mention. We welcome your comments. What songs are ranked too high? What songs are ranked too low? What songs are missing? Make your case. Also, please let us know concepts for playlists you’d like to see — or share a favorite list of your own.

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Feature: The 101 GREATEST YACHT ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME for Your Summer Playlist - featuring Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross and Steely Dan

What Yacht Rock Classic Hit #1?

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Yacht Rock is not for everyone. If you like your rock Cannibal Corpse intense or your hip hop extra Onyx edgy, then Yacht Rock will indubitably be your Kryptonite.

Some people consider this genre akin to musical wallpaper, marshmallow fluff, whiter-than-white bread snore-tunes or sax-heavy Sominex-inducing elevator muzak. They consider it slick, soulless pablum, even though true Yacht Rock vibrates with liveliness. Yes, it can be slow but it should never be sleepy; it should be relaxed and chill but never boring. Unfortunately, it's oft mistaken for any East Listening or Adult Contemporary tune (although, to be fair, many of the songs on this list do fall in these categories). But true Yacht Rock will not cause you to yawn; so don't worry, you won't find Air Supply, Barry Manilow or Dan Fogelberg anywhere near one of these rockin' yachts.

But what exactly is "Yacht Rock"? For those who don't know, it includes pop-rock songs from the late 1970's/early 1980's that would sound great on a yacht as you sip your pina coladas and get caught in the rain. Yacht Rock was not designed as thus; forty years ago, these songs that joyously filled the airwaves were called "soft rock" or "blue-eyed soul." It wasn't until the early 2000's when the term "Yacht Rock" was coined and the genre's guidelines were determined by the great J. D. Ryznar, Steve Huey, Hunter Stair, and David Lyons. Now it's everywhere, including on your SiriusXM radio app where a really bad Thurston Howell III soundalike introduces these Doobie-bounced ditties.

How can you identify a potential Yacht Rock classic? You can use Justice Potter Stewart's famous "I know it when I see it" (or, in this case, "hear it") dictum. To my ears, Yacht Rock is slick as an oil spill, part smooth pop, part light rock, both funky and jazzy. Most of the songs have tight harmonies, strong background singers (oftentimes sounding like Michael McDonald lost in an echo chamber), with added horns or strings. It's not lounge music, but it's music to lounge to. It's not disco, so you don't dance to it, but it's music where you can't help but tap your feet.

The joy of Yacht Rock is just that...its joyousness. This is bubblegum music for the jet set or the wannabe Richie Rich's. Its delightfully shallow, and part of its vibrancy is that it doesn't have a bad thought in its head. (Some of the songs obviously don't have any thoughts in their head, but if you want to have an intellectually stimulating conversation about, say, Toto's "Georgy Porgy," then have at it.) But never forget that part of its charm lies in its inability for deeper analysis; it's quite a stretch to compare some of these songs to a Winslow Homer painting or a Thomas Pynchon novel, but I'll try.

Officially, to be considered Yacht Rock, the song must have been released between 1976 and 1984, and I adhere to this rule for the 101. That means no songs that are proto-Yacht Rock, such as Seals & Crofts' "Summer Breeze," Ace's "How Long," or Steely Dan's "Dirty Work," are included. Neither did post-yacht rock favorites ("fire keepers") like Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom" (1986) get a chance. Some singers or groups, who are nowhere near Yacht Rock when looking at their oeuvre, may have a single YR classic in their midst; artists like Michael Jackson, Andy Gibb, the Eagles, and Earth, Wind and Fire have at least one Yacht Rock goodie on the list. And then there are those tunes that are not Yacht Rock: Nyacht Rock, which I tried but failed to avoid, but debates will happen nonetheless. For example, is "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" true Yacht Rock? Purists may say no, but I think there are few songs more yachty than the Rupert Holmes earworm.

Who would be on the Yacht Rock Mount Rushmore? Certainly Michael McDonald, whose presence is everywhere on this list with the Doobie Brothers, solos, duets, and as a backing vocalist on many of these tunes; he has 8 entries (not counting his prolific background singing). Kenny Loggins also epitomizes the genre (with 4 songs on the list, plus he co-wrote the #1 tune), as does Christopher Cross (with 5 songs on the list). But who gets that final position? Steely Dan (6 songs), Toto (6 songs), or Boz Scaggs (5 songs)? I'll let you try to settle on the filling of the fourth Rushmore slot.

And shouldn't there be a Yacht Rock Broadway musical? There are Yacht Rock tours, online series, books, websites, radio stations, podcasts, Spotify playlists; why not an official jukebox musical?

Lastly, you may ask: What makes me, a theatre reviewer, a Yacht Rock expert? For starters, I lived through these songs during my teenage years; they are the soundtrack of my younger self, especially when listening to Casey Kasem every Sunday morning on American Top-40 on CK-101. No matter how cheesy, I have a place in my heart for them. And on my 60 th birthday, I hope to rent a yacht, invite friends, don an ascot and captain's hat, and while enjoying mounds of caviar, listen to the soothing sounds of my youth. I'll use this list, my YACHT ROCK 101, as our guide, and hopefully you will too. (And hopefully if a song is unfamiliar to you, then you'll seek it out on You Tube or Spotify.) So, without further ado, counting down Kasem-style from #101 to #1, let's climb aboard...

THE 101 GREATEST YACHT ROCK SONGS!

101. NOTHIN' YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT [Airplay; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: N/A]

We start our three-hour tour here, Mr. Howell, with Airplay's little-known yachter, "Nothin' You Can Do About It," featuring David Foster, who peppers much of the following 101, and Jay Graydon, who played guitar on the Yacht Rock classic, "Peg." And as you'll find in so many songs here, the session musicians from Toto play the instruments and lift this horn-pocked One-Off into the stratosphere. It's poppy and breezy and everything that a YR hit should be. And its lyrics could be the Yacht Rock credo: "Relax; enjoy the ride!"

100. GEORGY PORGY [Toto; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #48]

This sounds like an outtake from a lost Boz Scaggs album. I have a place deep (very deep) in my heart for this. Yes, it's annoying, and Cheryl "Got to Be Real" Lynn's "Georgy Porgy, pudding pie/Kissed the girls and made them cry" refrain will get horrifically stuck in your head, but my oh my, how I love its glorious badness. (Some might claim that this isn't Yacht Rock, it's Yuck Rock.) No other chart would dare unearth this lost remnant that many think should remain lost, but it's too late baby, yes, it's too late. And if you want a sign of the coming Apocalypse: The endearingly ridiculous "Georgy Porgy" is more popular and beloved now than when it was first released.

99. THE THEME FROM "THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO" (BELIEVE IT OR NOT) [Joey Scarbury; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

Yacht Rock songs are usually called "likable," which is sort of a masked insult. When you can't think of something nice to say, you usually fall back on "likable," which doesn't mean you like it; it just means someone out there may like it. And "The Theme from 'The Greatest American Hero'" is certainly likable; it's maybe the only thing we remember from the otherwise forgotten William Katt TV series, which lasted three seasons. For "Seinfeld" fans, George's use of it on his answering machine in "The Susie" episode put the song on a level way above its pay grade. Just last year, it also showed up (with "Seinfeld's" Jason Alexander) in a Tide commercial. So, this song has planted its flag in our more current pop culture landscape; perhaps it and the roaches will be the only things to survive the end of the world. Believe it or not.

98. INTO THE NIGHT [Benny Mardones; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

97. WE JUST DISAGREE [Dave Mason; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #12]

96. KEY LARGO [Bertie Higgins; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

95. ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) [Rupert Holmes; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

These four songs, including one #1 hit, will cause arguments from purists; they score them low on the official Yacht Rock scale and label them the dreaded Nyacht Rock. But I think each of them deserve to be on the list, even if this low. Benny Mardones was a key part of one of my high school experiences as the special musical guest for 1981's Grad Night at Disney World; I remember hearing "Into the Night" into the nighttime distance and knowing that I was in the right place at the right time. (And I take the song's narrator as a teenager crooning about a girl-because with lines like "she's just sixteen years old/Leave her alone, they say," it's just too creepily cringy to contend with otherwise.) "We Just Disagree" builds as the best Yacht Rock songs do, even if it may be too gloomy in subject matter (the breaking up of a relationship). "Key Largo" by Tampa Bay area native Bertie Higgins may be more Tropical Rock than Yacht Rock, but it's yachty enough to make the cut; besides, who can resist the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall allusions? And Rupert Holmes's "Escape," the last word in 70's pop, is what many people think of when they read the term "Yacht Rock." And yes, it may be excessively wordy for the genre, complete with a twist ending, but to leave it off the list entirely would be a pop culture misdemeanor if not a crime. For the purists who will not escape the strict Yacht Rock guidelines and unnecessarily nix great and yachty songs like these, then we just disagree.

94. YAH-MO BE THERE [James Ingram with Michael McDonald; 1983; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #19]

A Yacht Rock staple and the first appearance of the ubiquitous Mr. McDonald on our list. I'm sure more than one person agrees with Paul Rudd from the move The 40-Year-Old Virgin when he, having McDonald's songs on a continuous loop at his work place, exclaims, "...If I hear 'Yah-Mo Be There' one more time, I'm gonna 'yah mo' burn this place to the ground!"

93. BREEZIN' [George Benson; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #63]

The first of two instrumentals on the list and the initial Yacht Rock sighting of George Benson. I mentioned earlier that none of these songs should be compared to paintings by Winslow Homer, but if any comes close, it's this one, especially Homer's "Breezin' Up." Try looking at the painting and hearing the Benson hook at the same time, and I'll see you in the morning.

92. FOOLISH HEART [Steve Perry; 1984; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

Although Steve Perry is more famous as the onetime front man for Journey, and for making "Don't Stop Believin'" the most overplayed track from the Eighties, this is his sole entry into my Yacht Rock 101. His smooth voice haunts this with an uber-emotional yearning that seldom finds its way onto the feel-good vibes found elsewhere on this list.

91. 99 [Toto; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #26]

Chalk up another inspiration from a George Lucas film, although not the film you may think it is. Star Wars may be Lucas' biggest achievement, but this song takes its idea from the seldom-seen Lucas cult hit, THX 1138 , which is dystopian cold in feeling. That such a stark story (losing your identity and only being known as numbers) gets the smooth pop-light Toto treatment can only be construed as ironic.

90. ONE STEP CLOSER [The Doobie Brothers; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #24]

The Doobie Brothers' last gasp of the Michael McDonald era before our bearded musical Michelangelo would meander into a solo career.

89. HARD HABIT TO BREAK [Chicago; 1984; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

Love is an addictive drug that lasts years in this beautiful if not overwrought ballad produced by David Foster.

88. DO RIGHT [Paul Davis; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #23]

A rare example of RYR: Religious Yacht Rock. Certainly the most unabashedly Christian song on the list, its opening lines like something out of an old Jim and Tammy Bakker telecast from the early 1980's: " I know that he gave his life for me/Set all our spirits free/So I want to do right, want to do right/All of my life ..." Musically it has a total yacht quality, a toe-tapping buoyant drive, that didn't stop it from being the 10 th biggest Adult Contemporary Christian hit of 1980.

87. DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS [Rick Springfield; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

A year after "Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield nearly hit the top of the charts with this Yacht Rock plea of jealous rage (though Springfield's demeanor doesn't come across as "rage"; he seems disdainful but laid back, which is why this perfectly fits the YR mold). It's too much fun to rival "Every Breath You Take" in the paranoid Top-10 hit department. Make sure not to miss the lyrics in French near the song's end which are there because...well, I don't know exactly why they're there, but I appreciate the nod to Francophiles.

86. WAITING FOR YOUR LOVE [Toto; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #73]

This is Toto's third song in the 101, paving way for claims that they should be the final slot on the Yacht Rock Mount Rushmore. "Waiting for Your Love" may not have hit big, stalling at a disappointing #73 on the charts, but has since been cited as one of Toto's greatest songs.

85. IT KEEPS YOU RUNNIN' [The Doobie Brothers; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #37]

Michael McDonald's soulful vocals and the band's mesmerizingly funky rhythm catapult this entry into the stratosphere. Yes, it was shoved onto the soundtrack of Forrest Gump , but its Yacht Rock status comes from it being featured in another film (and soundtrack that is a Yacht Rock purist's dream): the forgotten film FM (which spawned an even higher entry on this list...Steely Dan's infectious title cut).

84. LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME [Boz Scaggs; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #14]

Boz Scaggs wasn't born with the name "Boz." Actually born William Royce Scaggs, he got the nickname "Boz" after someone kept wrongly referring to him as "Bosley" at St. Marks Academy. And with a name like "Boz," Yacht Rock elite status was certainly destined. In the 1970's, Scaggs would perfect that laid back soft rock sound with a slight funky beat, the quintessence of Yacht Rock. This song, slower than most on this list, would become his big reaching-for-the-stars power pop ballad, and it didn't hurt that it was featured in a John Travolta film (Urban Cowboy).

83. KISS YOU ALL OVER [Exile; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

It's hard to imagine that learned people that I deeply admire have a difficult time including this as a Yacht Rock staple. With synthesized strings and inspired by the grizzly growling orgasmic sound of Barry White in "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me," "Kiss You All Over" was voted ninth in Billboard's 2010 list of "The 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time" (for the record, "Physical" was #1).

82. BABYLON SISTERS [Steely Dan; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: N/A]

Dante-esque tour of California, with the jaded Yacht Kings, Steely Dan, playing the part of Virgil as your guide. Singing backup on this track, crooning those haunting words "Here comes those Santa Ana winds again," is none other than Patti Austin, who will be even more involved with another Yacht Rock classic that you'll find further down the list [see "Baby, Come to Me"]. A delicious downer.

81. SMOKE FROM A DISTANT FIRE [Sanford Townsend Band; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #9]

One of the great One Hit Wonders of the 1970's.

80. HOLD THE LINE [Toto; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

The song that put the session musicians of Toto on the map and the fourth of their hits to make our 101.

79. TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS [The Doobie Brothers; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #13]

The world was introduced to Michael McDonald as a Doobie right here, their first song written by him for the Doobie's and with him on lead vocals. And thus, the King of Yacht Rock started his reign. Also, who can forget the 1978 episode of "What's Happening" with Rerun illegally recording the Doobie's singing this very song?

78. KEEP THE FIRE [Kenny Loggins; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #36]

Mr. and Mrs. Howell, let me introduce you to our next entry...Kenny Loggins with his very own Herbie Hancock-inspired vocoder long before it was in vogue.

77. ISN'T IT TIME [The Babys; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #13]

Michael Corby's opening piano, backed with syrupy violins, leads way to John Waite's oxymoronic soft bombastic vocals and Tony Brock's pulsating drum work. Lisa Freeman-Roberts, Myrna Matthews and Pat Henderson get their gospel groove on while backing Waite's hearty screech in this scrumptious pop treat.

76. YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT [Raydio; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #9]

A cool breeze of a song by Ray Parker Jr. & Co., one of the few Yacht Rock light-soul classics that you can dance to, though it's way too laid back to be considered disco. A song that immediately puts you in a good mood no matter how bad your day had been previously.

