top 10 yacht rock songs of all time

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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

By Tom Eames

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'

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'

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)'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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.

• The 10 greatest Chicago songs, ranked

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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'

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)'

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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Top 100 Greatest Yacht Rock Songs of All Time

Yacht Rock, a term that has steadily grown in popularity, refers to the smooth, groovy rock music of the '70s and '80s that has been popularized over the recent years. Initially categorized as soft rock or adult contemporary, Yacht Rock places a stronger emphasis on the groove rather than the lyrics, making it some of the easiest and catchiest easy listening music for many rock fans. Interestingly, nearly all Yacht Rock songs were created 35-40 years before the genre was officially recognized as its own distinct style, leaving room for interpretation about what exactly qualifies as Yacht Rock. For our criteria, we analyzed the entire catalog of Sirius XM Yacht Rock Radio alongside Spotify and Apple Music’s Yacht Rock playlists and ranked the songs accordingly. Each song included has been deemed Yacht Rock by at least one of these sources and was scored against all other entries. Some songs may rank higher in a broader rock or soft rock sphere, but here are what we have deemed to be the 100 Greatest Yacht Rock Songs of All Time complete with a playlist of all 100 Songs . For a broader list across at songs across the rock realm, be sure to check out the Top 200 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time .

1. What a Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers

Deemed almost unanimously as the quintessential Yacht Rock tune by the few publications that have taken the time to dive into this same endeavor , What a Fool Believes  stands out as one of the grooviest rock tunes to ever achieve mainstream success. Featuring the quintessential Yacht Rock vocalist, Michael McDonald, the song topped charts across North America and became one of the most recognizable and frequently played songs of the '70s. Michael McDonald, who joined The Doobie Brothers in 1975, had become the band's primary vocalist by the release of Minute by Minute  in 1978, which houses What a Fool Believes . With this album marking a new sound for the band, especially following the temporary health-related departure of Tom Johnston, the band's new sound was polished to perfection, a dramatic shift from the Toulouse Street  sound of the early part of the decade. Nevertheless, What a Fool Believes  is a serious earworm, a critically "perfect" pop-rock song, if you will, and a song that reinvented The Doobie Brothers.

2. Peg   - Steely Dan

One of the most talented groups on our list, if not the most talented, Steely Dan transcended the typical confines of Yacht Rock during their initial ten-year run. Covering genres from Yacht Rock to jazz rock, progressive rock, and funk rock, Steely Dan captivated audiences uniquely throughout the '70s and early '80s. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen consistently collaborated with the world's finest studio musicians, producing albums of perfectionist caliber. Within the realm of Yacht Rock, Peg  takes their top spot, ranking just behind What a Fool Believes  in the genre. Once again, Michael McDonald provides backing vocals, harmonizing behind Donald Fagen and Paul Griffin. The silky smooth vocals paired with top-notch instrumentals make Peg  a standout track. Furthermore, Aja , the album that houses Peg , is one of the most impressive American albums of all time , beyond its Yacht Rock appeal.

3. Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)   - Looking Glass

Released in 1972, the one-hit wonder by Looking Glass, Brandy , established a much bigger name for itself than the band ever managed to achieve on its own. As one of the smoothest and catchiest songs of the ‘70s, Brandy  consistently appears on nearly every Yacht Rock, adult contemporary, or easy listening playlist available. The song tells a melancholic tale that is open to interpretation, though it is generally understood to describe an attractive bartender based in Northern New Jersey. Featuring catchy harmonies, clean soft guitar, and subtle horn use, what's not to love about this song?

4. Sailing   - Christopher Cross

If it were up to us at Melophobe, the "Yacht Rock Crown" would go to San Antonio’s own Christopher Cross. Although Cross really shined with just his first two studio albums before his later releases (post-1983) fell into obscurity, his early work still grabs all the attention. From his self-titled debut album, Sailing  stands out as a top ten hit that's the epitome of Yacht Rock. Interestingly, the term "yacht rock" itself is often linked right back to this song. His debut album is loaded with iconic tunes in this style, with Sailing  rightfully taking its place at the forefront.

5. Escape (The Pi ñ a Colada Song)  - Rupert Holmes

The second tune in our top ten that found its way onto one of the three Guardians of the Galaxy  soundtracks—as well as its original LP release—comes from yacht rock icon Rupert Holmes. Escape (The Piña Colada Song)  tells a story that feels more comical today than it might have in the ‘70s, describing a personal ad in search of a like-minded, carefree, fun-loving companion. Beyond the quirky lyrics, the sounds of crashing waves and clean guitars have turned the tune into a timeless earworm, cementing its status as a yacht rock masterpiece long before the term even existed. Guardians of the Galaxy  wasn't just a great series for action lovers; who would've guessed its soundtrack would become almost as iconic as the movies themselves?

6. Lowdown  - Boz Scaggs

Part of the same studio musician collective that worked with Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs hit major commercial success in 1976 with the release of his richly decorated album Silk Degrees . Boz Scaggs found success as one of the few artists to achieve substantial mainstream success in the jazz rock world aside from Steely Dan, with both artists utilizing many of the same studio musicians. Released from Silk Degrees , the standout yacht rock tune is Lowdown , a tightly produced masterpiece. Similar to Christopher Cross, Boz's peak in the mainstream was relatively brief, with his fame primarily anchored to Silk Degrees  and sporadic airplay of his other songs over about a decade.

7. Come and Get Your Love  - Redbone

Yet another tune from the Guardians of the Galaxy  soundtracks to make our top ten is Come and Get Your Love , released in 1975 by the swamp rock band Redbone. While often labeled as a one-hit-wonder, Redbone actually scored another American top 40 hit in 1971 and enjoyed scattered success in the R&B scene throughout the '70s. Come and Get Your Love  has since been celebrated as one of the greatest pop songs of the '70s and also managed to somewhat subtly tap into the disco craze of the era.

8. Margaritaville  - Jimmy Buffett

The question of whether Jimmy Buffett fits into the yacht rock category has stirred some debate lately, with the answer remaining somewhat unclear since the term itself is still relatively new. Most agree that Buffett's music is in a category of its own, but there are still those who argue that his unique sound has a place within yacht rock. Regardless, Margaritaville  and a few other Buffett tunes are staples on yacht rock radio stations, so we've deemed them eligible. Buffett's music embodies a carefree lifestyle that mirrors the feel and attitude of yacht rock. His iconic song Margaritaville  instantly puts listeners in a vacation mindset, a unique characteristic that has garnered it extensive praise and airplay over the years. The passing of Jimmy Buffett, an American legend, touched the hearts of many.

9. Africa  - Toto

The first track from the 1980s to make our top ten is Africa  from Toto's fourth album, aptly named Toto IV , released in 1982. Africa  topped the charts across North America and performed exceptionally well worldwide with its powerful chorus, extensive keyboard usage, and subtle guitar playing. Alongside Rosanna , also from Toto IV , Africa  has become a yacht rock staple, but it didn’t stop there—it transcended the genre to become one of the most iconic songs of the '80s. Today, it's still adored, nearing two billion streams on Spotify. The song has also become a favorite for covers, from bar bands to top-notch acts like Weezer.

