If there’s a patron saint of yacht rock, it’s gotta be Michael McDonald. The velvet-throated soul singer has either penned or contributed vocals to multiple classic songs from the era.
My favorite McDonald moment remains The Doobie Brothers masterpiece ‘What a Fool Believes,’ but among his solo work, ‘I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)’ is the clear standout.
Our next yacht rock staple comes from Toto’s classic 1982 album Toto IV. This record won multiple Grammys, including Album of the Year and Producer of the Year. Today’s SOTD, ‘Rosanna,’ won ‘Record of the Year’ as well.
The album’s other hit single, ‘Africa,’ is as well-known and well-loved as this one, but I’ve featured it on the blog before, so today is ‘Rosanna’s moment in the spotlight.
My next yacht rock song is controversial on a number of levels. For one thing, there appears to be some heated debate over whether Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ is yacht rock at all.
I’m not a stickler when it comes to genre definitions, so I won’t go down that rabbit hole. ‘Baker Street’ was released in 1978 and it’s smooth as hell soft rock with a sweet melody. That’s yacht rock to me.
My Amazon Echo recently introduced me to “Yacht Rock,” a musical genre that I’d somehow never heard labelled quite that way. Soon after, I discovered that the Love channel on Sirius/XM is, in fact, a Yacht Rock channel (it’s #70 on your satellite dial, recently moved from #17).
Yacht Rock has been called the West Coast Sound or, more generally, Soft Rock, and is typified by smooth, melodic, catchy songs with high production values and clean vocals. Think Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Hall & Oates, you get the picture.
Meet Me In Montauk 