75. LIDO SHUFFLE [Boz Scaggs; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard 100: #11]

Boz again, with this ode to a drifter looking for some luck. The galvanizing music would be created by none other than David Paich (keyboards), David Hungate (bass), and Jeff Porcaro (drums), all of them future members of Toto. Whoa-oh-oh-oh!

74. WHAT'CHA GONNA DO? [Pablo Cruise; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #6]

Is there a more apt band name for Yacht Rock greatness than "Pablo Cruise"? And this tune, a key part of that summer of 1977, was where they first introduced themselves to us in all their infectious pop-light glory. The group hit #6 in the U.S., which isn't bad, but Canada got it right when they elevated this tasty morsel to #1 on their charts.

73. SENTIMENTAL LADY [Bob Welch; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac, originally recorded this for their 1972 album Bare Trees . After leaving the band, he recorded it again, giving it the lush Yacht Rock treatment. Fleetwood Mac may not be considered official Yacht Rock gurus, but this song comes closest, with the majority of their members performing on it: Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Christine McVie on piano as well as joining Lindsey Buckingham in background vocals. All that's missing is Stevie.

72. MISS SUN [Boz Scaggs; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #14]

We can thank this record for giving us our beloved Toto. Originally recorded by them in 1977, and due to their tight musicianship, Toto made a deal with Columbia Records solely based on their performance of this song. Ironically, it didn't make Toto's first LP, but Boz and the Toto gang recorded it for his Hits! compilation and the rest is Yacht Rock history.

71. JOSIE [Steely Dan; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #26]

One of Steely Dan's very best, especially Chuck Rainey's hypnotic bass. And those lyrics: " When Josie comes home/So bad/She's the best friend we ever had/She's the raw flame/The live wire/She prays like a Roman/With her eyes on fire." Question: Where is Josie coming home from? College? War? Prison? With Steely Dan's don't-care-if-listeners-understand-them obtuse lyrics, we'll never know.

70. YOU ARE THE WOMAN [Firefall; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #9]

69. STILL THE ONE [Orleans; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

Two light-rock classics from Year One of Yacht Rock. "You Are the Woman" would become a quasi-staple of yachty wedding reception playlists, especially if a flautist happened to be on board; "Still the One" would be the commercial jingle for both ABC-TV in the 1970's and Applebee's restaurants just a couple of years ago.

68. YEAR OF THE CAT [Al Stewart; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

Perhaps the most haunting song on the list; it's what you get when you mix Casablanca with the Vietnamese Zodiac.

67. THUNDER ISLAND [Jay Ferguson; 1977; ; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #9]

This passionate ode to island lovin' can be heard in Anchorman 2 , the hockey movie Miracle , and the great "To'Hajiilee" episode of Breaking Bad .

66. RICH GIRL [Hall & Oates; 1977; ; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

Hall & Oates first chart-topper and perhaps the first #1 single to use the word "bitch" in it. Interestingly, the song was written about a guy initially-the spoiled heir to a Chicago-based entrepreneur who owned Walker Bros. Original Pancake House and ran fifteen KFC restaurants; the gender of the person was changed and the song suddenly became destined for pop culture immortality. And yes, it entered skin-crawling notoriety when Son of Sam himself, David Berkowitz, claimed the song inspired him to continue his serial killing rampage that paralyzed New York City that summer of '77.

65. MORNIN' [Al Jarreau; 1983; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #21]

64. LOVELY DAY [Bill Withers; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #30]

Two of the peppiest songs imaginable, both about splendid sunshine days, perfect for relaxing while you count your money on your very own yacht. Jarreau's "Mornin'" sounds like the feel-good opening of a Broadway show, while Withers hit the motherlode with "Lovely Day," ubiquitous in ads and movies for the past 45 years, complete with an impressive 18-second note that Withers sings that may be the longest ever in a Top-40 hit

63. ARTHUR'S THEME (BEST THAT YOU CAN DO) [Christopher Cross; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

Christopher Cross is up there with Michael McDonald as the face of Yacht Rock, and this Academy Award winner for Best Song from the movie Arthur put Cross at the pinnacle of his success. He never came close to those heights again, but Yacht Rock gave his cannon (and career) a whole new life.

62. LONELY BOY [Andrew Gold; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #7]

Teenage psychopathy never sounded so good.

61. BEING WITH YOU [Smokey Robinson; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

Smokey's "Being with You" was kept out of the #1 position because Kim Carnes' owned the top of the '81 charts with the behemoth "Bette Davis Eyes." So the story goes, Smokey loved Carnes' version of his own "More Love" from the year before that he wrote a song specifically for her...and that song was "Being with You." But it was such a strong tune that he opted to record it himself and eventually had to settle with it at #2, behind the person who the song was originally intended for.

60. HOW MUCH I FEEL [Ambrosia; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

Ambrosia is another Yacht Rock giant whose slick soft pop sound and lush harmonies would epitomize the genre.

59. LIVING INSIDE MYSELF [Gino Vannelli; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #6]

Is this too intense for Yacht Rock? Maybe at times with Vannelli's head-bursting vocals. But it's a musical treasure trove, at times as dramatic as any Hamlet soliloquy, and Vannelli sings it like an overemotive Johnnie Ray resurrected with big hair.

58. JOJO [Boz Scaggs; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #17]

Smoothly soulful as it is , "Jojo" deals with the darker side of Yacht Rock. The title character is quite obviously a pimp, especially with lines like "fifty dollars, he'll get you all you want" or "His baby stays high...he keeps her on the street." As rough as the thematic waters may seem, the music is smooth sailing, the perfect fusion of pop, jazz and funk. All this and Toto, too.

57. WHAT YOU WON'T DO FOR LOVE [Bobby Caldwell; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #9]

Of course this made the list. A heart-shaped pressing of the song was released just in time for Valentine's Day, 1979, and cost a whopping $7.98 from consumers (which was the price of most LP's back then) . So many artists from Boys II Men, Michael Bolton and even Tupac Shakur either covered it or sampled its contagious mellowness.

56. LOVE TAKES TIME [Orleans; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

At the time, here's how Cash Box described the music of this winner: "...synthesizer coloration, firm pounding beat, piano, searing guitar fills, tambourine and dynamic singing." In other words, 100% pure Yacht Rock!

55. KISS ON MY LIST [Hall & Oates; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

Certainly on my list of the best things in life.

54. SO INTO YOU [Atlanta Rhythm Section; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #7]

The lightest of Southern Rockers, Atlanta Rhythm Section's laid back brand of guitar rock suited the late 70's perfectly, a nice alternate to the disco pandemic but not quite in Lynryd Skynyrd territory either. Also, is the title "So Into You" a double entendre? And were the lyrics more sexually explicit than we ever imagined? " It's gonna be good, don't you know/From your head to your toe/Me into you, you into me, me into you..."

53. YOU'RE THE ONLY WOMAN [Ambrosia; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #13]

In sone ways Ambrosia may be the most Yacht Rocky of all groups (don't worry, Toto and Steely Dan will always give them a run for the money). But this song underscores the carefree feel of the genre, like reclining on a yacht with these words on the breeze in the background: "You and I've been in love too long/To worry about tomorrow/Here's a place where we both belong/I know you're the only woman I'm dreaming of..." Not worrying about tomorrow, just floating without a care in tthe world. Is there anything more yachty than that?

52. I'D REALLY LOVE TO SEE YOU TONIGHT [England Dan & John Ford Coley; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

Ingenious opening, the listener privy to a one-way phone conversation: " Hello, yeah, it's been a while/Not much, how 'bout you?/I'm not sure why I called/I guess, I really just wanted to talk to you ..." It's up to the listener to decide whether the caller is pathetic or sweet. "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" may be the perfect easy listening song of all time, better than anything by Barry Manilow (who would cover it decades later); it's its sing-along boisterousness that saves it from being unceremoniously tossed into the Nyacht Rock bin.

51. EVERY TIME I THINK OF YOU [The Babys; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #13]

Another feel-good Babys bombast, pounding the power pop vibes in a song that's both intense and full of positive feelies.

50. ALL NIGHT LONG (ALL NIGHT) [Lionel Richie; 1983; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

This massive hit has a bit of everything, a sort of melting pot of styles--adult contemporary, pop, R&B, Richie's soothing easy listening vocals, all to a Caribbean beat. The song was everywhere in 1984, in the popular music video (directed by Five East Pieces' Bob Rafelson and produced by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees), heard in the premiere of "Miami Vice," and sung by Richie at the closing ceremonies of the '84 Olympics. And what is the translation of the lines, " Tom bo li de say de moi ya/Yeah jambo jumbo"? Don't even bothering going to Google Translate; turns out they're just gibberish with no deeper meaning. No deeper meaning, i.e. the way we like our Yacht Rock.

49. IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW [Chicago; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

So popular that it's featured in works as diverse as "The Modern Family," "South Park," Shaun of the Dead and even the video game, Grand Theft Auto V . It's perhaps the most soaring, lush, heartfelt and yearning ballad on the list, with Peter Cetera's lead vocals drowning listeners in waves of pure reverie.

48. JUST REMEMBER I LOVE YOU [Firefall; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

Such a sober, serious song in such a vibrantly feel-good genre, and yet it's uplifting and filled with hope. I think of someone on the verge of suicide, maybe wanting to jump off a building or maybe seeking help calling a hotline, and the singer, perhaps a close friend, talking him or her down: " When there's so much trouble that you want to cry/When your love has crumbled and you don't know why/When your hopes are fading and they can't be found/Dreams have left you waiting, friends let you down..." But then the friend reminds the sorrowful soul, "just remember I love you and it will be all right" and that "maybe all your blues will wash away..." And that's really what Yacht Rock does, doesn't it? It washes those blues away.

47. BABY, COME TO ME [Patti Austin & James Ingram; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

As with so many songs on this list, Michael McDonald adds superb backing vocals here, in this enchanting ballad made famous by its appearance on "General Hospital" as Luke and Holly's love song.

46. HEY NINETEEN [Steely Dan; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #10]

An aging boomer can't connect with his young lover; not quite Nabokovian but close, especially when the leering singer exclaims to his youngling in the perviest way possible, "Skate a little lower now!" The 19-year-old girl in question doesn't even know who Aretha Franklin is; I was 18 when the song was released and I sure knew the Queen of Soul as did most of my peers. Who, I wondered way back when, is this ditsy girl? Perhaps the most startling thing about the work is the singer's unblinking dive into cocaine and alcohol in order to be able to deal with a world that is slowly leaving him behind: " The Cuervo Gold / The fine Colombian / Make tonight a wonderful thing..."

45. YOU BELONG TO ME [Carly Simon; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #6]

44. HE'S SO SHY [The Pointer Sisters; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

43. THROUGH THE FIRE [Chaka Khan; 1984; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #60]

Yacht Rock is not known for its diversity. Of course there are several songs by people of color, and there are definitely strong women on the chart, but we would be remiss if we did not mention that overall the genre is mostly male and white. But the women who do appear on the list have created some of the finest tunes of them all. Carly Simon's wondrous "You Belong to Me," written by Simon and Michael McDonald with backing vocals by James Taylor, started as a Doobie ballad, but Simon's more poignant version actually bests the "Brothers." The Pointer Sisters are not Yacht Rock, but their hit, "He's So Shy," certainly is; that they sang it with Isaac on an infamous episode of "The Love Boat" is about the highest order of Yachtdom there is. And Chaka Khan's "Through the Fire," produced by David Foster, is one her all-time greatest songs, even though it didn't score big in the Land of the Hot-100; still, Khan's vocals are breathtaking in this scorching torchy ballad that is nothing short of Yacht Rock gold bullion.

42. TIME OUT OF MIND [Steely Dan; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #22]

One of the funkiest songs about heroin ("chasing the dragon") ever written.

41. AN EVERLASTING LOVE [Andy Gibb; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

40. AFTER THE LOVE HAS GONE [Earth, Wind & Fire; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

39. I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY [The Eagles; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

38. HUMAN NATURE [Michael Jackson; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #7]

Not all Yacht Rock hits are by Yacht Rock artists, as is the case with these four songs. The Bee Gees are definitely not Yacht Rock, especially their disco hits, and neither is brother Andy Gibb...with one exception. Gibb's "An Everlasting Love" with its nonstop overlapping vocals (combined with Barry Gibb's falsetto and the string arrangement) make this irresistible. Earth, Wind & Fire's "After the Love Has Gone," another David Foster masterpiece, with its rousing vocals and brilliant use of horns, is EWF's most gorgeous tune. The Eagles, certainly not a Yacht Rock group (though often mistaken as such), has one hit in their oeuvre that's unadulterated YR: "I Can't Tell You Why," with Timothy B. Schmidt, pulling out his inner Smokey Robinson and Al Green, providing its stirring lead vocals. And Michael Jackson's Yacht Rock entry, "Human Nature" from the Thriller album , was backed by members of Toto, with some of Jackson's most lush vocals, and is the dictionary definition of the word "euphoric."

37. HOT ROD HEARTS [Robbie Dupree; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #15] There are so many hits in the rock era about two teenagers making love in a parked car, from "Night Movies" to "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights," but "Heart Rod Hearts" may be the most daring of them all in its own way: " Ten miles east of the highway/Hot sparks burnin' the night away/Two lips touchin' together/Cheek to cheek, sweatshirt to sweater/Young love born in a back seat/Two hearts pound out a back beat / Headlights, somebody's comin'..." And obviously that last lyric just quoted has a rather sordid double meaning.

36. JUST THE TWO OF US [Grover Washington, Jr. with Bill Withers; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

This jazzy ballad, with Withers' heart full o' soul vocals, is a soft-jazz saxfest, later spawning Will Smith's cover (about fathers and sons), Bill Cosby's unlistenable "Just the Slew of Us," and, most hilariously, Dr. Evil's duet with Mini Me in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me .

35. MAGNET AND STEEL [Walter Egan; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #8]

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks, who sings backup in it, "Magnet and Steel" is totally yachtriffic, with inspiring heavenly harmonies. A sort of musical snapshot of 1978, this light-rock masterwork is featured in the phenomenal Boogie Nights and the phlegmatic Deuce Bigalow: American Gigolo .

34. WHENEVER I CALL YOU FRIEND [Kenny Loggins with Stevie Nicks; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

One of the great duet tracks on the list, written by Loggins and Melissa Manchester. When first released, because Stevie Nicks is not credited on the original 45 single, this was officially considered Loggins first solo Top-40 hit.

33. GIVE ME THE NIGHT [George Benson; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #4]

Yacht Rock was created for George Benson's jazzy-guitar, cool-funk sensibilities. Although "Give Me the Night" may border on disco, it's not quite there and rests firmly in our beloved Yacht Rock territory.

32. NEVER BE THE SAME [Christopher Cross; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #15]

Love never dies, not even after a break up, not even after you've found someone else; that's what this Christopher Cross song teaches us: " The years go by, there's always someone new/To try and help me forget about you/Time and again it does me no good/Love never feels the way that it should..."