10. Baby Come Back  - Player

Player carved out a slice of mainstream success in the late '70s, as soft rock began to resonate with those not taken by styles like punk rock and disco. Their biggest hit by far was the North American chart-topper Baby Come Back . Aside from being a soft rock staple, the song has also gained a new life as a meme across the internet. While yacht rock songs typically shy away from overly heartfelt or emotional lyrics, focusing more on the groove, Baby Come Back  manages to do both masterfully. The song blends notable emotional depth with an undeniably groovy beat, making it incredibly memorable—so much so that it's recognized by just about every American

11. Just the Two of Us  - Grover Washington Jr, Bill Withers

12. Southern Cross  - Crosby, Stills & Nash

13. Take it Easy  - Eagles

14. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)  - Christopher Cross

15. Year of the Cat  - Al Stewart

16. Hey Nineteen  - Steely Dan

17. Still the One  - Orleans

18. Sharing the Night Together  - Dr. Hook

19. Sister Golden Hair  - America

20. Dreams  - Fleetwood Mac

21. Summer Breeze  - Seals & Croft

22. Guitar Man  - Bread

23. Thunder Island  - Jay Ferguson

24. Lido Shuffle  - Boz Scaggs

25. Give Me the Night  - George Benson

26. How Much I Feel  - Ambrosia

27. Reminiscing  - Little River Band

28. Doctor My Eyes  - Jackson Browne

29. Sara Smile  - Hall & Oates

30. Rosanna  - Toto

31. All Night Long (All Night)  - Lionel Richie

32. I.G.Y.  - Donald Fagan

33. Minute By Minute  - The Doobie Brothers

34. If You Leave Me Now  - Chicago

35. Time Out of Mind  - Steely Dan

36. Kokomo  - The Beach Boys

37. Eye in the Sky  - Alan Parsons Project

38. Sentimental Lady  - Bob Welch

39. Rich Girl  - Hall & Oates

40. What You Won't Do for Love  - Bobby Caldwell

41. Ride Like the Wind  - Christopher Cross

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

43. Lovely Day  - Bill Withers

44. Graceland  - Paul Simon

45. Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes - Jimmy Buffett

46. Time Passages  - Al Stewart

47. One of These Nights  - Eagles

48. She's Gone  - Hall & Oates

49. Silly Love Songs  - Wings

50. Hold On  - Santana

51. Steal Away  - Robbie Dupree

52. Dance With Me  - Orleans

53. Listen to the Music  - The Doobie Brothers

54. How Long  - Ace

55. So Into You  - Atlanta Rhythm Section

56. Diamond Girl  - Seals & Croft

57. Lotta Love  - Nicolette Larson

58. We Just Disagree  - Dave Mason

59. Mexico  - James Taylor

60. Keep on Loving You  - REO Speedwagon

61. Baker Street  - Gerry Rafferty

62. Tender is the Night  - Jackson Browne

63. Love Will Find a Way  - Pablo Cruise

64. You Can Do Magic  - America

65. Key Largo  - Bertie Higgins

66. When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman  - Dr. Hook

67. Dirty Work  - Steely Dan

68. All Out of Love  - Air Supply

69. I Saw the Light  - Todd Rundgren

70. Let Me Love You Tonight  - Pure Prairie League

71. I Love You  - Climax Blues Band

72. I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)  - Michael McDonald

73. This is It  - Kenny Loggins

74. The Things We Do For Love  - 10cc

75. Say You Love Me  - Fleetwood Mac

76. Biggest Part of Me  - Ambrosia

77. You're the Inspiration  - Chicago

78. Dream Weaver  - Gary Wright

79. Longer  - Dan Fogelberg

80. You Are  - Lionel Richie

81. Just a Song Before I Go  - Crosby, Stills & Nash

82. Right Down the Line  - Gerry Rafferty

83. New Frontier  - Donald Fagan

84. I Love a Rainy Night  - Eddie Rabbitt

85. Cool Night  - Paul Davis

86. Get Down On It  - Kool & The Gang

87. It's Raining Again - Supertramp

88. Vincent  - Don McLean

89. Crazy Love  - Poco

90. Spooky  - Atlanta Rhythm Section

91. Vienna  - Billy Joel

92. Cool Cat  - Queen

93. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You  - George Benson

94. Hypnotized  - Bob Welch (Also Released by Fleetwood Mac)

95. Casablanca  - Bertie Higgins

96. Think of Laura  - Christopher Cross

97. Fooled Around and Fell in Love  - Elvin Bishop

98. Private Eyes  - Hall & Oates

99. Lonesome Loser  - Little River Band

100. Moonlight Feels Right - Starbuck

All of the picks from this list have been compiled into a streamable Spotify Playlist below entitled Yacht Rock Top 100 .

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Playlist of the Week: Top 100 Songs of Yacht Rock

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?

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 org*smic 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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Entertainment News

The greatest Yacht Rock songs of all time

How does one describe yacht rock? The folks at MasterClass did a pretty good job. Essentially, it's a component of soft rock, adult contemporary, and Album-oriented rock (AOR) all rolled into one. Popular in the late 1970s and into the '80s, there are some notable tunes of the ilk (smooth rhythms, light or "breezy" vocals, well-polished and produced) from earlier in the '70s that fall into this category.

In the spirit of easy listening fare, here is our ranking of 22 great yacht rock tunes.

20. "Lonely Boy" (1977), Andrew Gold

The Southern Californian's biggest hit, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Yacht rock tracks often tell stories, and "Lonely Boy" is one of the great story songs. Whether it's autobiographical in nature has always been ripe for a casual argument. Though Gold, who passed away in 2011 at age 59, repeatedly claimed this song about a boy who felt left out following the birth of his sister was not depicting his life. The 1970s were ripe for one-hit wonders in the United States, and Gold is not still forgotten. 

19. "I Love You" (1981), Climax Blues Band

"I Love You"  is a sweet, endearing ballad. The kind of song that probably sounded great via that portable 8-track cassette player on a catamaran during an early '80s' summer. From England, Climax Blues Band scored a top-15 hit with "I Love You." Love was a dependable and generally successful topic for artists within the soft/yacht rock genre. In fact, the song is still quite popular on lite rock and adult contemporary radio stations on your FM dial for those who still like to hear their music that way. 

18. "Rosanna" (1982), Toto

Toto rightfully has a place in the yacht rock world, but the band also broke into the top-40, FM radio, and MTV mainstream with the release of 1982's Toto IV . "Rosanna" was a big reason for the album's success, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard 's Hot 100 and winning the Record of the Year Grammy Award. Sure, it's not typical yacht rock fare, per se. It's certainly heavier than other popular tracks on this list, but it's certainly a product of AOR and still routinely played in dentist offices throughout America. 

17. "Love Will Keep Us Together" (1975), Captain & Tennille

There are those historians who believe the first true example of yacht rock came with this popular '70s staple from the "Captain"   Daryl Dragon  and his wife Toni Tennille. Now, Neil Sedaka  wrote "Love Will Keep Us Together" and originally recorded the song two years earlier. Still, the duo's version was  more poppy, with a carefree vibe  that's ideal for FM radio. While Captain & Tennille's cover won a Record of the Year Grammy Award, Sedaka has noted that the Beach Boys were one of the inspirations for the tune. This makes sense since many music critics, professionals, historians, etc.. have credited the yacht rock genre as somewhat of an offshoot from the Beach Boys' collective sound. 

16. "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" (1979), Rupert Holmes

This No.1 Billboard Hot 100 hit for England's Rupert Holmes has achieved a steady cult following over the years. Perhaps, because of the unique title and conjured images of some warm, beach-laden paradise. Yacht rock's association with summer, water, and care-free living, as a backdrop to a romantic story, is one of its appealing aspects. This song is about a couple who ultimately patch up a rough relationship through personal ads . Any time somebody of a certain age sips one of these drinks, ideally at some Caribbean resort with the warm winds off the ocean blowing, "The Pina Colada Song" should come to mind.

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

Formed in Australia, the soft/pop rock and often yacht rock stylings of LRB were a hit in the United States. " Reminiscing " was the band's biggest hit in America, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Like many songs of this genre, "Reminiscing" is paced by the electric piano. Which also happened to be a staple of the Little River Band. Sure, it's not "breezy" like other yacht rock tunes, but Will Ferrell's Det. Allen Gamble is a big fan in The Other Guys (2010).

