The 50-Song Yacht Rock-ish Concoction
The 50-Song Yacht Rock-ish Concoction playlist is about 3 hours and 31 minutes long, the songs are in alphabetical order by artist’s first name, and it’s available on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal (46 of 50 songs).
Before that, though, I suppose we need to clear up what “yacht rock” is exactly? Houstonia Magazine describes it as:
…music, primarily created between 1976 and ’84, that can be characterized as smooth and melodic, and typically combines elements of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock. You’ll hear very little acoustic guitar (get that “Horse With No Name” out of there) but a lot of Fender Rhodes electric piano. Lyrics don’t get in the way of the song’s usually high musicality (some of the finest Los Angeles session players, including members of the band Toto, play on many yacht rock tunes.) The lyrics may, however, speak about fools. The songs are as light and bubbly as champagne on the high seas, yet oddly complex and intellectual.
I’ve read this and several other definitions of yacht rock, I’ve looked through yacht rock playlists, I’ve trawled through forums to see what the yacht rock nerds have to say about the genre in general as well as specific songs, and I’ve gone through Yacht or Nyacht with a fine-toothed comb, and I have to admit that I am still a bit baffled by which songs are declared “not yacht” and which ones, often for reasons I’ve found no explanation for, are “yacht”.
Yacht rock is a music genre that’s fairly unique, because it was declared a genre decades after any of it was created. The genre apparently entered the lexicon in 2005, more than 30 years after the last so-called yacht rock song was pressed into vinyl. All music categorizations are invented, of course, but yacht rock feels extra made up. I mean, technically, no yacht rock song has ever been released, because they weren’t yacht rock songs. The genre and the category are forever out of time with one another.
Most of what I have read about it, both in articles and in fan forums, mostly revolves around defining what yacht rock is by what it isn’t. Chicago? Billy Joel? Definitely not. Toto and Kenny Loggins? Definitely. Why is anybody’s guess if you’re new to the concept, because few explanations are forthcoming. Songs are either in or out. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with yacht rock as a category, but I’ve been doing nothing but yacht rock related reading and listening for days, and I still don’t trust my judgement.
I can’t tell if a song is yacht or not without consulting a combination of the Yacht or Nyacht website along with some forums, but even after that, the reasons still feel opaque to me. For example, why does Toto get so much play time but all Chicago songs are a straight no across the board? The category’s edges continue to feel unclear as some fans draw boundaries that appear to shift from artist to artist and song to song, and commercial playlists on music platforms wildly broaden the scope until they’re basically playing any adult contemporary from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.
I do like the music even if I can’t quite pin down what it is, so my 50-Song Yacht Rock-ish Concoction playlist isn’t strictly what afficiandos would accept as a bonafide yacht rock playlist. I wander into the early 70s, throw in the blasphemy of the definitely not-yacht Bellamy Brothers and Carpenters, and have the gall to add songs like “Seabird” (a Yacht or Nyacht 28/100) and “Summer Breeze” (a pathetic Yacht or Nyacht 21.75/100).
My apologies to the yacht rock purists out there. I am not so finely tuned to the yacht rock genre, and I have zero Californian yacht experience, but I mostly like what the enthusiasts have done with the space.
The 50-Song Yacht Rock-ish Concoction playlist on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal:
1. How Long — Ace (1974)
2. The Way I Feel — Adrian Gruvitz (1979)
3. Eye In the Sky — The Alan Parsons Project (1982)
4. Seabird — Alessi Brothers (1976)
5. Year of the Cat — Al Stewart (1976)
6. Biggest Part of Me — Ambrosia (1980)
7. Right Before Your Eyes — America (1982)
8. Take It Easy — Archie James Cavanaugh (1980)
9. Let Your Love Flow — The Bellamy Brothers (1976)
10. Lovely Day — Bill Withers (1977)
11. Sentimental Lady — Bob Welch (1977)
12. Lowdown — Boz Scaggs (1976)
13. Love Will Keep Us Together — Captain & Tennille (1975)
14. (Want You) Back In My Life Again — Carpenters (1981)
15. Ride Like the Wind — Christopher Cross (1979)
16. Feels So Good — Chuck Mangione (1977)
17. Couldn’t Get It Right — Climax Blues Band (1976)
18. I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do) — Daryl Hall & John Oates (1981)
19. Boys of Autumn — David Roberts (1982)
20. Green Flower Street — Donald Fagen (1982)
21. What a Fool Believes (2016 Remaster) — The Doobie Brothers (1978)
22. Sexy Eyes — Dr. Hook (1979)
23. Fooled Around and Fell In Love — Elvin Bishop (1975)
24. Turn Your Love Around — George Benson (1981)
25. I Just Wanna Stop — Gino Vannelli (1978)
26. Just the Two of Us — Grover Washington, Jr. & Bill Withers (1980)
27. Living Without Your Love — The Imperials (1979)
28. Fool In Love With You — Jim Photoglo (1981)
29. Heart to Heart — Kenny Loggins (1982)
30. Dancing in the Moonlight (Remastered 40th Anniversary Edition) — King Harvest (1972)
31. Who’ll Be the Fool Tonight — Larsen-Feiten Band (1980)
32. Reminiscing (Remastered 2022) — Little River Band (1978)
33. Margarita — Marc Jordan (1983)
34. Silly Crush — Masaki Matsubara (1983)
35. Baby Be Mine — Michael Jackson (1982)
36. I Keep Forgettin (Every Time You're Near) — Michael McDonald (1982)
37. Lotta Love — Nicolette Larson (1978)
38. Magic — Olivia Newton-John (1980)
39. You’re Out to Lose — Pablo Cruise (1977)
40. Baby, Come to Me — Patti Austin (1981)
41. Baby Come Back — Player (1977)
42. Cool Cat — Queen (1982)
43. You Can’t Change That — Raydio (1980)
44. Steal Away — Robbie Dupree (1980)
45. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) — Rupert Holmes (1979)
46. Summer Breeze — Seals & Crofts (1972)
47. Being With You — Smokey Robinson (1981)
48. Peg — Steely Dan & Tom Scott (1977)
49. On and On — Stephen Bishop (1976)
50. Rosanna — Toto (1982)
I endeavoured to post on this website every day throughout November 2022 for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I haven’t made it every day, but I posted more than I have in years. All of my NaBloPoMo posts can be found here.