31. TIME PASSAGES [Al Stewart; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #7]

There's a floating, drifting quality to the song, as '70's mellow as they come. The top single of the year on the Easy Listening charts, "Time Passages" has Al Stewart's thin voice singing, " Drifting into time passages / Years go falling in the fading light / Time passages/Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight..." If he had sung about a "yacht" rather than a "train," then this classic might rest even higher on the YR list.

30. REAL LOVE [The Doobie Brothers; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

29. LOTTA LOVE [Nicolette Larson; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #7]

Nicolette Larson sings backup on the Doobie's third biggest hit, "Real Love," and lead on her sweet cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love." Take the lyric, "It's gonna take a lotta love/To change the way things are..." In Young's version, he comes across as rather somber, yearning, on the verge of melancholia, like it's a wish that he knows can never be fulfilled; Larson sings with a Melanie-like playfulness to a disco-light beat, and in her hands the song becomes life-affirming, vivacious, with a somewhat positive can-do attitude that's not found in the original.

28. I'M NOT GONNA LET IT BOTHER ME TONIGHT [Atlanta Rhythm Section; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #14]

This song's sensibility is all Yacht Rock...that the world is in upheaval, and there are terrors out there waiting to destroy us, but who cares when we can save the worry for another day? This outlook stands as the true philosophy of procrastination found in Yacht Rock: " About all the pain and injustice / About all of the sorrow / We're living in a danger zone / The world could end tomorrow/But I'm not gonna let it bother me tonight..."

27. FEELS SO GOOD [Chuck Mangione; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #4]

The title of this flugelhorn-driven instrumental says it all.

26. ALL RIGHT [Christopher Cross; 1983; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #12]

If you're ever down and troubled, then do yourself a favor: Put on Christopher Cross' "All Right," with MM's patented backing vocals, and watch as the bad times wash away and a smile creeps upon your face. This stands as perhaps the most optimistic song ever written: "'Cause it's all right, think we're gonna make it/Think it might just work out this time..."

25. TURN YOUR LOVE AROUND [George Benson; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #5]

George Benson + Toto + David Foster + Jay Graydon on guitar + an early use of the Linn LM-1 Drum machine = Yacht Rock platinum status.

24. MINUTE BY MINUTE [The Doobie Brothers; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #14]

Listening to this Michael McDonald marvel of mellowness beats Xanax any day.

23. ONE HUNDRED WAYS [Quincy Jones and James Ingram; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #14]

What a perfect example of scrumptiously soft soul music with the velvet voice of Mr. Ingram leading the way, singing a litany of 100 things to romance his lady. He's never been better than a moment in this Grammy-winner, when he hits outrageous notes while singing, "Sacrifice if you care/Buy her some moonlight to wear..." To quote Robert Palmer: Simply irresistible.

22. I LOVE YOU [The Climax Blues Band; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #12]

This surely plays on rotation in heaven.

21. BAKER STREET [Gerry Rafferty; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

Is this the coolest Top-5 hit of the 1970's? With Raphael Ravencroft's searing saxophone riff rivaling anything by Clarence Clemons, the answer must be a resounding YES!

20. FM (NO STATIC AT ALL) [Steely Dan; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #22]

Perhaps the only Top-40 hit where the songwriters dare to rhyme "Elvis" with "yells his" and sing about "grapefruit wine." Recorded as the title song for a little-known 1978 film, FM, the significance of this Grammy-winning Steely Dan song cannot go unnoticed. The year it was released was the first time FM radio (clearer sound, no static at all) superseded AM radio (too much static) in listening popularity. So, if you ran an AM station and had to play a song called "FM" in rotation-a song about your competitor, a radio format that was making you obsolete-then what would you do? In the case of some stations, they edited the Steely Dan track and put the "A" sound from the group's song "Aja" where the "F" in "FM" should be. Their newly fine-tuned tune would be called "AM," even though the repeated phrase of "no static at all" would now make no sense whatsoever.

19. COOL NIGHT [Paul Davis; 1981; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

Paul Davis' ultimate love song, even stronger than his iconic "I Go Crazy." Its boppin' bliss shields the fact that the lead singer is lost: " I sometimes wonder why /All the flowers have to die / I dream about you /And now, Summer's come and gone / And the nights they seem so long ..." But this is Paul Davis, and nothing can bring him down, not when there's a cool night comin' and he invites his love to join him by the fire so that they can bring "back memories of a good life when this love was not so old..." The singer's optimism is so heartfelt, and this being Yacht Rock, we know that these two will ultimately get back together.

18. REMINISCING [Little River Band; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

This slick throwback to a black-and-white Cole Porter world should be on any indispensable wedding reception playlist, starting with a young couple falling in love and ending when they're older, spending their hours looking back at their good times. You would think this melodic pop treasure would be a Paul McCartney fave, but in an interesting twist, it was John Lennon who claimed "Reminiscing" as one of his favorite songs.

17. DEACON BLUES [Steely Dan; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #19]

This slick, sprawling mega-work about a midlife crisis is the most epic of Yacht Rock songs, its jazzy War and Peace , a veritable A la Recherche du Tremps Perdu . If you want to hear a fan of the University of Alabama cheer, then play them this line: "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide/Call me Deacon Blues." Still, the song is so seriously sober in tone that few people, even the most ardent of Alabama fanatics, will be yelling "Roll Tide!" after hearing it.

16. BABY COME BACK [Player; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

Tranquil and comforting even though it was written after two of the Player members suffered recent break-ups. Pop culture has had a heyday with its infectious hook, with "Baby Come Back" popping up in the Transformers, "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill" and even a "General Hospital" ep featuring the band themselves playing this classic live.

15. AFRICA [Toto; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

The Gods of Yacht Rock blessed the reign of this "Africa," Toto's sole #1 single that has been hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as "The New 'Don't Stop Believin'." It's been utilized in such works as Stranger Things, South Park and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City . During the funeral of Nelson Mandela, CBS accompanied the footage with this song, raising more than one eyebrow. But if you haven't heard the song in awhile, or have never heard it (who are you?), then please heed the song's advice: "Hurry, boy, it's waiting there for you!"

14. MOONLIGHT FEELS RIGHT [Starbuck; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

"The wind blew some luck in my direction/I caught it in my hands today..." One of the earliest Yacht Rock ventures on the list, with nods to French Connections, Ole Miss, the Chesapeake Bay, Southern Belles ("hell at night") and 1974 graduates ("a class of '74 gold ring"). According to Casey Kasem on AT-40, it was also the first song to chart that featured a marimba. Wafts along so joyfully, complete with suggestive giggles at the end of a particularly evocative verse.

13. COOL CHANGE [Little River Band; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #10]

In its own way, perhaps the yachtiest song on the list, a plea for escape, to come to terms with nature, to sail away on the "cool and bright clear water." It's not unlike Thoreau's "Walden Pond" set to music: "Well, I was born in the sign of water/And it's there that I feel my best/The albatross and the whales, they are my brothers/It's kind of a special feeling/When you're out on the sea alone/Staring at the full moon like a lover..." With "Cool Change," we don't need to journey outdoors to escape by emracing nature, to climb mountains or to sail the seas; we have the song itself which, to this listener, becomes the perfect escape without ever having to leave the house.

12. THIS IS IT [Kenny Loggins; 1979; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

"It's not a love song," Loggins once said. "It's a life song." If you want proof of American exceptionalism, go no further than here, because this is it . Although written for personal reasons, the song was needed when America was a bit down and out, "our backs to the corner" so to speak: Long gas lines, the Three Miles Island nuclear catastrophe, the cold war in its iciest state in years, and American hostages in Iran. And this song said it best: "Sometimes I believe/We'll always survive/Now I'm not so sure..." But then he stands tall and proclaims: "For once in your life/Here's your miracle/Stand up and fight!" I look at today, when America and the world once again are down and out (with soaring gas prices, gun violence, Russia invading the Ukraine and extreme tribalism); it's not a bad idea to play "This Is It" at full volume in order to lift our spirits, to help us stand up and fight through these dark days.

11. RIDE LIKE THE WIND [Christopher Cross; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

It's like something you'd find in a Sam Peckinpah film: A murderer of ten people is on the run, escaping inevitable execution (by hanging), chased by a posse all the way "to the border of Mexico." And yes, in "Ride Like the Wind," the bad guy gets away with it in this thrilling ride of a song, both driving and jazzy, with the trumpeting death horns and Michael McDonald's background vocals seemingly chasing the outlaw lead singer. Only recently I discovered that the line in the song is "gunned down ten," not "Gunga Din"; am I the only one who misunderstood these lyrics for most of my life?

10. LOWDOWN [Boz Scaggs; 1976; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

Here's the "dirty lowdown" (the honest truth) about "Lowdown." Boz Scaggs reinvented himself as the sunglasses-at-night bastion of cool with this soft-funk, discofied killer of a track. It was written by Scaggs and David Paich, their first collaboration; Paich, as you may know, would later go on to form the group Toto. Their creation would be honored with a Grammy win for best R&B song, and Scaggs would become the first white artist to win the award in that particular category. It could have also been one of the great additions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which the filmmakers wanted, but Boz's manager nixed the idea. They lost tons of money and popularity by settling for the soundtrack of the trauma-drama, Looking for Mr. Goodbar , where incidentally I first heard the song and wound up playing it over and over again long after it was a Top-10 hit.

9. LOVE WILL FIND A WAY [Pablo Cruise; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #6]

"Shadow Dancing" may have been the #1 song of '78, but it's this Pablo Cruise rollicking heap of pop brilliance that overfilled the radio airwaves that summer the way ivy covers the walls of Harvard. It was everywhere, and you couldn't escape it: "Once you get past the pain/You'll learn to find your love again." Such optimism, such hope, "Love Will Find a Way" became the signature hit of that fun-filled summer. It wasn't deep, but don't worry, it was happy. Pablo Cruise actually exemplifies the YR genre, the positive vibes perfect for summertime paradise by a band long forgotten, now remembered endearingly and, due to the recent adoration of Yacht Rock, justifiably immortalized.

8. ROSANNA [Toto; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #2]

The ultimate Toto tune and, thus, one of the Ultimate Yacht Rock entries. Named after Rosanna Arquette, the song became the summer anthem of '82, nesting at #2 for five weeks. The song's West Side Story -inspired music video featured Patrick Swayze, a year before The Outsiders, in a small part and Cynthia Rhodes as the title girl. Sylvester Stallone, who was directing Stayin' Alive at the time, saw Rhodes in the video and immediately cast her as a lead in his film. Stayin' Alive turned out to be a bad film, but it's a great story.

7. PEG [Steely Dan; 1977; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #11]

Welcome to L.A. where we're at a questionable photoshoot for an actress/model of perhaps ill-repute named Peg; narrating it is a disgruntle, sarcastic boyfriend who keeps her pictures with him and loves her even more due to her fame or infamy. The mention of foreign movies in the lyrics brings to mind seedier fair for our Pag, perhaps pornography. But any Steely Dan darkness that shrouds "Peg" is eclipsed by the jubilant music, so springy, so animated, so full of verve. Add Michael McDonald's patented backing vocals and Jay Graydon's guitar work, and you have nothing less than a fist-in-the-air triumph .

6. I KEEP FORGETTIN' (EVERY TIME YOU'RE NEAR) [Michael McDonald; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #4]

The captain of our Yacht Rock, Michael McDonald is everywhere in this 101. If you take only the top 12 songs, his voiceprints can be found somewhere in following: #12, #11, #7, #6, #3 and #1. And this song, his first big solo scribed by both McDonald and Ed Sanford (of the Sanford Townsend Band, famous for "Smoke from a Distant Fire"), obviously typifies the genre as strong as Coca Cola typifies soda. It even boasts the title of an episode of the online video series, "Yacht Rock," which after you've seen it is something you'll never forget.

5. STEAL AWAY [Robbie Dupree; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #6]

Yes, it sounds a little too close to the bubbly beat of "What a Fool Believes." And yes, it's the only time you will ever see Robbie Dupree in a Top-10 list during the modern era. But this is a wonder of Yacht Rocky delight, so shallow, so sweetly stupid, and so infectious to the ear. Listening to it might zap a few IQ points away from you, but the song is so agreeable, so toe-tappingly charming, who cares?

4. BIGGEST PART OF ME [Ambrosia; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #3]

Michael McDonald did not sing lead or backing vocals in "Biggest Part of Me," and he didn't write it, but he does have a footnote in its creation. When Ambrosia's David Pack scribed the song, the lead singer questioned his own lyrics: " There's a new sun arisin' /I can see a new horizon /That will keep me realizin'/You're the biggest part of me..." He wondered if it was too saccharine sweet for what he wanted, so he called the authority of such things, Michael McDonald. McDonald gave the thumbs up and the rest is Yacht Rock history.

3. HEART TO HEART [Kenny Loggins; 1982; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #15]

QUESTION: What do you get when your so-good-it-makes-you-wanna-cuss song features the Holy Trinity of Yacht Rock: Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald and David Foster? ANSWER: A masterpiece.

2. SAILING [Christopher Cross; 1980; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

Yacht Rock used to be known as the West Coast style, and "Sailing" is its finest example. Hearing it is akin to being on that yacht, wearing that silly captain's hat, and just chilling as the boat gently rocks with the breeze. Its accolades are many: Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Arrangemt of the Year and Best New Artist of the Year. Wow. And time has never erased it from our lives. Over the years you could hear the song on "WKRP in Cincinnati," "Family Guy," "Cobra Kai" and Hyundai TV commercials. I don't care who you are or where you are, "Sailing" automatically takes the listener "not far down from paradise." And, like me, you can find tranquility, just you wait and see.

And now for the #1 Yacht Rock song of all time...

1. WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES [The Doobie Brothers; 1978; Chart Position on the Billboard Hot 100: #1]

All right, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, our journey ends here, with this obvious Yacht Rock classic, a song written by our popes of YR, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, where the stars were aligned upon its creation and everything went right. It hit Number One on the charts as well as winning Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammy Awards. But it's the delectable beat fusing light-jazz and lighter-funk combined with McDonald's smooth velvet vocals that takes "What a Fool Believes" into the coveted top spot. No one can argue that this is the genre's finest three minutes and forty-one seconds. When it pops up on the radio or on your playlist, the world doesn't seem to be such a bad place, not with sophisticated keen pop like this. You have to turn up the volume. And It rightfully stands tall at the Number One position, the bouncy Citizen Kane of Yacht Rock.

And that's that. Have a great summer!

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The 25 Best Yacht Rock Songs Of All Time

Yacht Rock isn’t exactly a genre. It’s more a state of mind. It is the musical equivalent of a mid-afternoon mimosa nap in some nautical location—a cool breeze of lite-FM confection with the substance of a romance novel and the machismo of a Burt Reynolds mustache comb.

But what exactly is Yacht Rock?

Yacht Rock is ‘70s soft schlock about boats, love affairs, and one-night stands.

Typified by artists like Christopher Cross, Rupert Holmes, and Pablo Cruise, Yacht Rock is not only easy to mock, but it’s also deserving of the abuse. There’s a sensitive 70s male brand of chauvinism that permeates this material—like somehow because you could schnarf an 8-ball of cocaine and sail a boat into the sunset, your indulgences and marital infidelity were actually kind of sexy. Cheap pickup lines and beardly come-ons abound.