14. "Africa" (1982), Toto

Yes, more from Toto. If there's one popular Toto hit that whole-heartedly falls under the yacht rock moniker, it's " Africa ." The group's only song to top the Billboard Hot 100, and made a resurgence with Weezer's popular cover in recent years , "Africa," is the proper combination of mellow and poppy. It continues the Toto tradition of shared vocals, while the consistent synthesizer and keyboard presence, though more pronounced than the typical soft rock/adult contemporary vibe. 

13. "How Much I Feel" (1978), Ambrosia

L.A.'s Ambrosia, co-founded by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter David Pack and bassist Joe Puerta was all about the soft rock sound that surfaced in Southern California during the early 1970s. "How Much I Feel," from the group's third album Life Beyond L.A. , might have more of an adult contemporary vibe but certainly falls into the yacht rock category. It was one of the band's biggest hits, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's remained popular over the years, even being sampled by Kanye West.

12. "Peg" (1977), Steely Dan

Steely Dan was, in its prime, under the direction of celebrated songwriters Donald Fagan and Walter Becker, many things regarding a collective sound. Rock, pop, jazz, blues. Usually melodic, well within the soft-rock category. Songs like "Peg," from the 1977 masterpiece Aja , certainly has a yacht rock vibe, too. Perhaps most notably is that the great Michael McDonald, longtime frontman of the Doobie Brothers and driving singer-songwriter in the soft/yacht rock circles, provides backing vocals on the track. 

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

It really does get more yacht rock than this—smooth , with a flowing rhythm, precise, but not overbearing, harmonies . Not to mention the subtly stellar keyboard work from David C. Lewis. Throw in sessionist Ernie Watts' sax solo, and we have one great soft/yacht offering. It was the second of Ambrosia's two top-5 hits, reaching No. 3 on Billboard 's Hot 100. The version from the 1980s One Eighty  album runs about 5 1/2 minutes long. Talk about pure easy-listening joy.

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

Long considered one of the great "summer songs" ever recorded. And summer-themed tunes from the 1970s tend to lend themselves to the yacht rock moniker. That said, Seals & Crofts were definitely a soft rock outfit, but with elements of folk and pop. "Summer Breeze" peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1970s and, again, is notable for being one of the earliest yacht rock offerings. Several other prominent artists, such as Ray Conniff, the Isley Brothers, and a stellar metal version from Type O Negative. 

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

It's safe to say that Christopher Cross is the king of yacht rock. A brilliant songwriter and above-average guitar player, Cross could rock, but it's his definitive soft rock numbers that made him a star with lite-FM, adult contemporary and yacht rock fans. "Ride Like the Wind"  is the first single from Cross' stellar five-time Grammy-Award-winning self-titled debut from 1979. A more upbeat number about an outlaw running from the authorities, the track is less uplifting than other yacht rock tunes, but the vibe is the same. Of note, Michael McDonald provided backing vocals.

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

From John Friesen's steady drum intro to that durably underlaid bass line via Ron Moss to J.C. Crowley's keyboard presence begins the soft-rock brilliance of "Baby Come Back." With lyrics describing the yearning to reacquire a lost love and full-band harmonies, "Baby Come Back" just might be the quintessential offering of the yacht rock genre. It was the biggest hit for Player , the L.A.-based group that featured vocalist and song co-writer Peter Beckett, who was born in England. The tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 and still has a presence with its inclusion in films such as Transformers and  Black Adam.  Plus, various versions in popular TV shows like The Simpsons. American Dad  and King of the Hill.

7. "What a Fool Believes" (1979), The Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers were a rather hard-rocking outfit before Michael McDonald joined up in the mid-1970s. The band was in need of an established songwriter, and McDonald delivered. However, with a more mellow, synthesizer/electric piano-driven sound that produced soft-rock gems like this one. Co-written by Kenny Loggins, who put out a version for himself, "What a Fool Believes" hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in April 1979. Several critics have cited this as the best song in the vast Doobie Brothers catalog. 

6. "Steal Away" (1980), Robbie Dupree

If you're going to be a one-hit wonder, why not make it count? More than 30 years since its release, " Steal Away " can still be heard in elevators and office buildings throughout the United States -- or in the third season of Better Call Saul . Undeniably yacht rock, Dupree, born in Brooklyn, enjoyed success with the song during the summer of 1980 -- always a perfect time to enjoy the smooth, soothing sounds of a piece within this genre that peaked at No. 6 on Billboar d's Hot 100.

5. "Moonlight Feels Right" (1975), Starbuck

Here's a case where middle-aged and baby-boomer music fans probably remember the song but perhaps not the group who performed the track. That's OK. Atlanta's Starbuck is essentially a one-hit wonder thanks to "Moonlight Feels Right," which topped out at No. 3 on Billboard 's Hot 100. For those who remember this track for its lite-flowing beat, with lyrical references to the ocean, "Baltimore," and 'Ole Miss," and band member Bo Wagner marimba   solo, it might take them back to a simpler, more laidback time in their lives.

4. "Heart to Heart" (1982), Kenny Loggins

Perhaps more so than the previously mentioned "This Is It," "Heart to Heart" truly has all the requirements of a great yacht rock/soft rock tune. It was co-written by Michael McDonald, who also played the electric piano and provided backing vocals. David Foster, of Chicago songwriting and '80s ballad fame, also helped compose the tune, which features David Sanborn on saxophone. The track is one of Loggins' best-known hits, cracking the top 20 of the Hot 100.

3. "Lowdown" (1976), Boz Scaggs

Co-written by David Paich and featuring Jeff Porcaro on drums -- both of whom who go on to form the aforementioned Toto. One of Scaggs most well-known hits, "Lowdown"  has a bluesy and almost disco vibe. And a number we can imagine being played at some swanky yacht club party where the dance floor is filled, and more than a few people are sporting captain's hats. The song reached No. 3 on Billboard 's Hot 100 and also topped the Billboard Cash Box chart in the United States.

2. "Key Largo" (1981), Bertie Higgins

Yacht rock and one-hit wonders seem to go hand-in-hand. Higgins scored one in the early 1980s with this number that reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Florida native was inspired to write this song about trying to avoid a romantic breakup by the 1948 movie of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart   and Lauren Bacall, who are referenced in the tune. Though Higgins never enjoyed the same individual success as a musician, the song has had a solid shelf life and remains a definitive moment in the yacht rock genre.

1. "Sailing" (1979), Christopher Cross

Sure, "Ride Like the Wind" is a gem, but the undisputed star of Cross' aforementioned debut album is the Hot 100-chart-topper "Sailing." It might be the definitive yacht rock song, capturing what Cross described, at the time, the "West Coast sound," which was long being composed, produced and performed, but maybe didn't have an appropriate moniker. The song won Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Arrangement of the Year, and was a big reason Cross earned the same award for Best New Artist.

A Chicago native, Jeff Mezydlo has professionally written about sports, entertainment and pop culture for nearly 30 years. If he could do it again, he'd attend Degrassi Junior High, Ampipe High and Grand Lakes University.

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60+ Best Yacht Rock Songs of All Time

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

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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10 of the Best Yacht Rock Songs of All Time

Yacht Rock, a 1970s and 1980s-era subgenre has recently experienced a boom in popularity. Its distinctive fusion of jazz, R&B, and soft rock components has enthralled audiences and created a new fan base. Yacht Rock has evolved into the go-to music for individuals looking to unwind and escape from the rigors of daily life because of its calming melodies, layered harmonies, and catchy hooks.

In this article, we’ll examine in more detail ten of the best Yacht Rock songs that have become timeless favorites. These songs, which range from the comforting melodies of The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” to the memorable hooks of Toto’s “Africa,” have withstood the test of time and continue to enthrall listeners. We’ll discuss what makes these songs unique and ideal for those long days spent on the lake or leisurely evenings on the patio, whether you’re a lifelong admirer of the genre or new to it. Take a drink, relax, and join me as we embark on a musical tour of the best Yacht Rock has to offer.

10 of the Best Yacht Rock Songs

1. “sailing” by christopher cross.

An undeniable Yacht Rock classic, “Sailing” won Christopher Cross the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1981. The song’s dreamy lyrics and soothing melody perfectly encapsulate the feeling of being at one with the water. It is the ideal soundtrack for an afternoon spent sailing or simply enjoying the ocean breeze. With its gentle instrumentation and Cross’s calming vocals, “Sailing” transports listeners to a peaceful, sun-drenched world where worries and stress drift away.

2. “What a Fool Believes” by the Doobie Brothers

Written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, “What a Fool Believes” showcases The Doobie Brothers’ signature sound with smooth, soulful vocals and intricate keyboard work. Released in 1979, this Grammy-winning song topped the charts and remained a fan favorite for its catchy melody and relatable lyrics about unrequited love. With its polished production and infectious energy, “What a Fool Believes” remains a Yacht Rock staple that continues to captivate audiences.

3. “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille

Captain & Tennille’s 1975 hit “Love Will Keep Us Together” is a quintessential Yacht Rock ballad celebrating love’s power. The song’s upbeat tempo, irresistible hook, and Daryl Dragon’s masterful keyboard playing make it a timeless classic that resonates with listeners today. It’s difficult not to get carried away by this uplifting hymn to love and dedication as Toni Tennille’s sincere vocals flawlessly meld with the song’s infectious tune.

4. “Steal Away” by Robbie Dupree

A prime example of Yacht Rock’s laid-back vibe is “Steal Away” by Robbie Dupree, a smooth and sultry hit that made waves in 1980. The song paints a picture of a spontaneous, romantic escapade with its memorable chorus, funky groove, and Dupree’s soulful vocals. From its breezy synths to its driving beat, “Steal Away” encapsulates the carefree spirit of Yacht Rock, making it a must-listen for fans of the genre.

5. “Africa” by Toto

“ Africa ” by Toto, released in 1982, is a beloved Yacht Rock anthem that has stood the test of time. The song’s unforgettable melody, lush harmonies, and captivating storytelling have made it a favorite for listeners worldwide. With its vivid lyrics and soaring chorus, “Africa” transports listeners to a vast, uncharted landscape of adventure and romance. Its distinctive blend of rock and world music elements makes this track an enduring classic.

6. “Peg” by Steely Dan

Jazzy and sophisticated, “Peg” by Steely Dan showcases the band’s trademark fusion of rock, pop, and jazz. Released in 1977, the song’s infectious groove, polished production, and impeccable musicianship have made it a Yacht Rock staple. Featuring Michael McDonald on backing vocals, “Peg” is a prime example of Steely Dan’s knack for creating intricate yet accessible music. With its bright horns, unforgettable guitar riff, and smooth harmonies, “Peg” has earned its place among the Yacht Rock elite.

7. “Baby Come Back” by Player

“Baby Come Back” by Player is a quintessential Yacht Rock ballad that tugs at the heartstrings with poignant lyrics about lost love. The 1977 song’s deep melody, memorable chorus, and longing vocals have made it a timeless classic that appeals to listeners even now. As the song builds to its unforgettable climax, “Baby Come Back” reminds us of the power of love and the enduring appeal of Yacht Rock’s smooth sound.

8. “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” by Hall & Oates

A sultry, funk-infused hit, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” by Hall & Oates, showcases the duo’s signature blend of pop and soul. Released in 1981, the song’s irresistible groove, catchy hook, and Daryl Hall’s smooth vocals have made it a fan favorite. With its irresistible beat and effortlessly cool vibe, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” is a standout track in the Yacht Rock genre that still gets people moving on the dance floor.

9. “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan

Another Yacht Rock classic from Steely Dan, “Hey Nineteen,” is a smooth, laid-back tune that perfectly captures the band’s signature sound. The 1980 song’s catchy melody, clever lyrics, and easygoing groove have made it a favorite among listeners.

“Hey Nineteen” is a classic example of Steely Dan’s ability to create timeless music that transcends fads and is still relevant today thanks to its unusual fusion of jazz, pop, and rock components.

10. “Biggest Part of Me” by Ambrosia

Rounding out our list is “Biggest Part of Me” by Ambrosia, a 1980 hit that showcases the band’s trademark blend of soulful vocals, lush harmonies, and smooth instrumentation. With its heartfelt lyrics, soaring chorus, and polished production, the song has become a Yacht Rock classic that still resonates with listeners. As the song builds to its emotional crescendo, “Biggest Part of Me” is a fitting tribute to the enduring appeal of Yacht Rock’s smooth sound.

From sun-soaked afternoons on the water to romantic evenings under the stars, Yacht Rock’s timeless tunes uniquely transport listeners to a world of relaxation and nostalgia. These ten Yacht Rock songs, with their smooth melodies, soulful vocals, and catchy hooks, serve as a testament to the enduring appeal of this beloved subgenre. As more and more people discover the magic of Yacht Rock, its classic tracks continue to sail into the hearts of new fans, proving that this smooth sound is here to stay.

Jason Butler

Jason Butler is the owner of My Money Chronicles, a website where he discusses personal finance, side hustles, travel, and more. Jason is from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Savannah State University with his BA in Marketing. Jason has been featured in Forbes, Discover, and Investopedia.

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Yacht Rock: Album Guide

• By David Browne

David Browne

Summer’s here and time is right for dancing … on the deck of a large nautical vessel. During the late Seventies and early Eighties, the radio was dominated by silver-tongued white-dude crooners with names like Rupert and Gerry, emoting over balmy R&B beats, swaying saxes, and dishwasher-clean arrangements. Though it didn’t have a name, the genre — soft rock you could dance to — was dismissed by serious rock fans as fluffy and lame. But thanks to a web series in the mid-2000s, the style — belatedly named “ yacht rock ” — has since spawned a satellite-radio channel, tribute bands, and a Weezer cover of Toto’s “Africa.” Is the modern love of the music ironic or sincere? Hard to say, yet there’s no denying yacht rock is a legit sound with a vibe all its own that produced a surprising amount of enduring music perfectly at home in summer. (John Mayer even tips his own sailor’s hat to the genre on his new “Last Train Home” single, and even the aqua-blue cover of his upcoming Sob Rock album.) The resumption of the Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary tour, postponed last year due to COVID-19 but scheduled to restart in August, is the cherry atop the Pina colada.

Boz Scaggs, Silk Degrees (1976)

Before yacht rock was an identifiable genre, Scaggs (no fan of the term, as he told Rolling Stone in 2018) set the standard for what was to come: sharp-dressed white soul, burnished ballads that evoked wine with a quiet dinner, and splashes of Me Decade decadence (the narrator of the pumped “Lido Shuffle” is setting up one more score before leaving the country). Add in the Philly Soul homage “What Can I Say,” the burbling life-on-the-streets homage “Lowdown,” and the lush sway of “Georgia,” and Silk Degrees , internationally or not, set a new high bar for Seventies smoothness.

Steely Dan, Aja (1977)

The sophisticated high-water mark of yacht, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s masterpiece is the midway point between jazz and pop, with tricky tempo shifts, interlocking horn and keyboard parts, and pristine solos. Not settling for easygoing period clichés, these love songs, so to speak, are populated by a sleazy movie director (the gorgeous rush of “Peg”), a loser who still hopes to be a jazzman even if the odds are against him (the heart-tugging “Deacon Blues”), and a guy whose nodding-out girlfriend is probably a junkie (“Black Cow”). The most subversive cruise you’ll ever take.