And yet, this stuff is irresistible on a slow summer day. It reeks of sunshine and laziness, and couldn’t we all use a little of both?

These are the 25 Best Yacht Rock Songs, in order. Zero suspense. (Sorry if that’s less fun for you).

If you would like to learn more about Yacht Rock without getting a sailing license, read on…

What are the qualifications for inclusion on our list?

So Yacht Rock refers to a type of soft rock, right? But there’s a ton of soft rock out there that doesn’t fit the bill. There’s no room on my boat for Barry Manilow. At the Copa? Sure. But not so much on my boat. So what makes a great yacht rock song exactly?

Ideally, one or more of these themes will be present:

  • Finding the love of your life;
  • Having a memorable one-night stand; or 
  • Doing something nautical.

These features pretty much capture everything that’s great about this milieu. But there’s also an important cheese factor at play here. While Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, CSN, and the Doobie Brothers all made songs that might qualify for inclusion here, the artists themselves are–let’s just say it–too good to be considered Yacht Rock.

We’ll make sure to include them in our deluxe playlist at the article’s conclusion.

But in order for a song to be considered for our list, it must be at least slightly embarrassing. Case in point, the top song on our list…

1. “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes

“The Pina Colada Song” is arguably the most perfect embodiment of yacht rock, fulfilling, as it does, all three of the qualifications cited above. Holmes sings about making love in the dunes, attempts to cheat on his wife, then ultimately, rediscovers that his “old lady” is actually the love he’s been searching for all along. That’s the holy trinity of Yacht Rock themes, all wrapped up in a breezy story of casual adultery. And at the turn of a new decade, listeners were feeling it. Released as a single in 1979, “Escape” stood at the top of the charts during the last week of the year. Falling to #2 in the new year, it returned to the top spot in the second week of 1980. This made it the first song to top the charts in two separate, consecutive decades. Fun fact: Rupert Holmes never drank a Pina Colada in his life. He just thought the lyric sounded right. Hard to argue that point.

2. “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl) by The Looking Glass

Formed at Rutgers University in 1969, Looking Glass topped the charts in 1972 with the tale of a lovelorn barmaid in a harbor town haunted by lonely sailors. It would be the band’s only hit. Lead singer Elliot Lurie would go on to a brief solo career before becoming head of the music department for the 20th Century Fox movie studio in the ’80s and ’90s. That means he was the musical supervisor for the soundtrack to Night at the Roxbury . Do with that information what you will. And with respect to “Brandy,” see the film Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for Kurt Russell’s surprisingly detailed treatise on its lyrical genius.

3. “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts

The title track from the soft-rock duo’s breakout 1972 record, “Summer Breeze” is an incurable earworm, a bittersweet twilight dream that captures everything that’s right about Lite FM. From an album inhabited by Wrecking Crew vets and studio aces, “Summer Breeze” curls like smoke drifting lazily through an open window.

4. “Africa” by Toto

Toto singer David Paich had never been to Africa. The melody and refrain for this #1 hit from 1982 came to him fully formed as he watched a late night documentary about the plight of those living on the African continent. The lyrics touch on missionary work and describe the landscape as inspired by images from National Geographic , according to Paich’s own recollection. Putting aside its self-aware inauthenticity, “Africa” is an infectious, 8x platinum AOR monster.

5. “Reminiscing: by Little River Band

Released in the summer of 1978 and reaching up to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Reminiscing” was guitarist Graeham Goble ‘s nostalgic take on the swing band era. Not only is it the only Australian song ever to reach five million radio plays in the U.S., but rumor is that it was among the late John Lennon’s favorite songs.

6. “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray

Recorded originally by a country-swamp rocker named Jeffrey Kurtz, Dobie’s 1973 cover became his biggest hit, reaching #5 on the charts. Though not explicitly nautical, “Drift Away” captures the distinct sensation of cruising at sunset.

7. “Love Will Find a Way” by Pablo Cruise

Pablo Cruise may have the most “yachty” of all band names on our list. And “Love Will Find a Way” is sort of the musical equivalent of a ketch skipping along a glassy surface on a crisp summer dawn. Pablo Cruise was formed in San Francisco by expats from various mildly successful bands including Stoneground and It’s a Beautiful Day. And there is a certain slick professionalism to the proceedings here. Of course, Pablo Cruise was never a critic’s darling. Homer Simpson once accurately classified them as wuss rock. Still, they perfectly captured the white-folks-vacationing-in-the-Caribbean energy that was all the rage at the time. Love found a way to reach #6 on the Billboard charts, remaining in constant radio rotation during the red-hot summer of ’78.

8. “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image

Blues Image emerged from South Florida in the late ’60s and served as the house band for Miami’s vaunted Thee Image music venue upon its inception in 1968. This gave Blues Image the opportunity to open for ascendant headliners like Cream and the Grateful Dead. The association landed them a contract Atco Records. Their sophomore record Open yielded their one and only hit, a #4 in 1970 about a bunch of men who disappear into the mists of the San Francisco Bay in search of a hippie utopia.

9. “Eye in the Sky” by The Alan Parsons Project

This #3 hit from 1982 has nothing to do with sailing. But it’s infectiously smooth production sheen, layered synth, and dreamy vocals make it a perfect Lite FM gem–one cut from the stone that gave us yacht rock. The “Project” was actually a British duo–studio wizard Alan Parsons and singer Eric Woolfson. The title track from their sixth studio album is also their very best recording. It’s also often paired with the instrumental lead-in “Sirius,” a song famous in its own right for blaring over unnumbered sporting arena PA systems. If that tune doesn’t make you think of Michael Jordan, you probably didn’t live through the late 80s.

10. “Miracles” by Jefferson Starship

Marty Balin was a pioneer of the San Francisco scene, founding Jefferson Airplane in 1965 as the house band for his own legendary club–The Matrix. But in 1971, deeply shaken by the death of Janis Joplin, Balin quit his own band. Four years later, he was invited to rejoin his old mates on the already-launched Starship. He immediately contributed what would become the biggest hit by any Jeffersonian vessel. “Miracles” reached #3 in 1975. Gorgeous, elegant, and open, this is a complete anomaly in the Airplane-Starship catalogue. Listen closely for the NSFW lyrics that have often flown under the radar of some adorably innocent censors.

11. “Sad Eyes” by Robert John

In 1972, Robert John had a #3 hit with his cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” And yet, just before recording “Sad Eyes”, the Brooklyn-born singer was employed as a construction worker in Long Branch, New Jersey. By the summer of ’79, he would have a #1 hit. In fact, the charting success of “Sad Eyes” was part of a cultural backlash against the reign of disco. A wave of pop hits swept on to the charts, including this slick soft rock throwback. With his sweet falsetto and doo wop sensibility, Robert John knocked The Knack’s “My Sharona” from its 6-week stand atop the charts.

12. “Magnet and Steel” by Walter Egan

Before launching headlong into his music career, Walter Egan was one of the very first students to earn a fine arts degree from Georgetown, where he studied sculpture. The subject would figure into his biggest hit, a #8 easy listening smash from 1978. Featured on his second solo record, “Magnet and Steel” enjoys the presence of some heavy friends. Lindsey Buckingham produced, played guitar and sang backup harmonies with Stevie Nicks. By most accounts, Nicks was also a primary source of inspiration for the song.

13. “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs

Of course, not all yacht rock songs are about sailing on boats. Some are about missing boats. Boz Scaggs looks dejected on the cover of 1977’s Silk Degrees , but things turned out pretty well for him. This bouncy #11 hit is a classic rock mainstay today. The band you hear backing Boz–David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, and David Hungate–would go on to form the nucleus of Toto that very same year. Toto, as it happens, is essentially a recurring theme of the genre. Before rising to massive success in their own right, the members of Toto absolutely permeated rock radio in the 70s, laying down studio tracks with Steely Dan, Seals and Crofts, Michael McDonald, and more.

14. “What You Won’t Do for Love” by Bobby Caldwell

This smooth-as-silk tune reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its 1978 release. It also reached #6 on the Hot Selling Soul Singles Chart. This is significant only because of Caldwell’s complexion. He was a white man signed to TK Records, a label most closely associated with disco acts like KC and the Sunshine Band. Catering to a largely Black audience, the label went to minor lengths to hide their new singer’s identity–dig the silhouetted figure on the cover of his own debut. Suffice it to say, once Caldwell hit the road, audiences discovered he was white. By then, they were already hooked on this perfect groove, which you might also recognize as a sample in 2Pac’s posthumous 1998 release, “Do For Love.”

15. “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)” by Michael McDonald

Technically, Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’” is an adaptation of an earlier tune by the same name. In fact, the original “I Keep Forgettin” was conceived by the legendary songwriting duo Leiber and Stoller–best known for iconic staples like “Hound Dog”, “Kansas City”, “Poison Ivy” and much much more. The original recording is by Chuck Jackson and dates to 1962. But McDonald’s 1982 take is definitive. If that wasn’t already true upon its release and #4 peak position on the charts, certainly Warren G. and Nate Dogg cemented its status when they sampled McDonald on “Regulate”. Get the whole history on that brilliant 1994 time capsule here .

Oh and by the way, this tune also features most of the guys from Toto. I know, right? These dudes were everywhere.

16. “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty

To the casual listener, Gerry Rafferty’s name may sound vaguely familiar. Indeed, you may remember hearing it uttered in passing in the film Reservoir Dogs . In a key scene, the DJ (deadpan comedian Steven Wright) mentions that Rafferty formed half the duo known as Stealers Wheel, which recorded a “Dylanesque, pop, bubble-gum favorite from April of 1974” called “Stuck in the Middle With You.” In the same scene, Mr. Blonde (portrayed with sadistic glee by Michael Madsen), slices off a policeman’s ear. At any rate, this is a totally different song, and is actually Rafferty’s biggest hit. “Baker Street” is a tune that reeks of late nights, cocaine, and regret. Peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Baker Street” soared on wings of the decade’s most memorable sax riff. Raphael Ravenscroft’s performance would, in fact, lead to a mainstream revitalization of interest in the saxophone writ large.

17. “Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang” by Silver

There are several interesting things about Silver that have almost nothing to do with this song. First, bass guitarist and singer Tom Leadon was both the brother of Bernie Leadon from the Eagles and a member of Tom Petty’s pre-fame band, Mudcrutch. Second, the band’s keyboardist was Brent Mydland, who would go on to become the Grateful Dead’s longest tenured piano guy. Third, Silver put out their only record in 1976, and future Saturday Night Live standout Phil Harman designed the cover art. With all of that said, Arista executives felt that their first album lacked a single so they had country songwriter Rick Giles cook up this ridiculous, gooey concoction that I kind of love. Let’s say this one falls into the “so bad it’s good” category. Anyway, the song peaked at #16 on the charts. The band broke up in ’78, leading Mydland to accept the deadliest job in rock music. He defied the odds by playing with the Grateful Dead until an accidental drug overdose claimed his life in 1990.

18. “Biggest Part of Me” by Ambrosia

I admit, I’m kind of hard-pressed to make Ambrosia interesting. In fact, they were extremely prolific, and earned high regard in early ’70s prog rock circles. And in the 1990s, lead singer David Pack would actually be the musical director for both of Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration concerts. But this Southern California combo is much better known to mainstream audiences for their top-down, hair-blowing-in-the-wind soft rock from the decade in between. Peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980, “Biggest Part of Me” is the group’s best-known tune–a seafoamy bit of blue-eyed soul served over a raw bar of smooth jazz and lite funk.

19. “Baby Come Back” by Player

Player released their self-titled debut album in 1977 and immediately shot up to #1 with “Baby Come Back.” Bandmates Peter Beckett and J.C. Crowley had both recently broken up with their girlfriends. They channeled their shared angst into this composition, a self-sorry guilty pleasure featuring former Steppenwolf member Wayne Cook on keys. Granted, Steppenwolf’s edgy disposition is nowhere to be found on this record, but it is pretty infectious in a late-summer-night, slightly-buzzed, clenched-fist sort of way. Player endured various lineup changes, but never returned to the heights of their first hit.

20. “On and On” by Stephen Bishop

Remember that scene in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) where there’s this dude in a turtleneck singing a super cloying folks song before John Belushi mercifully snatches away his guitar and smashes it to smithereens? That guy was Stephen Bishop, who was actually in the middle of enjoying considerable success with his 1976 debut album, Careless . “On and On” was the album’s biggest hit, a vaguely Caribbean soft-rocker that reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in ’77. The gentle electric riffs you hear there are supplied by guitarist Andrew Gold–who wrote the theme song for the Golden Girls . (I freakin’ know you’re singing it right now).

21. “Chevy Van” by Sammy Johns

The classic tale of boy-meets-girls, bangs-her-in-his-van, and brags-to-his-buds, all with backing from the world famous Wrecking Crew studio team. In 1975, a lot of people super related to it. It sold over a million copies and reach #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. I can’t tell you this song is good. But I also can’t tell you I don’t like it.

22. “You Are the Woman” by Firefall

Firefall’s lead guitarist Jock Bartley perfectly captures this song’s impact, calling the band’s biggest hit “a singing version of [a] Hallmark card.” That feels right. The second single from Firefall’s 1976 self-titled debut was only a regional hit at first. But it was driven all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the strength of radio requests. As Bartley explained, “Every female between the ages of 18 and 24 wanted to be the woman portrayed in the song, and that caused their boyfriends and spouses to call radio stations and subsequently flood the airwaves with dedications of the song and the sentiment.”

23. “Sailing” by Christopher Cross

Arguably, “Sailing” is the single most emblematic song of the Yacht Rock genre. Its thematic relevance requires no explanation. But it’s worth noting that the song is inspired by true events. During a tough time in his youth, Cross was befriended by Al Glasscock. Serving as something of an older brother to Cross, Glasscock would take him sailing. He recalls in his biggest hit that this was a time of escape from the harsh realities of his real life. In 1979, Cross released his self-titled debut. In early 1980, “Sailing” became a #1 hit, landing Cross a hat-trick of Grammys–including recognition as best new artist. Though Cross and Glasscock would lose touch for more than 20 years, they were reunited during a 1995 episode of The Howard Stern Show . Cross subsequently mailed a copy of his platinum record to Glasscock.

24. “Steal Away” by Robbie Dupree

Apparently, this song was perceived as so blatant a ripoff of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins’ “What a Fool Believes” that legal action was actually threatened. It never formulated. Instead, Robbie Dupree landed a #6 Billboard Hot 100 hit with the lead single from his self-titled 1980 debut. Critics hated it, but it was a dominant presence in the summer of 1980. It even earned Dupree a Grammy nomination for best new artist. He ultimately lost to the man just above–Christopher Cross.

25. “This is It” by Kenny Loggins

You didn’t think we’d get through this whole list without an actual Kenny Loggins tune. This song has the perfect pedigree, teaming Loggins and Michael McDonald on a 1979 composition that became the lead single off of Kenny Loggins’ Keep the Fire. Coming on the tail end of the ’70s, “This is It” felt positively omnipresent in the ’80s. I may be biased here. I grew up in Philadelphia, where a local television show by the same name adopted “This is It” as its theme song. But then, it did also reach #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And in that spirit…this is it, the end of our list.