The Doobie Brothers, Minute by Minute (1978)

The Doobies got their start as a biker-y boogie band, but they smoothed things out for Minute by Minute . Highlighted by “What a Fool Believes,” the unstoppable Michael McDonald-Kenny Loggins co-write, the LP piles on romantic turmoil, falsetto harmonies, and plenty of spongy electric piano. But it also proves how much personality and muscle the Doobies could bring to what could be a generic sound. McDonald’s husky, sensitive-guy delivery shrouds the unexpectedly bitter title song (“You will stay just to watch me, darlin’/Wilt away on lies from you”)  and honoring their biker roots, “Don’t Stop to Watch the Wheels” is about taking a lady friend for a ride on your hog.

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Further Listening

Seals & crofts, get closer (1976).

The Dylan-goes-electric moment of yacht, “Get Closer” validated the idea that folkie singer-songwriters could put aside their guitars (and mandolin), tap into their R&B side and cross over in ways they never imagined. In addition to the surprising seductiveness of the title hit, Get Closer has plenty of yacht-rock pleasures. In “Goodbye Old Buddies,” the narrator informs his pals that he can’t hang out anymore now that he’s met “a certain young lady,” but in the next song, “Baby Blue,” another woman is told, “There’s an old friend in me/Tellin’ me I gotta be free.” A good captain follows the tide where it takes him.

Christopher Cross, Christopher Cross  (1979)

Cross’ debut swept the 1981 Grammys for a reason: It’s that rare yacht-rock album that’s graceful, earnest, and utterly lacking in smarm. Songs like the politely seductive “Say You’ll Be Mine” and the forlorn “Never Be the Same” have an elegant pop classicism, and the yacht anthem “Sailing” could be called a powered-down ballad. Fueled by a McDonald cameo expertly parodied on SCTV , the propulsive “Ride Like the Wind” sneaks raw outlaw lyrics (“Lived nine lives/Gunned down ten”) into its breezy groove, perfecting the short-lived gangster-yacht subgenre.

Rupert Holmes, Partners in Crime (1979)

The album that made Holmes a soft-rock star is known for “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” which sports a made-for-karaoke chorus and a plot twist worthy of a wide-collar O. Henry. But what distinguishes the album is the Steely Dan-level musicianship and Holmes’ ambitious story songs, each sung with Manilow-esque exuberance. The title track equates a hooker and her john to co-workers at a department store, “Lunch Hour” ventures into afternoon-delight territory, and “Answering Machine” finds a conflicted couple trading messages but continually being cut off by those old-school devices.

Steely Dan, Gaucho (1980)

The Dan’s last studio album before a lengthy hiatus doesn’t have the consistency of Aja, but Gaucho cleverly matches their most vacuum-sealed music with their most sordid and pathetic cast of characters. A seedy older guy tries to pick up younger women in “Hey Nineteen,” another loser goes in search of a ménage à trois in “Babylon Sisters,” a coke dealer delivers to a basketball star in “Glamour Profession,” and the narrator of “Time Out of Mind” just wants another heroin high. It’s the dark side of the yacht.

Going Deeper

Michael mcdonald, if that’s what it takes  (1982).

Imagine a Doobie Brothers album entirely comprised of McDonald songs and shorn of pesky guitar solos or Patrick Simmons rockers, and you have a sense of McDonald’s first and best post-Doobs album. If That’s What it Takes builds on the approach he nailed on “What a Fool Believes” but amps up the sullen-R&B side of Mac’s music. His brooding remake of Lieber and Stoller’s “I Keep Forgettin’” is peak McDonald and the title track approaches the propulsion of Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind.” With his sad-sack intensity, McDonald sounds like guy at a seaside resort chewing over his mistakes and regrets – with, naturally, the aid of an electric piano.

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Kenny Loggins, Keep the Fire (1979)

Loggins’ journey from granola folk rocker to pleasure-boat captain embodies the way rock grew more polished as the Seventies wore on. Anchored by the percolating-coffeemaker rhythms and modestly aggro delivery of “This Is It,” another McDonald collaboration, Keep the Fire sets Loggins’ feathery voice to smooth-jazz saxes and R&B beats, and Michael Jackson harmonies beef up the soul quotient in “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong.” The secret highlight is “Will It Last,” one of the sneakiest yacht tracks ever, fading to a finish after four minutes, then revving back up with some sweet George Harrison-style slide guitar.

Dr. Hook, Sometimes You Win  (1979)

Earlier in the Seventies, these jokesters established themselves with novelty hits like “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’’ but they soon paddled over to unabashed disco-yacht. Sometimes You Win features three of their oiliest ear worms: “Sexy Eyes,” “When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman” and “Better Love Next Time,” all oozing suburban pickup bars and the somewhat desperate dudes who hang out there. The album, alas, does not include “Sharing the Night Together,” recently reborn by way of its sardonic use in last year’s Breaking Bad spinoff El Camino .

Carly Simon, Boys in the Trees  (1978)

As a trailblazing female singer-songwriter, Simon was already a star by the time yacht launched. Boys in the Trees features her beguiling contribution to the genre, “You Belong to Me,” a collaboration with the ubiquitous Michael McDonald. The Doobies cut it first, but Simon’s version adds an air of yearning and hushed desperation that makes it definitive. The album also packs in a yacht-soul cover of James Taylor’s “One Man Woman” and a “lullaby for a wide-eyed guy” called “Tranquillo (Melt My Heart),” all proving that men didn’t have a stranglehold on this style.

Anchors Aweigh

More smooth hits for your next high-seas adventure.

“BREEZIN’”

George Benson, 1976

The guitarist and Jehovah’s Witness made the leap from midlevel jazz act to crossover pop star with a windswept instrumental that conveys the yacht spirit as much as any vocal performance.

“WHATCHA GONNA DO?”

Pablo Cruise, 1976

Carefree bounce from a San Francisco band with the best name ever for a soft-rock act — named, fittingly, after a chill Colorado buddy.

“BAKER STREET”

Gerry Rafferty, 1978

Rafferty brought a deep sense of lonely-walk-by-the-bay melancholy to this epic retelling of a night on the town, in which Raphael Ravenscroft’s immortal sax awakens Rafferty from his morning-after hangover.

“REMINISCING”

Little River Band, 1978

The Aussie soft rockers delivered a slurpy valentine sung in the voice of an old man looking back on his “lifetime plan” with his wife. Innovative twist: flugelhorn solo instead of sax.

“WHENEVER I CALL YOU ‘FRIEND’ ”

Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks, 1978

After its ethereal intro, this rare genre duet grows friskier with each verse, with both Loggins and Nicks getting more audibly caught up in the groove — and the idea of “sweet love showing us a heavenly light.”

“LOTTA LOVE”

Nicolette Larson, 1978

Neil Young’s sad-boy shuffle is transformed into a luscious slice of lounge pop by the late Larson. Adding an extra layer of poignancy, she was in a relationship with Young around that time.

“STEAL AWAY”

Robbie Dupree, 1980

Is it real, or is it McDonald? Actually, it’s the best Doobies knockoff — a rinky-dink (but ingratiating) distant cousin to “What a Fool Believes” that almost inspired McDonald to take legal action.

“TAKE IT EASY”

Archie James Cavanaugh, 1980

Cult rarity by the late Alaskan singer-songwriter that crams in everything you’d want in a yacht song: disco-leaning bass, smooth-jazz guitar, sax, and a lyric that lives up to its title even more than the same-titled Eagles song.

“BIGGEST PART OF ME”

Ambrosia, 1980

Ditching the prog-classical leanings of earlier albums, this trio headed straight for the middle of the waterway with this Doobies-lite smash. Bonus points for lyrics that reference a “lazy river.”

“I CAN’T GO FOR THAT (NO CAN DO)”

Daryl Hall and John Oates, 1981

The once unstoppable blue-eyed soul duo were never pure yacht, but the easy-rolling beats and shiny sax in this Number One hit got close. Hall adds sexual tension by never specifying exactly what he can’t go for.

“COOL NIGHT”

Paul Davis, 1981

The Mississippi crooner-songwriter gives a master class on how to heat up a stalled romance: Pick a brisk evening, invite a female acquaintance over, and suggest . . . lighting a fire.

“KEY LARGO”

Bertie Higgins, 1981

Yacht’s very own novelty hit is corny but deserves props for quoting from not one but two Humphrey Bogart films ( Key Largo and Casablanca ).

“AFRICA”

The same year that members of Toto did session work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, they released the Mount Kilimanjaro of late-yacht hits.

“SOUTHERN CROSS”

Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 1982

The combustible trio’s gusty contribution to the genre has choppy-water rhythms and enough nautical terminology for a sailing manual.

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YACHT ROCK | TOP 100 SONGS

70s + 80s Soft Rock for a day on the boat. Island tunes, chill summer hits + nothing but smooth sailing while jamming to hits from TOTO, Looking Glass, Billy Joel, Hall & Oates + more.

99 Songs, 6 hours, 40 minutes

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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 champagne 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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10 Best Yacht Rock Songs of the Summer

by Peter Burditt June 26, 2022, 10:12 am

The term yacht rock wasn’t coined when the genre took the radio by storm in the 1970s and ’80s. The calmer soft rock gained its name 30 to 40 years later when Channel 101, an LA website, had a comedy web series called Yacht Rock .

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The web series imagined the lives of the stars of the genre with made-up plots. For instance, imagine if The Doobie Brothers and Hall & Oates were rivals and Kenny Loggins was a good friend of Boz Scaggs. Pretty amusing stuff, but thank God it brought a name to the genre, especially because it really is all-encompassing. You can’t describe yacht rock, you just know it when you hear it.

So, are you already “ Reelin’ In The Years ?” Picture this: it’s summer, you are on a sailboat or yacht with all of your closest friends, and you have the soft rock of the 1970s, with breezy vocals, glossy production, and bouncy rhythms playing. This could be you, and we are here to help you out. We have compiled the 10 best songs for your imagined boating adventure this summer.

Let’s check them out.

10. “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass

9. “how long” by ace, 8. “summer breeze” by seals and crofts, 7. “reminiscing” by little river band, 6. “sarah smile” by daryl & john oates, 5. “escape (the pina colada song)” by rupert holmes, 4. “lowdown” by boz scaggs, 3. “ventura highway” by america and george martin, 2. “listen to the music” by the doobie brothers, 1. “peg” by steely dan.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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© 2024 American Songwriter

DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.

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Monday, December 5, 2022

Yacht rock: top 100 songs.

2 comments:

Living in a Dream by Sea Level has to make this list!!!!

Sorry. Of the 30 lists I aggregated to create this one, "Living in a Dream" not only didn't make the minimum cut of 4 lists but didn't show up on any lists.

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Explore The 2024 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inducted Recordings: Lauryn Hill, Guns N' Roses, De La Soul, Donna Summer & Many More

Learn more about the 2024 GRAMMY Hall of Fame inducted recordings, including iconic works by Buena Vista Social Club, Charley Pride, Wanda Jackson, and more. The inaugural GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala takes place May 21 at the Novo Theater in Los Angeles.

As the GRAMMY Hall of Fame celebrates its 50th anniversary, the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum are proud to honor the 2024 inductees with the inaugural GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala , presented by City National Bank, taking place Tuesday, May 21, at the Novo Theater in Los Angeles. This year, the GRAMMY Hall of Fame will induct 10 recordings: four albums and six singles.

This year's class of inductees highlights the diversity and historical significance of recordings that have shaped the musical landscape. From Lauryn Hill 's groundbreaking album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to the electrifying Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses , the selected recordings span genres and eras and showcase the lasting impact of these timeless works. Other notable inductees include De La Soul 's 3 Feet High and Rising , Buena Vista Social Club's self-titled album, and singles by Donna Summer , Charley Pride , Wanda Jackson , Kid Ory's Creole Orchestra, the Doobie Brothers , and William Bell .

The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Gala promises an unforgettable night, featuring performances that pay tribute to the newly inducted recordings. Artists such as Andra Day , William Bell , Elle King , and HANSON will bring these iconic songs to life while celebrating the rich heritage of the music honored this year. Hosted by veteran CBS journalist Anthony Mason, the evening will also recognize the contributions of Atlantic Records and feature an online auction benefiting the GRAMMY Museum.

The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old. The inducted recordings are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts with final ratification by the Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. There are currently 1,152 inducted recordings in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. Explore the full list of all the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inducted recordings .

Join us as we honor the 2024 GRAMMY Hall of Fame inductees and celebrate the recordings that continue to resonate with listeners around the world by exploring the newly inducted works in depth below.

Tickets for the inaugural GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala are available now .

Explore The 2024 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inductees

Revisiting 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill': Why The Multiple GRAMMY-Winning Record Is Still Everything 25 Years Later

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De La Soul, 3 Feet High And Rising

Tommy boy records, 1989.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2024, 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album from Long Island, New York-born hip-hop trio De La Soul. Released on Tommy Boy Records in 1989 — considered one of the years during hip-hop’s "Golden Age" — and produced by legendary DJ and hip-hop producer Prince Paul, the album was a critical and commercial success. Featuring samples that draw on a vast array of genres — from doo-wop and psychedelic rock to children’s music — the album was unlike any hip-hop album that came before it. Melding inventive production with clever and humorous wordplay and samples from artists as diverse as Johnny Cash (the title of the album is derived from the Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising"), Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, and the Turtles, 3 Feet High And Rising is often considered the beginning of 1990s alternative hip-hop. De La Soul’s use of skits/comedy sketches as interludes also had a huge influence on future generations of rappers. In a review of the album for The Village Voice in 1989, music critic Robert Christgau wrote, "An inevitable development in the class history of rap, [De La Soul is] new wave to Public Enemy’s punk."

Featuring the singles "The Magic Number," "Buddy," "Eye Know," and the GRAMMY-nominated "Me Myself and I," 3 Feet High and Rising spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. "Buddy" is one of the album’s hallmark songs and features cameos from Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love — who are collectively known as the Native Tongues (along with Black Sheep, the Beatnuts and Chi Ali). 

The platinum-certified record consistently places on lists of the greatest albums of all time, including in 2023 when Paste magazine featured it at No. 4 on their list of the Greatest Debut Albums of the 1980s. In 2010 it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. 3 Feet High and Rising has influenced countless artists, from the Roots and Yasiin Bey to OutKast and Common. With the album's undeniably trailblazing release, Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove and Pasemaster Mase of De La Soul have cemented themselves as one of the best rap groups of all time. 



Kelvin "Posdnuos" Mercer – Artist/Songwriter

David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur – Artist/Songwriter

Vincent "Maseo" Mason – Artist/Songwriter

"Prince Paul" Husto n – Producer/Engineer/Songwriter

Alan Watts – Engineer/Mixer

Guns N’ Roses, Appetite For Destruction

Geffen, 1987.

Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction LP will go down in history as one of the most iconic and influential rock albums ever made. But when it was released in the summer of 1987, Appetite didn’t initially garner much mainstream attention. Once the band hit the road in support of the album, singles "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" started getting significant airplay. By the summer of 1988, the band found themselves with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. Appetite For Destruction became the best-selling album of all time in the U.S. and the best-selling debut album. In a review for Pitchfork, Maura Johnston said, "The debut from Guns N' Roses was a watershed moment in '80s rock that chronicled every vice of Los Angeles led by the lye-voiced Axl Rose and a legendary, switchblade-sharp band."


Produced by Mike Clink, Appetite for Destruction is widely considered a near perfect album where the deep cuts are just as good as the hits. From the opening roar of "Welcome to the Jungle" and the iconic "Sweet Child O’ Mine," to "It's So Easy," "Nightrain," "You're Crazy," and "Mr. Brownstone," the album is an artistic triumph in sound, songwriting and production, earning its place at No. 62 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In many ways, the album changed the world. In a 2018 article for Revolver, Dan Epstein noted that Appetite ushered in a new wave of bands like the Black Crowes with its "blues-based music played by an unflashy yet hard-swinging rhythm section, a rock-solid rhythm guitarist, a flashy-but-soulful lead player and a charismatic vocalist who exuded danger and decadence." It also paved the way for Nirvana and the arrival of grunge as rock fans’ "ears were primed for more raw, real and rebellious hard rock." Now, nearly 40 years since its release, Appetite for Destruction has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is without a doubt one of the most successful debut albums of all time.

Axl Rose – Artist/Songwriter

Slash – Artist/Songwriter

Duff McKagan – Artist/Songwriter

Steven Adler – Artist/Songwriter

Izzy Stradlin – Artist/Songwriter

Mike Clink – Engineer/Producer

Steve Thompson – Mixer

Buena Vista Social Club, Buena Vista Social Club

World circuit/nonesuch, 1997 .

In 1996, a group of veteran Cuban musicians was assembled to record an album that would pay tribute to Cuba’s "musical golden age" of the 1930s to 1950s. Showcasing styles of music that were popular at the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, the group became known as the Buena Vista Social Club, named after a 1940s-era members-only music club that was located in the Buenavista quarter of Havana. Organized by British music producer and executive Nick Gold and produced by GRAMMY-winning American guitarist Ry Cooder and Cuban director Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Buena Vista Social Club recorded their eponymous 14-track debut album in just six days. Released in September 1997, the album featured 20 of Cuba’s most prominent musicians, including vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer (1927–2005), pianist Rubén González (1919–2003), and vocalist/guitarist Compay Segundo (1907–2003). Buena Vista Social Club was an instant hit with tracks such as the four-chord song "Chan Chan," written by Segundo, and a rendition of the romantic criolla "La Bayamesa." Everything fell into place at the right time for this album — from the chemistry between the musicians to the rich music history of Havana — to create one of the moments that can only be described as pure musical magic. Buena Vista Social Club sold more than 1 million copies, earned a spot on the Billboard 200, and won the GRAMMY Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance. 

In 1998 the ensemble held performances in Amsterdam and New York that were captured on film by German director Wim Wenders. Along with interviews with musicians that were conducted in Havana, a documentary, titled Buena Vista Social Club , was released in 1999 and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary (Feature). In 2003, Buena Vista Social Club was named on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and in 2022, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Further cementing its place in the music history books, Buena Vista Social Club was recognized by Guinness World Records as the best-selling album of world music with more than 8 million copies sold worldwide.

Ry Cooder – Leader/Producer

Juan Demarcos Gonzalez – Director

Larry Hirsch – Engineer

Jerry Boys – Engineer/Mixer

Donna Summer, "I Feel Love"

Casablanca, 1977.

When the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, released her hit single "I Feel Love" in 1977, it propelled Brian Eno (who was in the studio with David Bowie at the time) to rush in and declare, "This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next 15 years." Now, more than 40 years after its release, "I Feel Love" definitely changed something – it changed pop music forever. Recorded with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, the goal was to create a song that signified the future — and it did. "I Feel Love" was the first song to pair repetitive synthesizer loops with four-on the-floor bass drum and an off-beat hi-hat, helping to forge the path for synth pop, New Romantics, Italo disco, Hi-NRG, electro, house, techno, and more. Along the way, the global smash influenced countless artists, including Blondie, who became one of the first punk-associated groups to embrace disco, releasing "Heart of Glass" the following year.

Upon its release, "I Feel Love" reached No. 1 in several countries, including the UK, and peaked in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. In 2012, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Many of today’s biggest artists have paid tribute to Summer’s groundbreaking track with covers or samples, including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bronski Beat, and Beyoncé, the latter of whom samples "I Feel Love" on "Summer Renaissance," the closing track on her 2022 GRAMMY-winning album Renaissance. To this day, "I Feel Love" is considered the No. 1 greatest dance song of all time (Rolling Stone).

The song's impact on the LGBTQ+ community is equally as great as its impact on the dance community. GRAMMY-winning artist Sam Smith, who released a cover of "I Feel Love" in 2019, wrote on X: "As a queer person, ‘I Feel Love’ has followed me to every dance floor in every queer space from the minute I started clubbing. This song, to me, is an anthem of our community." In 2023, Pride Life Global ranked the track as one of the best gay anthems. 

Donna Summer – Artist/Songwriter

Giorgio Moroder – Producer/Songwriter

Pete Bellotte – Producer/Songwriter

Jürgen Koppers – Artist/Songwriter

Charley Pride, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'"

Rca victor, 1971.

"Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’" is GRAMMY winner Charley Pride’s biggest hit of his career. Released in 1971 as the first single from his GRAMMY-winning album Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs, the song peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, his only single to break the Top 40. Considered one of Pride’s signature songs, the track marked his eighth single to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and became one of the biggest country hits of the decade. "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’" was produced by Cowboy Jack Clement (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton) and written by Ben Peters, who got the inspiration for the song after he and his wife Jackie welcomed their daughter Angela. It’s a song purely about love and a slight departure from Pride’s other hits, such as "I’m Just Me" and "I’d Rather Love You." In a 2021 article for CMT, Marcus K. Dowling writes, "The achievement of conveying life's simple joys with a magnificent voice over complex countrypolitan rhythms and melodies — instead of discussing complex emotions over those same types of tracks — is the greatest victory of Pride's signature song." The single also earned Pride a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. Since its release, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’" has been covered by countless artists, including George Jones, Conway Twitty, Gene Stuart, and Roy Clark — all of whom released the song in 1972 — along with Percy Sledge, Alan Jackson and Heather Myles. 

When he signed with RCA in 1964, Pride became the first Black country music singer to get a major record label deal. He went on to have 29 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, selling more than 70 million records. When it comes to sales for RCA, he is second only to Elvis Presley. Though he passed away in December 2020, Pride’s impact on country music, especially Black country music artists, remains. His influence can be heard in the music of up-and-coming artists such as Brittney Spencer, Mickey Guyton and Shy Carter. As country music’s first Black superstar, Pride and his warm baritone captivated audiences, broke racial and cultural barriers, and earned him an induction into the Grand Ole Opry in 1993.

Charley Pride – Artist

Jack Clement – Producer

Ben Peters – Songwriter

Ray Butts – Artist

Mike Shockley – Producer

Wanda Jackson, "Let's Have A Party"

Capitol, 1960.