But as usual, here’s a bonus playlist–an expanded voyage through the breezy, AOR waters of the mid-’70s to early ’80s.

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Yacht Rock • 70s & 80s Soft Rock Classics

Hit the cruise control to these smooth Yacht Rock and AOR classics. Featuring 'Right Down The Line' by Gerry Rafferty, as heard on Euphoria Season 2.

100 Songs, 7 hours, 24 minutes

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60+ Best Yacht Rock Songs of All Time

The family vibe on the yacht was outstanding as they enjoyed listening to the yacht's rock song.

Published April 28, 2023

Yacht rock is a subgenre of soft rock. It became prevalent in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and while it’s no longer as popular now, it still continues to be loved by fans today.

It’s best known for the jazzy arrangements, sophisticated harmonies, and lyrics that would often encapsulate the laid-back lifestyle of yacht owners. Needless to say, yacht rock targets a specific niche, and even those outside of that niche can enjoy the songs the genre offers.

If that sounds like you, then you’re in luck. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the best yacht rock songs of all time, from deep cuts to classics that came out from 1972 to 1990.

67 Best Yacht Rock Songs List

  • “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts (1972)
  • “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago (1976)
  • “Sara Smile” by Hall & Oates (1976)
  • “What a Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers (1978)
  • “Peg” by Steely Dan (1978)
  • “Ride Like the Wind” by Christopher Cross (1979)
  • “Sailing” by Christopher Cross (1979)
  • “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes (1979)
  • “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)” by Michael McDonald (1982)
  • “Africa” by Toto (1982)
  • “Cool Change” by Little River Band (1982)
  • “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” by Hall & Oates (1982)
  • “Lonely Boy” by Andrew Gold (1982)
  • “Rock with You” by Michael Jackson (1982)
  • “Slow Dancer” by Boz Scaggs (1982)
  • “Baby Come Back” by Player (1983)
  • “Say You Love Me” by Fleetwood Mac (1983)
  • “All Out of Love” by Air Supply (1984)
  • “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” by Christopher Cross (1984)
  • “Biggest Part of Me” by Ambrosia (1984)
  • “Can’t We Try” by Dan Hill and Vonda Shepard (1984)
  • “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest (1984)
  • “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. & Bill Withers (1984)
  • “Magnet and Steel” by Walter Egan (1984)
  • “One on One” by Hall & Oates (1984)
  • “Private Eyes” by Hall & Oates (1984)
  • “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image (1984)
  • “When You Love a Woman” by Journey (1984)
  • “When I Need You” by Leo Sayer (1985)
  • “You Belong to Me” by Carly Simon (1985)
  • “Foolish Heart” by Steve Perry (1986)
  • “More Than a Feeling” by Boston (1986)
  • “On and On” by Stephen Bishop (1986)
  • “Reminiscing” by Little River Band (1986)
  • “We’re All Alone” by Boz Scaggs (1986)
  • “Can’t Hide Love” by Earth, Wind & Fire (1987)
  • “Just You and I” by Melissa Manchester (1987)
  • “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers (1987)
  • “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor (1987)
  • “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies (1987)
  • “Touch Me in the Morning” by Diana Ross (1987)
  • “Give Me the Night” by George Benson (1988)
  • “Lady Love Me (One More Time)” by George Benson (1988)
  • “Time Passages” by Al Stewart (1988)
  • “Do That to Me One More Time” by Captain & Tennille
  • “How Long” by Ace (1989)
  • “I’ll Be Over You” by Toto (1989)
  • “Kiss on My List” by Hall & Oates (1989)
  • “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” by Air Supply (1989)
  • “On My Own” by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald (1989)
  • “Rosanna” by Toto (1989)
  • “The One You Love” by Glenn Frey (1989)
  • “Through the Fire” by Chaka Khan (1989)
  • “What You Won’t Do for Love” by Bobby Caldwell (1989)
  • “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” by Phil Collins (1990)
  • “Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley” by Will to Power (1990)
  • “Easy” by The Commodores (1990)
  • “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood (1990)
  • “I Keep Forgettin'” by Warren G featuring Michael McDonald (1990)
  • “I’ll Be There” by The Escape Club (1990)
  • “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs (1990)
  • “Missing You” by John Waite (1990)
  • “Smooth Operator” by Sade (1990)
  • “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra (1990)
  • “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner (1990)
  • “We Built This City” by Starship (1990)
  • “Your Wildest Dreams” by The Moody Blues (1990)

10 Yacht Rock-Inspired Songs from the 2010s and Beyond

A group of friends sings yacht rock songs to enjoy and relax on their yacht trip.

While yacht rock is often associated with the late 1970s and early 1980s, there have been some recent songs that were able to capture the yacht rock vibe or sound. They’re now quite popular among fans of this genre. Here’s a yacht rock songs list of these songs:

  • “This Love” by Taylor Swift (2014)
  • “On the Rocks” by The Last Shadow Puppets (2016)
  • “Too Late” by Washed Out (2017)
  • “If You Want It” by Slightly Stoopid (2018)
  • “Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino (2018)
  • “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (2018)
  • “So Caught Up” by The Teskey Brothers (2019)
  • “Joanna” by Joji (2019)
  • “Lucky Ones” by Logan Prescott (2020)
  • “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus (2020)

The Bottom Line

Yacht rock has proven to be a timeless genre that has, for decades, captured the hearts of not only yacht enjoyers and owners, but also music lovers in general. Whether you’re a newcomer to yacht rock or a long-time enthusiast of the genre, the top yacht rock songs in this list will offer a glimpse into the melodic, smooth sound that defines the yacht genre.

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Lenard Arceo is passionate about the outdoors and South Florida life. He is a professional blogger for several renowned publications and also loves learning how to code in his free time.

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36 Songs Guaranteed to Make You Feel Like You’re on Vacation

Whether you’ve got the plane ticket booked already or just need to fantasize, these songs are sure to bring the vacation vibes.

80s yacht rock songs

Dreaming of sandy beaches, crystal-clear waters, and palm trees swaying in the breeze? While hopping on a plane for a tropical getaway might not always be feasible, there’s a simple way to transport yourself to paradise without leaving home: music.

Certain songs have a magical ability to evoke the sensation of being on vacation, instantly whisking you away to far-off destinations and infusing your day with a dose of wanderlust. From catchy beach tunes to laid-back island melodies, here are some songs guaranteed to make you feel like you’re on vacation, no matter where you are.

Best vacation songs

“all summer long” by kid rock.

A nostalgic rock anthem that reminisces about the carefree days of summer spent with friends and loved ones.

“August” by Taylor Swift

A song about summer love complete with salt air, sun on your back, and months slipping away.

“Coconut Woman” by Harry Belafonte

A Caribbean calypso song that tells the story of the coconut woman, a vendor selling coconuts on the beach.

“Come Fly With Me” by Frank Sinatra

A timeless jazz standard that invites listeners to embark on a romantic adventure around the world.

“Come Sail Away” by Styx

A progressive rock epic that transports listeners on a fantastical journey through the high seas and beyond.

“Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin

An uplifting and infectious song that reminds listeners to embrace positivity and let go of their worries.

“Holiday” by Madonna

An upbeat pop anthem celebrating the joys of taking a break and escaping from the routine of everyday life.

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone

A funk-infused anthem celebrating the vibrant energy and good times of summer.

“Island in the Sun” by Weezer

A breezy alternative rock song evoking images of sunny beaches and palm trees swaying in the breeze.

“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Bryan Hyland

A fun and playful tune recounting the adventures of a girl in her new bikini.

“I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash

A country classic detailing the singer’s travels to various cities and towns across the country.

“Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” by Carpenters

A catchy country tune celebrating the flavors and culture of Louisiana with references to Cajun cuisine and the bayou.

“Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver

A folk-pop ballad about saying goodbye and embarking on a journey, whether it’s for adventure or heartache.

“Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett

A laid-back, tropical tune that invites listeners to escape to a carefree island paradise.

“Mexico” by James Taylor

A serene and melodic ballad that paints a vivid picture of escaping to the tranquil beauty of Mexico.

“Miami” by Will Smith

A hip-hop ode to the vibrant city of Miami, with infectious beats and catchy lyrics celebrating its culture and nightlife.

“No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem” by Kenny Chesney

A carefree country song that celebrates the freedom of living life on your own terms.

“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X

A genre-blending hit that combines elements of country and hip-hop, telling the story of a cowboy’s journey along an old town road.

“On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson

A country ballad about the joys and freedom of life on the open road, perfect for long summer drives.

“Permanent Vacation” by Aerosmith

A rock anthem about escaping the everyday grind and embracing a carefree lifestyle.

“Rum and Cola” by Andrews Sisters

A vintage swing song celebrating the simple pleasure of enjoying a rum and cola on a sunny day.

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper

A classic anthem celebrating the end of the school year with rebellious energy and catchy riffs.

“Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow

An upbeat and catchy song celebrating the simple joys of summertime and sunshine.

Related: 16 Self-Care Songs to Boost Your Mood

“Some Beach” by Blake Shelton

A humorous country song about seeking refuge from life’s stresses on a peaceful beach.

“Summer Lovin’” from Grease

A catchy and nostalgic duet from the musical Grease, capturing the excitement and romance of summer flings.

“Summertime” by Will Smith

A hip-hop homage to the joys of summer with infectious beats and catchy lyrics.

“Summertime, Summertime” by Jamies

A feel-good doo-wop track capturing the essence of summertime fun and romance.

“Surfin USA” by The Beach Boys

An iconic surf-rock anthem that celebrates the thrill of catching waves and soaking up the sun on California’s coast.

“Take It Easy” by Eagles

A laid-back rock anthem that encourages listeners to take life as it comes and enjoy the ride.

“The Girl from Ipanema” by Frank Sinatra

A bossa nova classic that paints a picture of the beauty and allure of a girl from Ipanema beach in Brazil.

“Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer” by Nat King Cole

A nostalgic tune evoking the carefree spirit of summer days spent lounging in the sun.

“Toes” by Zac Brown Band

A laid-back country tune that invites listeners to kick back, relax, and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

“Twist and Shout” by The Beatles

An iconic rock ‘n’ roll song that never fails to get listeners on their feet and dancing.

“Two Tickets To Paradise” by Eddie Money

A rock classic that captures the excitement and anticipation of embarking on a journey to paradise.

“Under the Board Walk” by The Drifters

A soulful R&B classic capturing the romance and allure of a seaside rendezvous.

“Vacation” by The Go-Gos

A pop-rock anthem about the excitement and anticipation of going on vacation and leaving your worries behind.

“Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles

A catchy pop-rock tune with infectious rhythms and lyrics inspired by Egyptian imagery and dance.

Related: How To Use Calming Music for Stress Relief

Music channels that sound like vacation

Let us take over the DJ responsibilities so you can skip the tedious manual playlist construction and get right to what matters: relaxing.

Explore our channels curated around music legends like Bob Marley, Kenny Chesney, Pitbull, Jimmy Buffett, and Shaggy. Escape to the sounds of the Caribbean, Latin America, Hawaii — or just a local dive bar.

Put one of these channels on your car radio or the SiriusXM app and just let it play. You’ll feel like you’re on a beach somewhere in no time.

Don’t have SiriusXM yet? Start listening today!

Bob marley’s tuff gong radio (ch. 19).

Bob’s hits, family music, and more – Listen Now

All of Bob Marley’s music is in one place, including rare gems, his family’s prolific recordings, and music from Tuff Gong, the family label he founded. Make any day better hangin’ with the Marleys.

Caliente (Ch. 152)

Red-hot Latin music mix – Listen Now

Salsa, bachata, reggaeton, and more, where the sounds of the Caribbean and the Americas collide and where Latin music and culture meet.

Escape (Ch. 149)

24/7 easy listening music – Listen Now

Whenever you listen, you’ll always hear the world’s most beautiful easy listening music with great melodies that you can hum along to.

No Shoes Radio (Ch. 59)

Kenny Chesney’s music channel – Listen Now

Music from and chosen by Kenny Chesney, including special rare recordings, live concerts, unplugged moments, and No Shoes Nation drop-ins.

Pitbull’s Globalization (Ch. 13)

Worldwide rhythmic hits – Listen Now

Open format club DJs dropping the biggest hits from all genres around the world, from pop and hip-hop to Latin and dance.

Radio Margaritaville (Ch. 24)

Escape with Jimmy Buffett music – Listen Now

Parrotheads, your ship has come in. From multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and author Jimmy Buffett comes a radio paradise of great music.

Rockbar (Ch. 713)

Hard-rock hits jukebox – Listen Now

Serving up tunes with a dive bar vibe. Raise a glass and the volume to top-shelf rock on the rocks. AC/DC, Van Halen, Metallica, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Pearl Jam, and more.

Shaggy’s Boombastic Radio (Ch. 332)

Dancehall, reggae, and afrobeats – Listen Now

Love Reggae? Hear the sounds of Jamaica with music from artists including Bob Marley, UB40, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Chronixx, and more.

Yacht Rock 311 (Ch. 311)

’70s and ’80s smooth-sailing soft rock – Listen Now

Drift off with soft rock from the late ’70s and early ’80s from artists like Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, and other titans of smooth music. It’s the kind of rock that doesn’t rock the boat.

App-exclusive channels that sound like vacation

Hawaiian vacation.

Hawaiian-style music – Listen Now

Red White & Booze

Country bar anthems – Listen Now

Reggae Vibes

Downtempo reggae – Listen Now

The rhythmic beat of the tropics – Listen Now

Sun-soaked island music vibes – Listen Now

Music to Sleep To, From Ambient and Downtempo to White Noise and Nature Sounds

Vote now for the top 10 women voices in classic rock, usher radio plays 30 years of nonstop usher hits, from ‘u got it bad’ to ‘coming home’, siriusxm remembers outlaw country’s own mojo nixon, music, sports, news and more.

All in one place on the SiriusXM app

80s yacht rock songs

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The 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

When the Beatles broke up in 1970, they figured it was the end of the story. But they got that wrong. Over 50 years later, John, Paul, George, and Ringo are more influential, famous, beloved than ever. That means the world is finally catching up with one of the weirdest chapters in the Beatles’ saga: their solo music. All four Fabs kept making music, on their own eccentric terms. All four dropped classic albums. All four released total garbage. The solo Beatles story is a gloriously messy, crazed, chaotic world of its own.

So let’s celebrate that story: the 100 greatest Beatles solo songs, starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The hits, the flops, the deep cuts, the fan favorites, the cult classics, the covers. Some of these songs are legendary tunes sung around the world at weddings and parties. Some are buried treasures only the most hardcore Beatlemaniacs know. And one is “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” As a great man said, it don’t come easy. 

Every fan would compile a different list—that’s the beauty of it. We love to keep arguing about the Beatles’ solo records. I have spent my life arguing that Ringo’s 1970 country album Beaucoups of Blues is an underrated masterpiece, and I will argue this forever . Hell, I once had this argument with Ringo. (I can’t tell if I persuaded him or not—he was too busy laughing at me.)

Keep in mind: this is NOT a list of their greatest hits. These songs aren’t here because of commercial success, radio airplay, sales or popularity. The only thing that matters is the level of Beatle magic. That means some incredibly famous hits didn’t make the cut. To pick just the most obvious example, the words “say,” “say,” and “say” do not appear consecutively here at all. 

These days, fans dig deeper than ever into the solo Beatles’ music. Records that were once impossible to find are now easy to hear with one click. So the arguments keep getting more sophisticated. When Paul released Ram in 1971, the whole world agreed it was an atrocity. Now it’s easily his most famous and acclaimed album. Fans are just now discovering gems like John’s Mind Games or George’s Living in the Material World . The arguments keep changing—that’s what makes it fun.

This list gives all four Beatles room to make noise. Obviously, it’s tricky because Paul has a far bigger songbook than the others combined—he’s still thriving as a songwriter in his 80s, while John and George had their lives cruelly cut short. But the whole point of a list like this is mixing them up as equally as possible, or at least as far as the music demands. So they’re all fighting for space on this list, just as they always were on Beatles albums. (The Top Ten has three songs by each of the main songwriters, plus a Ringo banger.) But all 100 of these songs live up to that Beatles spirit. The dream will never be over.

John Lennon, ‘How?’ (1971)

Former Beatle John Lennon (1940 - 1980) at his home, Tittenhurst Park, near Ascot, Berkshire, July 1971. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

“How?” is a perfect place to start, just because it’s a song by a John full of questions that have no answers. He’s setting off into his 30s, his post-Beatles life, his solo career, a new decade with his new wife. He’s done the drugs and paid for the therapy. But he’s never felt more confused. “How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?” “How can I have a feeling when I don’t know if it’s a feeling?” “How can I give love when I just don’t know how to give?” These are questions that all four Beatles could relate to after the band split, in their very different ways.

Wings, ‘With a Little Luck’ (1978)

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1978:  Paul McCartney in the concert in Philadelphia, United States in 1978.  (Photo by Chip HIRES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

A Number One hit so smoothed out it makes “Silly Love Songs” sound like “Helter Skelter.” “With a Little Luck” is a Seventies couples-therapy session with synthesizers: Paul promises, “There is no end to what we can do together,” which rhymes with (love this line) “the willow turns his back on inclement weather.” When Macca goes for yacht rock, he goes all the way; “With a Little Luck” is the rare yacht-rock hit that was recorded on an actual yacht, moored near the Virgin Islands with a mobile studio on board. And maybe, just maybe, a few drugs.

George Harrison, ‘I’d Have You Anytime’ (1970)

English musician, singer-songwriter, and producer George Harrison (1943 - 2001) performing on stage playing his 'Rocky' Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster during his 'George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's 1974 North American tour' also known as the 'Dark Horse Tour' in North America, 1974. (Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns/Getty Images)

George kicked off his solo debut, All Things Must Pass , with a ballad he wrote with his friend and future Wilbury mate Bob Dylan, “I’d Have You Anytime.” It’s a tribute to their musical brotherhood — but also a flex to remind the other Beatles who was Dylan’s favorite Fab. They co-wrote “I’d Have You Anytime” at Dylan’s home in Woodstock on Thanksgiving 1968. “We finally got the guitars out, and it loosened things up a bit,” Harrison said. “It was really a nice time with all his kids around, and we were just playing.” But just a few weeks later, he was back with the Beatles for the Get Back sessions, still fighting to get them to play his damn songs. 

Ringo Starr, ‘No No Song’ (1974)

LONDON - 1974: (L-R) English musician and drummer for The Beatles, Ringo Starr, poses for a portrait, circa May 1974 in London, England  (Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty

Damn right we’ve got Ringo on this list. Get used to it. “No No Song” has everything you want in a quality Ringo solo jam: an upbeat groove, a vocal that can give you third-degree charm burns, a witty lyric, and a little help from his friends who would jump on a grenade for this man because he’s Ringo. (In this case, the friend is Harry Nilsson.) “No No Song” is a trip through Hollywood decadence, turning down marijuana, cocaine, and moonshine, long before he (fortunately) got sober. He’s in his 80s, he lives on broccoli and blueberries, and he’s still a better dancer than you. He’s Ringo. We’ll hear from him again.

Paul McCartney and Nirvana, ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ (2012)

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 12:  Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Sir Paul McCartney perform at "12-12-12" a concert benefiting The Robin Hood Relief Fund to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy presented by Clear Channel Media & Entertainment, The Madison Square Garden Company and The Weinstein Company at Madison Square Garden on December 12, 2012 in New York City.  (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Clear Channel)

All you need is grunge. Paul teams up with the surviving Nirvana dudes, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear. They banged out “Cut Me Some Slack” in three hours, for Grohl’s documentary Sound City , and debuted it at the NYC Concert for Sandy Relief on Dec. 12, 2012. Maccavana won a Grammy for this song, which meant the surreal sight of Paul smiling at the podium alongside one of the Germs. (And Smear is one of the few rockers with a perma-grin to rival Paul’s.) Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, whatever, nevermind.

John Lennon, ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ (1980)

UNITED STATES - MAY 26:  John Lennon returning from florist shop outside his apartment at the Dakota.,  (Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

“Starting Over” hit Number One in the aftermath of John’s death, but there’s nothing grim about it—his voice and guitar are full of doo-wop joy. It’s the song of an adult romantic resolving to make something out of the time he’s got left with Yoko. The opening chimes connect to “Mother” from Plastic Ono Band , a decade earlier, except now he’s facing his future instead of his past. The ebullience in the music is a musical and spiritual high note.

George Harrison, ‘The Day The World Gets ‘Round’ (1973)

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 19:  George Harrison in concert at Madison Square Garden.  (Photo by Thomas Monaster/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

George’s spiritual crises send him back to his guitar—the wisest guru he ever had. “The Day The World Turns ‘Round,” the capper from Living in the Material World , is George turning 30, seemingly on top of the world, yet wondering how it all went so wrong, as all that talk of peace and love turned into lawyers, accountants, dealers, junkies, divorces. The woozy proto-indie guitars have a Pavement vibe—it could come straight from Brighten The Corners or Wowee Zowee .

John Lennon, ‘Old Dirt Road’ (1974)

WEST HOLLYWOOD - MARCH 12:  Singer-guitarist John Lennon (center right), formerly of The Beatles, attends a Smothers Brothers comedy performance with girlfriend May Pang and fellow singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (far right), during Lennon's infamous 'Lost Weekend' period, at the Troubadour on March 12, 1974, in West Hollywood, California.  Lennon and Nilsson would later be kicked out of the show for drunken heckling.  (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

John Lennon, in his Lost Weekend madness, set loose in L.A., was like a Molotov cocktail. Now add alcohol. And for the lighted match: ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Harry Nilsson! That guy sure had a way of making things blow up. John producing Harry’s Pussy Cats album wasn’t the greatest move for either one’s mental health, or for the long-suffering bartenders of Hollywood. But they sound right in tune in “Old Dirt Road,” their piano-ballad collabo on Walls and Bridges , two old rogues by the side of the road, begging for water when they’d rather guzzle Brandy Alexanders.

Wings, ‘Listen To What The Man Said’ (1974)

LOS ANGELES,CA - APRIL 2,1974:  Singer Paul McCartney with his wife Linda McCartney arrive to the 46th Academy Awards at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles,California. (Photo by Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

How strong were the drugs in the Seventies? Put it this way: musicians kept joining Wings, then complaining they didn’t have creative input. My dudes. You’re in Paul McCartney’s band. Nobody’s out there in the crowd yelling “‘Medicine Jar!’” “Listen To What The Man Said” is prime Wings: Paul consults his love guru (an updated Fool on the Hill for the Me Decade) over plush boogie, with a Tom Scott sax break. What wisdom does Paul get from his guru? “Love is fine.” Most quintessential Macca detail: the way he follows the line “soldier boy kisses girl” with an audible smooch. The wonder of it all, baby.

George Harrison, ‘Awaiting On You All’ (1970)

George harrison, 1974 (Photo by: Universal Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

George sings about the joys of Krishna Consciousness, with a band full of drug fiends and a hopefully unarmed Phil Spector. But the joyful clamor of “Awaiting for You All” achieves that Spector girl-group spirit, lifted high by Derek and the Dominoes and loads of percussion. 

Ringo Starr, ‘Stardust’ (1970)

Beatles 1969 Ringo Starr at Apple Corps© Chris Walter

Ringo made his solo debut with the oddity Sentimental Journey , crooning showbiz oldies like “Stardust”—the kind of old-time standards he grew up hearing his parents sing down the pub. As he explained, “I did it for me Mum.” You gotta love how Paul was making his ambitious solo move, John was getting into primal scream, George did a triple album about Krishna…but Ringo, he just wanted to sing “Stardust” for Elsie Starkey Greaves. His arranger? A gent named Paul McCartney. Ringo also got arrangements from Quincy Jones, Oliver Nelson, Elmer Bernstein, and good old George Martin. As Greil Marcus wrote in Rolling Stone, ‘Not exactly ‘Octopus’ Garden,’ but what the hell.”

John Lennon, ‘Out The Blue’ (1973)

NEW YORK - CIRCA 1973: Former Beatle John Lennon poses for a photo circa 1973 in New York City, New York.  (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)

A tormented love ballad for Yoko from Mind Games , right when their marriage was hitting the skids. John sings about how she changed his life, over those “Sexy Sadie” chords, testifying, “Everyday I thank the Lord and Lady for the way that you came to me.” But it’s a song he couldn’t write until she finally left him. And for that touch of Rumours , who’s that playing guitar? Yoko’s new boyfriend, David Spinozza. The Seventies, man.

Paul McCartney, ‘Bluebird’ (1973)

Paul McCartney of Wings posed with Disney characters in 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

The first night Paul had Linda over to his house, in 1968, he opened the window to greet the fans camped outside, and played them a brand new song on guitar: “Blackbird.” Just a few years later, he sang “Bluebird” for her, a vision of Paul and Linda as two lovebirds flying across the sea to their own desert island. It’s an oddly melancholy bossa nova melody, showcasing Nigerian percussionist Remi Kabaka.

George Harrison, ‘Try Some Buy Some’ (1973)

George Harrison performs on stage at Wembley Stadium, London, 1974. (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

A beautifully quizzical waltz that George wrote for Ronnie Spector, as her comeback single on Apple Records. She wasn’t the biggest fan, telling him, “I don’t understand a word of it.” He replied, “That’s okay. I don’t either.” When the single flopped, George couldn’t bear to see it go to waste, so he just sang “Try Some, Buy Some” over the original Phil Spector track. He flubbed half the high notes, yet that adds to the daft charm. But nobody ever loved this song like David Bowie, who sang it on Reality , hearing it as an allegory of his own addiction. “When I first heard that song it had a very different narrative to it,” he told The Word in 2003. “When I first heard the song in ’74 I was yet to go through my heavy drug period. And now it’s about the consolation of having kicked all that and turning your life around.”

Wings, ‘Arrow Through Me’ (1979)

Linda McCartney, atop her appoloosa horse, poses with Paul for photographs in front of a castle near Dover. (Photo by Jim Sugar/Corbis via Getty Images)

“Arrow Through Me” is impeccably suave mall-funk from Back to the Egg , the 1979 mishmash that ended up being the final Wings album before Macca realized that pretending to lead a democratic rock band was more trouble than it was worth. New Wavers loved Back to the Egg (how it pains me not to have room for “Getting Closer” or “Old Siam, Sir”). “While I was in Tokyo I used to go to a vinyl bar, but the bartender didn’t have Wings records,” Harry Styles told Rolling Stone in 2019. “So I brought him  Back to the Egg . ‘Arrow Through Me,’ that was the song I had to hear every day when I was in Japan.” Erkykah Badu samples it cleverly in “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long.”

Ringo Starr, ‘Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)’ (1973)

Ringo Starr during taping of commercial outside Capitol Records building in Hollywood, CA 1974; Various Locations; Mark Sullivan 70's Rock Archive; Hollywood; CA.   (Photo by Mark Sullivan/Contour by Getty Images)

George wrote this festive Celtic sea shanty, completing the Ringo Aquatic Trilogy begun by “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’ Garden.” Ringo and George kick up their heels on deck with their friends in The Band—Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson, sailing away on fiddle and accordion. 

John Lennon, ‘Crippled Inside’ (1971)

LONDON: John Lennon in Selfridges department store, Oxford Street, London in 1971 to promote the publication of the 2nd edition of Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

What’s this: John swiping a hook from (of all people) Ringo? You love it to see it. “Crippled Inside” sounds a heck of a lot like “Don’t Pass Me By,” Ringo’s White Album hoedown, with George twanging away on the dobro. But it’s also the kind of old-timey tune that John’s mother Julia taught him to play on banjo when he was a little boy, which might be a clue to the inner devastation he’s confessing in the song. As he admits, “One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside.”

Wings, ‘Love In Song’ (1974)

Linda McCartney et Paul McCartney circa 1975 sur la plage en France.   (Photo by REPORTERS ASSOCIESGamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

An enigmatic rainy-day ballad from Venus and Mars , with bittersweet 12-string guitar. Paul pleads, “My heart cries out for love and all that goes with loving.” “Love In Song” feels like he started out trying to write one of his signature upbeat ditties, but changed his mind halfway through so he could brood over loss and exile, mourning “happiness in the homeland.” He plays a stand-up bass—the same one Bill Black played on the early Elvis hits.

Ringo Starr, ‘Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)’ (1978)

Ringo Starr (Photo by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis via Getty Images)

Ringo is the most New Orleans in spirit of English rock stars, so it’s a shame he didn’t do more Crescent City songs. (Can you imagine Ringo doing a whole album of Ernie K-Doe tunes? Perfect for him. Seriously, Ringo—get Walsh into the studio and bang out “Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta” or “Hurry Up and Know It.”) But with “Lipstick Traces,” he revs up an Allen Toussaint  R&B classic he was born to sing (originally written for Benny Spellman in 1962), with Dr. John on piano. Nobody heard it, since this was the flop single from one of his worst albums, the instantly forgotten 1978 disaster Bad Boy . But it’s Ringo in his grandest role as a Liverpool Sisyphus calmly enduring his fate.

Paul McCartney, ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ (1971)

1971 GRAMMY AWARDS - The 13th Annual Grammy Awards - Airdate: March 16, 1971. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
PAUL MCCARTNEY

Paul staked out his eccentric turf with Ram , such a weird masterpiece it took the world years to catch up to it. “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” hit Number One, a crackpot prog-pop suite four years and countless bong hits ahead of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Paul and Linda sing the “Hands across the water” chorus, inspired by their Anglo-American marriage. His real-life uncle was a character—as Paul recalled, “Uncle Albert would stand on the table, roaring drunk, and recite the Bible.” Like the rest of Ram , it was ahead of its time. “A while ago, one of my nephews, Jay, said, ‘ Ram ‘s my all-time favorite album,’” Paul told Rolling Stone in 2016. “I thought it was dead and gone, stinking over there in the dung pit. So I listened to it. ‘Wow, I get what I was doing.’”

John Lennon, ‘Watching The Wheels’ (1980)

NEW YORK - AUGUST 1980: Former Beatle John Lennon signs autographs outside the Times Square recording studio 'The Hit Factory' after a recording session of his final album 'Double Fanasy' in August 1980 in New York City, New York.  (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)

A proudly autobiographical tale from Double Fantasy, musing on life as a house-husband. John sings about dropping out of the music biz in the 1970s, giving up on stardom, choosing to stay home, raise his kid, bake bread, watch the wheels go round and round. There’s a cocky defiance when he sings, “No longer riding on the merry-go-round / I just had to let it go.” As he boasted in 1980, “I have the great honor of never having been to Studio 54.”

Paul McCartney, ‘Every Night’ (1970)

English musician and singer Paul McCartney of the Beatles and his wife Linda (1941 - 1998) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, UK, 19th February 1971. McCartney is bringing a lawsuit against his former bandmates, to dissolve the Beatles' partnership.  (Photo by Jones/Daily Express/Getty Images)

Paul summed up the themes of his homemade DIY solo debut: “Home. Family. Love.” It’s all here in “Every Night,” his affectionate ode to staying home with Linda and his kids instead of hitting the town. As he explains in The Lyrics , “It’s a love song, but rather than it being the sort of fantasy ‘happily ever after’ love, this is a more realistic and redemptive love.”

George Harrison, ‘Cosmic Empire’ (1970)

(Original Caption) Capacity crowds of 20,000 filled Madison Square Garden twice to watch ex-Beatles George Harrison (shown here) and Ringo Starr, and folk prophet Bob Dylan in rare appearances here August 1st. The concerts, a benefit for East Pakistani civil war refugees, drew Beatle fans from all over the East Coast, many now pushing 30. Some Beatle diehards carried pennants with little red hearts reading, "We Luv You Beatles."

“Cosmic Empire” is a brilliant outtake George left behind from the All Things Must Pass sessions. It’s one of the mysteries of his career—he knocked off acoustic demos for 30 songs in the first 2 days, then left half of them in the vault. Some he revisited later, like “Beautiful Girl” or the Dylan tune “I Don’t Want To Do It.” (He put that one on the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack—George always had a mischievous sense of humor.) But for some reason, he never went back to this jaunty spiritual gem. “Cosmic Empire” is George having a sly laugh at religious day-trippers shopping for instant enlightenment. As he chirps, “I’m waiting in the queue to go to the cosmic empire / I want a front-row pew at the cosmic empire!”

John Lennon, ‘Woman’ (1980)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono photographed on November 2, 1980 - the first time in five years that Lennon had been photographed professionally and the last comprehensive photo shoot of his life. (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)

Fifteen years after John wrote “Girl” on Rubber Soul , reaching out for the cerebral female muse who turned out to be Yoko, “Woman” serenades her with Rubber Soul levels of guitar jangle and breathy vocal beauty. That “well well” is such a flex.

Ringo Starr, ‘Harry’s Song’ (2008)

CHICAGO - JULY 13:  Ringo Starr performs at Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island during the Paetec Music Tour in Chicago, Illinois on July 13, 2008.  (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Ringo bids a fond farewell tribute to his old L.A. outlaw buddy Harry Nilsson, the kind of playful Old Hollywood razzle-dazzle soft-shoe that Schmilsson made a specialty. “Harry’s Song” is sculpted with love by Starr and producer Mark Hudson, so clever it feels like they’re like sharing a private laugh with Harry. 

Wings, ‘Dear Friend’ (1972)

DENMARK - AUGUST 01:  Photo of Paul McCARTNEY; ID# McCartnB 28A, Paul McCartney, Copenhagen 1972  (Photo by Jorgen Angel/Redferns)

John had some gall calling his anti-Paul rant “How Do You Sleep?,” considering how often John’s answer to that question was “enough drugs to kill an elephant.” A less gentlemanly target than Macca might have tossed that brick at John’s glass house, but that wasn’t Paul’s style. “Dear Friend” was an unsentimentally blunt pipes-of-peace offering, with the plea, “I’m in love with a friend of mine.” (Did he mean Linda or John? He undoubtedly meant both.) “Dear Friend” successfully squashed the beef—not even John could think of a clever comeback—so their public spats ended. That sums up Paul: a soldier of love who’d rather lay down his arms than win the fight. As John wrote in a news “report” for Rolling Stone in 1973, “The extreme humility that existed between John and Paul seems to have evaporated. They’ve spoken to each other on the phone, and in English, that’s a change.”

John Lennon, ‘Hold On’ (1970)

DENMARK - JANUARY 01:  Portrait Of John Lennon And Yoko Ono In Denmark During Seventies  (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

A moment of tranquility in all the sturm and drang of Plastic Ono Band , with his tremolo guitar echoing “Don’t Let Me Down,” as he gives a pep talk to himself and Yoko. “Even now I’m saying, ‘Hold on, John, it’s gonna be all right,’” he told Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner in the “Lennon Remembers” interview. “Otherwise, I won’t hold on.” John was an early fan of the brand-new TV show Sesame Street , so he growls “ Coookieeee! ” in a nod to his fellow chaos Muppet, Cookie Monster. No wonder he could relate: a shaggy creature raging about monstrously unmanageable childish appetites? And on drums: Ringo, the Beatles’ Grover.

Paul McCartney, ‘No Other Baby’ (1999)

Mit verschränkten Armen steht Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney bei der Eröffnung seiner ersten Ausstellung am 30.4.1999 in der westfälischen Stadt Siegen vor seinem Gemälde "Big Mountain Face" (1991). Der Ex-Beatle kann am 18. Juni 2002 seinen 60. Geburtstag feiern. Der Bassgitarrist, Texter und Komponist galt als der talentierteste Musiker der legendären Band. McCartney, Sohn eines Baumwollkaufmanns aus Liverpool, verließ 1970 die Beatles und trat danach solo und mit den "Wings" auf.  Er war 29 Jahre Jahre mit der Fotografin Linda Eastman verheiratet. Sie starb im April 1998 an Brustkrebs.  Im Juli 2001 hat sich McCartney mit dem Fotomodell Heather Mills (33) verlobt.      (Photo by Achim Scheidemann/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Why did McCartney make an album of Fifties rock & roll oldies in 1999? He’d just lost Linda, after 30 years when they were inseparable. He worked through his grief by going back to Abbey Road to make Run Devil Run , losing himself in songs by his original heroes: Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Wanda Jackson, Elvis. “No Other Baby” is a long-forgotten 1958 side by the obscure U.K. skiffle group the Vipers. But Paul turns it into an elegiac haiku for Linda, with guitar from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. It’s incredibly moving as he sings “No Other Baby” as a soulful tribute to the life and dreams they shared. 

George Harrison, ‘Any Road’ (2002)

Former Beatle George Harrison, portrait before TV Show Formula One, Munich, Germany, February 1988. (Photo by Bernd Mueller/Redferns)

George’s final album Brainwashed didn’t come out until after his death in 2001, at only 66, but it was a labor of love crafted with his son Dhani Harrison. In “Any Road,” he meditates on a theme inspired by Alice in Wonderland : “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Boy George did a really touching version of this one in 2014.

Paul McCartney, ‘My Valentine’ (2014)

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 10:  Musician Paul McCartney performs at Dodger Stadium on August 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

An anything-but-silly love song for Nancy Shevell, a song that only the truest of rock & roll romantics could bring to life. He wrote it visiting Morocco with her, just as their romance was beginning. “It was a good awakening,” he told Rolling Stone. “It made me want to write positive songs.” Great as it is on Kisses on the Bottom , “My Valentine” has taken on a new life onstage, evolving over the years into an artistic statement of purpose, almost like his version of Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song.”

John Lennon, ‘Nobody Told Me’ (1984)

NEW YORK - 6th DECEMBER: John Lennon (1940-1980) at the Hit Factory recording studio in New York on 6th December 1980. Lennon was shot dead two days after this photograph was taken. (Photo by Mark and Colleen Hayward/Redferns)

John’s hilariously deadpan tale of feeling dazed and confused in the Eighties, yelping, “Strange days indeed! Most peculiar, mama! Roll! ” “Nobody Told Me” was a posthumous hit in 1984, from the great Milk and Honey collection—these tunes weren’t rejects from Double Fantasy , just too loose and funny and freewheeling to fit that album’s serious mood. But when it comes to Lennon one-liners about feeling lost in adulthood, it’s hard to top, “Always something happening and nothing going on.”

 Paul McCartney, ‘Seize the Day’ (2020)

CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 30: Paul McCartney performs onstage during the 36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on October 30, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame )

How is it possible Paul McCartney was writing brilliant songs like “Love Me Do” in the 1950s, yet he’s still writing brilliant songs like this in the 2020s? McCartney III is Macca down on the farm, in lockdown—or “rockdown,” a very Paul thing to call it—strumming his guitar to the sheep and chickens, singing a lazy song beneath the sun. He worried “Seize the Day” sounded too “Beatle-y” when he wrote it, but figured , “I’ve gotta admit it’s what I do. It’s the way I write songs. If I like something that’s going a bit Beatle-y, I’m just gonna let it be.” Good move. Phoebe Bridgers sings it so brilliantly on the McCartney III Imagined album.

Ringo Starr, ‘Back Off Boogaloo’ (1972)

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr pictured in his office at the Apple Corporation. 15th March 1972. (Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

Ringo kept up to speed with Seventies pop as a buddy of T. Rex’s glam-rock guru Marc Bolan. “I’ve got a Les Paul given to me by my good pal Marc Bolan and I can play several chords,” he told Disc in 1972. “I pick it up and if something comes I tape it. I have to tape it otherwise I’ll forget what I’ve done.” “Back Off Boogaloo,” produced and co-written by George, was Ringo’s gong-bangingly great T. Rex-style hit, reaching out to the children of the revolution.

Paul McCartney, ‘Queenie Eye’ (2013)

PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 01: Sir Paul McCartney attends the Stella McCartney Spring / Summer 2013 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 1, 2012 in Paris, France.  (Photo by Julien Hekimian/Getty Images)

A psychedelic groove inspired by a childhood game they used to play in the streets of Liverpool. It’s the highlight of New , with a playful zest re-energized by his bride Nancy Shevell. He played a memorable version of “Queenie Eye” at the Grammys with Ringo on drums—and the poignant sight of Yoko and Sean in the audience, getting up to dance. 

John Lennon, ‘Bless You’ (1974)

New York, NY - 1975: John Lennon performing live in his last public performance on the ABC tv special 'Salute to Sir Lew - The Master Showman' at the Grand Hilton Hotel. (Photo by Ken Regan /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images)

His great pained love song to Yoko, from his Lost Weekend  in L.A., when the marriage seemed to be over once and for all. The music heads into Stevie Wonder deep-soul territory. John wishes Yoko the best in her new life, even as she’s in someone else’s arms, adding, “Bless you whoever you are, holding her now / Be warm and kindhearted.” It’s his version of Bob Dylan’s “If You See Her, Say Hello,” saying farewell with a hard-won generosity of spirit.

Paul McCartney, ‘So Bad’ (1983)

Former Beatles singer and bass guitarist Paul McCartney. September 1983. (Photo by Stephen Shakeshaft/Liverpool Echo/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

If you were Paul McCartney in the Eighties, you could crank out perfect melodies like this, the kind other songwriters spend entire careers striving for—without anyone even noticing. “So Bad” was a here-today gone-today hit in 1983, from the era when he couldn’t get no respect at all, with gloppy production and you-gotta-be-kidding lyrics, a song even he dismissed as “overtly sentimental.” Which is true—but what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know?  One fan who DOES appreciate the greatness of “So Bad”: Smokey Robinson, who sang it exquisitely on the 2014 tribute album The McCartney Project .

George Harrison, ‘Beware of Darkness’ (1970)

THE DICK CAVETT SHOW - Airdate: November 23, 1971. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
GEORGE HARRISON

One of the most mysteriously beautiful songs on All Things Must Pass , with George warning about the evils of the material world, as he follows his tangled chords wherever they lead. He cautions everyone to “beware of Maya,” or illusion. But in his demo version, he warns, “Beware of ABKCO,” a dart at new manager Allen Klein—a pithy quip about how deep in the material world he was slipping. On his next album, he was singing the “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.”

Paul McCartney, ‘Junk’ (1970)

British singer and member of The Beatles Paul McCartney speaking into the microphone. 1970 (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio by Getty Images)

“Junk” dates back to the Rishikesh days, on retreat with the Maharishi—Paul does an excellent White Album demo version on the Beatles’ Anthology 3. But it’s perfect for his solo debut: a young man looks in a junk-shop window and gets a glimpse of his future, picturing himself as old and forgotten, like the flip side of “Eleanor Rigby.” It sums up the album’s lo-fi basement-tapes vibe. “It’s got the door opening, the banging of the tape recorder, a couple of people giggling in the background,” he described it in Rolling Stone in 1974. “I’d always like that, all those rough edges and loose ends. It gives it a kind of live excitement.” 

John Lennon, ‘Isolation’ (1970)

John Lennon Wearing Yellow Glasses (Photo by �� Penny Tweedie/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

John’s haunting soul ballad from Plastic Ono Band , finally grappling with his innermost paranoia and self-doubt. Ringo provides crucial support, especially in the pause before the bridge, where his kick-drum sounds like John’s amplified heartbeat. 

Paul McCartney, ‘Temporary Secretary’ (1980)

Linda mccartney:Paul mccartney: (Photo by © Gary Malerba/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Paul sashays into the Eighties with this New Wave electro-pop oddity, from his wonderfully eccentric McCartney II . “I was just tinkering by myself like a mad professor locked up in his laboratory,” Paul recalled. He began working solo with borrowed synth gear. “I was getting a little tired of the formality of recording an album with a band and doing everything correctly. I just wanted to have some fun and experiment.” “Temporary Secretary” was so ahead of its time, it sat around unnoticed for decades until the 2010s, when rock hipsters suddenly realized it was a lost classic.

Ringo Starr, ‘Loser’s Lounge’ (1970)

Ringo Starr, drummer for the legendary British pop group, The Beatles, circa 1970.

Ringo always wanted to be a cowboy when he was a kid. So when the Beatles fell apart, he went to Nashville to knock out his own country album, Beaucoups of Blues , with pedal-steel whiz Pete Drake and a wrecking crew of Music Row session cats. They finished it in three days, just like the Beatles used to. But in some ways Beaucoups of Blues is his just-plain-Ringoest album—he shines when he gets to play the sincere fan, without feeling the pressure of being a solo artist. “Loser’s Lounge” is where he takes refuge in a honky-tonk where the world’s misfits can feel at home, with his voice full of banged-up melancholy.

George Harrison, ‘Dehra Dun’ (1970)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY "Bangladesh-Politics-History" By Julie Clothier
In this undated file photo Former Beatle George Harrison looks on during a visit to the home of the Shankar family in Calcutta in 1972.   A Bangladeshi lawyer who wants his country to officially recognise George Harrison and Ted Kennedy for highlighting its 1971 struggle for independence has taken his battle to the country's high court. Masood Sobhan says it is a "disgrace" the Beatles lead guitarist and US Senator were never formally thanked by Bangladesh for publicising its war of independence with Pakistan.
  (FILM) AFP PHOTO/Tekee TANWAR (Photo credit should read TEKEE TANWAR/AFP via Getty Images)

An acoustic meditation that George wrote in the Beatles’ Indian retreat of 1968, with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Dhera Dhun is near the Maharishi’s base in Rishikesh.) “Many roads can take you there many different ways,” George sings. “One direction takes you years, another takes you days.” He cut “Dhera Dhun” on the first day of the All Things Must Pass sessions—but incredibly, it didn’t make the cut for the album, though it would have been a standout. A massively sweet moment from Anthology: George strikes up “Dhera Dhun,” lounging on the grass with Paul and Ringo. “Oh yeah, I remember that one!” Ringo says, hearing it for the first time since India nearly 30 years earlier.

Paul McCartney, ‘Fine Line’ (2005)

WASHINGTON, DC--OCTOBER 08-- Paul McCartney and his band perform at the Capital One Arena on October 8, 2005 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives)

The past 20 years have been a glorious time to be a McCartney fan—ever since he found a new songwriting mojo with his 2005 classic Chaos and Creation in the Backyard . It’s Paul’s thorniest, bitchiest, least eager-to-please, and most cerebrally caustic solo album, with Radiohead/Pavement producer Nigel Godrich. Chaos and Creation was for the 63-year-old Paul what Time Out Of Mind was for 56-year-old Bob Dylan—a late-game masterpiece kicking off a new golden era. Both albums served notice these shrewd old grifters had finally cracked the code, and would never make a dud album again. (And neither has.) Godrich was the opposite of a yes-man—which might be why he never got invited back for another go, but maybe how he coaxed these songs out of him. “Fine Line” slides on a sharp-cornered piano riff, with Paul singing about two divided friends, urging, “Come home, brother, all is forgiven.” 

John Lennon, ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ (1974)

Singer, musician and songwriter John Lennon (1940 - 1980), a former member of British pop group The Beatles, attends the American Film Institute's tribute to James Cagney at the Century Plaza Hotel in Hollywood, 13th March 1974. (Photo by Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images)

John was the last ex-Beatle to score his own solo Number One hit, but he finally got there with a little help from a friend named Elton John. “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” is a frozen-daiquiri pop homily with both Johns cooing, “Whatever gets you to the light/‘Salright, ‘alright.” Elton proposed a bet that John would sing it live with him—but only if the song made it to Number One. To John’s shock, it did. So on Thanksgiving weekend, November 1974, shaking from stage fright, he was a surprise guest at Elton’s Madison Square Garden show—the final concert appearance of John’s life. They sang “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” which he introduced as “a number of an old estranged fiancee of mine called Paul.”

George Harrison, ‘All Things Must Pass’ (1970)

George Harrison aboard the liner QE2 from New York after 3 months recording in America.   (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)

George went into the Get Back sessions hoping to get his old friends to play this song with the spirit of Dylan and The Band at Big Pink. He’d been hanging out with them in Woodstock just a few weeks earlier. But strange as it seems, the Beatles couldn’t rustle up the communal warmth to do the song justice. So “All Things Must Pass” became the theme song of his solo album, a not-entirely-regretful farewell to the past and a reminder (to himself as well as the audience) that there was still a future to live.

John Lennon, ‘I’m Stepping Out’ (1984)

NEW YORK - AUGUST 1980: Former Beatle John Lennon arrives at the Times Square recording studio 'The Hit Factory' before a recording session of his final album 'Double Fanasy' in August 1980 in New York City, New York.  (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)

John is in his stay-at-home dad era, but willing to admit sometimes he just wants to cap a hard day’s night of fatherhood by hitting the town for a temporary lost weekend. As he splutters in the intro, “This here is the story about a house-husband who just HAS to get out of the house! He’s been looking at the kids for days and days! He’s been watching the kitchen and screwing around watching Sesame Street till he’s going craaaazy!” He’s at his warmest and funniest, zooming up into his falsetto to remind us all, “If it don’t feel right, you don’t have to do it /Just leave a note on the door, tell them to screw it.” But he’ll be home by one. Or two. Or three.

Paul McCartney, ‘Put It There’ (1989)

Paul McCartney en concert à Bercy à Paris en octobre 1989, France. (Photo by GARCIA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Paul’s realest fatherhood song, inspired by both his dad and his son. (Both named James—as is James Paul McCartney.) “Put it there’ is an expression my dad Jim often used,” he recalled. “When he was shaking your hand he would say, ‘Put it there if it weighs a ton.’” The father tells his son, “As long as you and I are here, put it there.” But it’s also connected to his Beatles brotherhood. “I wonder whether I wanted to direct this song in John,” he says in The Lyrics . “Whether it’s not, in its own way, a peace offering to a man who died way too early.”

John Lennon, ‘I Found Out’ (1970)

LONDON: John Lennon in Selfridges department store, Oxford Street, London in 1971 to promote the publication of the 2nd edition of Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

John tears down a few of the false idols he sees getting worshipped around him, like drugs, religion, and masculinity. He snarls, “I seen through junkies, I been through it all, I seen religion from Jesus to Paul.” He’s got tough words for his parents’ generation—“They didn’t want me so they made me a star”—but also his own, scoffing, “The freaks on the phone won’t leave me alone/So don’t give me that ‘brother-brother-brother-brother.’” But his guitar never lets up—so bristly, so wary, coiled to lash out at any target in sight. 

Paul McCartney, ‘Little Willow’ (1997)

UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 01:  Photo of Paul McCARTNEY; posed, studio  (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)

A beautiful elegy for Ringo’s first wife Maureen “Mo” Cox Starkey Tigrett, after she died from leukemia in 1994—the first Beatles spouse to pass away. Paul visited her in the hospital; Ringo was at her side when she died. Mo was one of the original Beatlemaniac fangirls who used to scream for them at the Cavern Club. (She kissed Paul before she got to Ringo.) As you can see in the Get Back rooftop concert, she’s cheering louder than anyone, still the most passionate fan around. Paul’s last words on the roof: “Thanks, Mo.” He dedicated “Little Willow” to her children.

John & Yoko, ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ (1971)

circa 1971:  A large Christmas peace message reading 'War Is Over !' from John Lennon and Yoko Ono on a billboard in New York City. The message, protesting against US involvement in the Vietnam War, is simultaneously displayed at Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and at six European cities.  (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

Strange as it seems, this holiday classic flopped in the U.S. when it came out in 1971, and vanished for the rest of John’s life. The public didn’t discover “Happy Xmas (War Is Over”) until December 1980, while reeling in shock and grief after his murder. That was the first Christmas the radio played it, and that’s when it became the beloved seasonal standard we’ve known ever since, with Yoko and the Harlem Community Choir kids chanting, “War is over if you want it.” Honorable mistletoe to Ringo’s “I Wanna Be Santa Claus,” George’s “Ding Dong, Ding Dong,” and the Paul song you were hoping we wouldn’t mention at all. 

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Monterey Herald

Beth Peerless, Where it’s at: ‘Songs of Hope…

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Beth peerless, where it’s at: ‘songs of hope and celebration’.

Kimball Hurd, Rick Chelew and Lee Garland appear Friday at Center for Spiritual Awakening. (Courtesy photo)

On a sunny Saturday afternoon a while back a friend and I decided to take a drive down the coast to Big Sur. We slid into the River Inn parking lot and down to the riverside behind the restaurant. Post stroll along the fast-moving Big Sur River I climbed up the stairs to the back deck of the restaurant and requested a table for lunch.

Although I shouldn’t have been surprised, I came upon my friend Rick Chelew as he was setting his guitar down for a break from performing. After our conversation I went back to retrieve my friend and her dog and when we returned to our assigned table, there was a flyer with the announcement of a concert.

“Songs of Hope and Celebration: Kimball Hurd, Rick Chelew, and Lee Garland Together in Concert.” Friday at the Center for Spiritual Awakening Concert Hall, 522 Central Ave., Pacific Grove. I thought, nice. Three people I’ve known or known of for a long time, Chelew being the central figure here. All of who are seasoned professional musicians.

Hurd, lead singer, principal songwriter, guitar and mandolin for this trio, came to California from Martha’s Vineyard and eventually joined with Keith Greeninger and Roger Feurer in the celebrated trio City Folk. They were kind of the Central Coast version of Crosby Stills and Nash, and even were recognized by David Crosby himself, quoted as saying, “Wow! These guys can really sing!”

They toured America and Hurd’s distinctive tenor, immaculate finger-picking and soul-probing songs became known throughout the land. He joined with one of our area’s beloved singer/songwriters Alisa Fineman, both in love and in music, and they’ve been appearing at locations locally as well as being regulars at the Kate Wolf Festival and appearing at Strawberry, South-by-Southwest and Kerville festivals.

Who doesn’t know Chelew? Monterey Peninsula native with a musical history to include his solid bass playing and musicianship with The Cachagua Playboys, Andrea’s Fault, Heartstrings, and the Cuneo Jazz Band. You can catch him playing guitar and singing solo at various places while enjoying a meal. For a time back in the day he left the area to work as a record producer in Los Angeles and London, collaborating with legendary artists Dave Van Ronk, Pentangle, Bert Jansch, and T-Bone Burnett. It’s always a joy to hear him perform.

Garland, keyboardist and vocalist who I remember from bygone days at Monterey High School, hightailed it to Los Angeles in the 1980s and displayed his talents on such hallowed Hollywood stages as the Troubadour and the Whisky A Go Go. His path led him to realize early on that music was a way for him to both give and receive joy. To that end, he recorded two solo guitar albums, “Leeward” and “Hummingbird.” He regularly appeared at Esalen Institute in the band North Star. He served as director and educator with Breakthrough Men’s Community and currently teaches The Simpatico Communication Method. And he’s written a guidebook to effective communication, co-authoring “Hear Here.”

“Over four years ago, just before the pandemic hit, Kimball called me and Lee and said, ‘Let’s get together and play some music,’” Chelew said. “I think he wanted a place to get together, and it was all about these two things, just to work on music and sing harmonies, only for the joy of playing together. He wanted more of that in his life. And since we’ve all been in men’s groups, and different sorts of things, it was a chance for us to get together, really hang out as three guys. Like at a cafe or something. We found out we really, really loved it and we’ve mostly focused on Kimball’s songs.”

It took us a minute to figure out how to describe the music they play. It’s folk but not really folk. It’s more than one style, with a mix of original tunes from all three artists but primarily by Hurd, a cover of a lesser known George Gershwin tune, “I Was Doing Alright,” and also their version of the songs, “Walk Away Renee” (The Left Banke), and “The Tide is High” (best know version by Blondie). Despite playing at the Spiritual Center, Chelew said that “the stuff we’re doing is in no way religious, not that there’s anything wrong with that.” In the end he confirmed it was best just to say it’s Americana music, which in effect means nothing other than the music stems from a wide range of American roots music.

“I’ve never worked with a band for years just to play music and then bring it out to the world,” he said. “Usually you start playing and then start to play clubs wherever you are, and then get better. We’ve been in this cocoon of friendship of shared musical love. We love each other. It’s a musical support system. We kept it under wraps. Even our significant others haven’t heard us. It’s been just for us. At a certain point we said, ’It’s time to give this out, give it to the community.’ And so here we are.”

The Center for Spiritual Awakening has been offering up its space for outside performers to come and perform, taking a portion of the ticket proceeds to support its ongoing mission. The artists take their cut and everyone is happy. Chelew said the space is really beautiful with a great sound system, holding up to 130 people. As an aside, I’ve been hearing about numerous smaller performing spaces popping up around the area, which is really encouraging for those who would like to produce shows outside of the usual options of bars and restaurants. Friday night’s show has a $25 ticket, available in advance at www.centerforspiritualawakening.org/songsofhopeconcert.html . There’s a wine and cheese reception included, beginning at 6 p.m. Concert doors open at 7 p.m. and the music begins at 7:30 p.m.

“I really think that anyone who comes is going to leave feeling great, that it was an evening well spent,” Chelew said. “And hopefully feeling better about themselves and their connection to the community.”

Being that it’s St. Patrick’s Day Sunday, I also want to add that MidiCi Neapolitan Pizza Company, 467 Alvarado St., Monterey, has replaced the usual jazz music with music from the Celtic music band Heartstrings, of which Chelew is a member. This band has been bringing their fresh and unique sound to traditional acoustic string music from all over the world for over 20 years. For the Irish holiday they’ll focus primarily on Celtic songs. The band’s members are Chelew on bass, Paulette Lynch on hammered dulcimer, Laura Burian on violin, Marj Ingram Viales on guitar, and Mike Osgood on mandolin. There’s no cover, but come hungry and thirsty. While we’re stopping in at MidiCi, don’t miss the great jazz music this Thursday, 6-9 p.m., with the smoking hot vocals brought to you by Miranda Perl and really tasty jazz licks by guitarist Adam Astrup.

Another St. Patrick’s Day event is a fundraiser for Whalefest Monterey, to be held Sunday at The Family Farm, 5720 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. There’s a 2:30 p.m. reception with refreshments and BYO beverages. The entertainment starts at 3 p.m. featuring the Green Marine Mammal Jam Serenade starring John Ryan’s Ballads and Arias of Humpback, Fin and Blue Whales and their Baleen & Toothed Companions. They will be accompanied by Nicholas Fettis & his “Orca” star. Additional talent by pianist Michael Martinez, and Kobun Truelove with his Didgeridoos in the Scale of C & D. Donations appreciated, please RSVP to [email protected]

Friday night at the Carmel Links Club in the Carmel Plaza, no cover, the rock band MEEZ831 performs and celebrates the birthday of its guitarist/vocalist Jason Slate, 7:30-10:30 p.m. One of our area’s tightest rock & roll bands that delivers original music and great dance covers. You can expect to hear melodic and groovy, at times progressive sounds, with styles ranging from classic rock to alternative, in general a grungy power pop. Besides Slate, the band is vocalist/bassist Robbie Melendez, keyboardist/vocalist Donnie Dickman, and drummer/vocalist Michael Kobrinski.

There are a few cool shows at the Golden State Theatre in downtown Monterey this week. Just a quick rundown here and you can go to www.goldenstatetheatre.com for more details and to buy tickets. Friday night is the return of Yächtley Crëw, a wild bunch of serious musicians who perform hit songs known as either soft or yacht rock from the late ’70s to early ’80s while doing wild and crazy stuff onstage, dressed in the yacht captain best. Doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m., tickets are $25 – $40 plus service fees.

Saturday is Oingo Boingo Former Members with special guest The Untouchables. This all-star band is another returning band who will deliver a non-stop set that includes all the Bonigo hits that keep the fans moving and coming back for more. Dead Man’s Party, Just Another Day, Little Girls, Stay, Only A Lad, No Spill Blood, just to name a few! Doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m.,

And Wednesday is Killer Queen – Tribute to Queen featuring Patrick Myers as Freddie Mercury. No introduction needed. Doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m., tickets $30-$65 plus fees.

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