Originally recorded by Elvis Presley for the 1957 musical/romance film Loving You, "Let’s Have a Party" was recorded by Wanda Jackson and released on her eponymous debut album in 1958. After Jackson’s version of "Let’s Have a Party" was discovered by an Iowa disc jockey and received an increase in interest from radio listeners, Capitol Records encouraged Jackson to release the song as a single two years later in 1960. The song became a hit, making the Top 40 in the U.S. and topping the chart in the U.K. The success of "Let’s Have a Party" inspired Jackson to rename her band the Party Timers and Capitol subsequently released the compilation album, Rockin’ With Wanda that same year. As one of the first women to have a career in rock and roll, Jackson recorded a series of singles in the 1950s that helped earn her the nickname of The Queen of Rockabilly. It was Elvis, with whom she toured with in 1955, who encouraged her to record in the rockabilly style. 

 In 2005, Jackson received the Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, becoming the first female country and rock artist to receive the honor. In 2009, after several artists advocated on her behalf — including Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper — Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lauper has cited Jackson as one of her earliest influences, recording a cover of "Funnel of Love" for her 2016 album Detour. Other artists who have listed Jackson as an influence include Adele and Elle King. 

 Lauper told Rolling Stone in 2016: "I think for country you look at Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn who played a guitar, or sang the songs she wrote, and Dolly Parton. But Wanda Jackson was a rocker, and so, of course, I was going to listen and learn from her because I was a rocker and that's what we did."

Jackson is also a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Honors. 



Wanda Jackson – Artist

Ken Nelson – Producer/Engineer

Jesse Mae Robinson – Songwriter

Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra (As Spike’s Seven Pods Of Pepper Orchestra), "Ory's Creole Trombone"

Nordskog, 1922 .

Louisiana-born composer, trombonist and bandleader Edward "Kid" Ory put New Orleans jazz on the map. Kid Ory’s 1922 hit "Ory’s Creole Trombone" was the first recording of Black/Creole New Orleans jazz. Recorded in Los Angeles, the single features Ory on trombone, along with Thomas "Papa Mutt" Carey on cornet, Oliver "Dink" Johnson on clarinet, Fred Washington on piano, Ed "Montudie" Garland on bass, and Ben Borders on drums. Upon release, the entire first pressing of 5,000 records sold out, leading to gigs for Ory and his band down the California coast in San Diego and Tijuana.

Born on Christmas Day in LaPlace, Louisiana, Ory led a band early on in his career in New Orleans that featured music legends such as Joe "King" Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr and, later, Louis Armstrong. Ory relocated to Los Angeles after the prohibition of alcohol in 1919 changed the landscape for jazz musicians performing in New Orleans nightclubs. Many of the musicians who played on his L.A. sessions had also recently relocated from New Orleans. After moving to Chicago in 1925, where jazz was just starting to gain traction, Ory worked and recorded with artists such as Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and many others. He was an original member of Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, with whom he would later re-record "Ory’s Creole Trombone" in 1927. As demonstrated on "Ory's Creole Trombone," Ory was an early adapter of the glissando technique, now a central element of New Orleans jazz. While he might not have been the first to play a glissando on a trombone, he was certainly the most influential.

In 2005, "Ory’s Creole Trombone" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. In an essay written upon the recording's selection by the Library of Congress, GRAMMY-nominated musician and jazz historian David Sager wrote, "‘Ory’s Creole Trombone’ offers a rare glimpse into the origins of New Orleans jazz and a remarkable insight to this music’s durability and universal appeal." A pioneering record and one of the most essential jazz recordings, "Ory’s Creole Trombone" helped define the New Orleans style of jazz and served as the prototype for future musicians of that genre.

Edward "Kid" Ory – Artist/Songwriter

Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

Ruffhouse records / columbia records, 1998 .

Widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the debut album and only solo studio set released by GRAMMY-winning singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 422,000 copies in its first week, breaking the record for first-week sales by a female artist. Credited for bringing hip-hop and neo-soul to the forefront of popular music, the album earned Hill 10 GRAMMY nominations, which now has her tied with Beyoncé for the Guinness World Record for most GRAMMY nominations in a single year for a female artist. Hill turned half of those nominations into wins, taking home the awards for Album Of The Year, Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, and Best Rhythm & Blues Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Doo Wop (That Thing)." With lyrics that present arguably the most poignant of female perspectives on life, love and relationships, while also touching on the turmoil within her former group the Fugees, three of the album’s singles — "Everything Is Everything, "Ex-Factor" and "Doo Wop (That Thing)" — peaked in the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, with the latter claiming the top spot. 

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was partially recorded at Bob Marley’s studio Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, while Hill was pregnant with her first son, Zion. Speaking about that time, Hill told Rolling Stone, "When some women are pregnant, their hair and their nails grow, but for me it was my mind and ability to create. I had the desire to write in a capacity that I hadn't done in a while. I don't know if it's a hormonal or emotional thing ... I was very in touch with my feelings at the time." The album’s track "To Zion," which features Carlos Santana on guitar, is a song about her son. 

In 1999, Hill became the first hip-hop artist to appear on the cover of TIME magazine. Now, more than 25 years since its release and with more than 20 million copies sold, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill continues to be one of the most influential albums ever made. 

Lauryn Hill – Artist/Producer/Songwriter

Gordon "Commissioner Gordon" Williams – Engineer

Tony Prendatt – Engineer

The Doobie Brothers, "What A Fool Believes"

Warner bros. records, 1978.

One of the few non-disco songs to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, the Doobie Brothers’ "What a Fool Believes" is featured on their 1978 eighth studio album, the Album Of The Year-nominated Minute by Minute. Co-written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, "What a Fool Believes" won the Doobie Brothers two GRAMMY Awards, including Record Of The Year. Stylistically speaking, the song is unlike anything the Doobie Brothers had done before.

"What a Fool Believes" started off as a piano piece idea McDonald had. Producer Ted Templeman heard what he was working on and encouraged him to put some lyrics down with a co-writer. It turns out that McDonald and Loggins had talked about working together for some time. When they got together at McDonald’s house in Los Angeles to write, Loggins had already come up with the song’s hook — "she had a place in his life." Telling the story of a man who attempts to rekindle a romantic relationship, "What a Fool Believes" is about the lies we sometimes tell ourselves about past romances. When the protagonist in the song attempts to reconnect with an old love, he realizes that he barely registers in the woman’s mind. The Doobie Brothers and Templeman recorded numerous takes of its rhythm track over five or six days, but they couldn’t land on a version they all liked. Templeman eventually decided to cut up the master tape of a recording into sections. "In those days when you cut the tape, you’re over – that’s the master of your recording," recalled Templeman in an interview with The Guardian in 2022. "But we got lucky and I put it together on the spot." McDonald completed the rest of the arrangement, adding keyboards, vocals and strings. Before it was released by the Doobie Brothers, Loggins released his own jazzier and experimental version of the song on his 1978 album Nightwatch. 

"What a Fool Believes" was rated as the Doobie Brothers’ all-time greatest song by Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci and listed on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Today, "What a Fool Believes" is considered a "foundational yacht rock classic," as Tom Breihan wrote in a review for Stereogum in 2020.

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – Artist

John Hartman – Artist

Keith Knudsen – Artist

Michael McDonald – Artist/Songwriter

Tiran Porter – Artist

Patrick Simmons – Artist

Ted Templeman – Producer

Kenny Loggins – Songwriter

Donn Lander – Engineer

William Bell, "You Don’t Miss Your Water"

Stax records, 1961.

As the first male solo act signed to the legendary Stax Records, Memphis-born GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter William Bell released his solo debut with the melancholy "You Don’t Miss Your Water" in 1961. Recorded as a demo with members of the Mar-Keys and MG’s, "You Don’t Miss Your Water" was originally released as a B-side of his single "Formula of Love" and gained steam after DJs flipped the record over and started playing "You Don’t Miss Your Water." The song became the first hit for Stax Records, charting on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. It was later released on Bell’s 1967 album The Soul of a Bell and remains his best-known recording to this day.

 "The message is universal: appreciate what you have," said Bell in a 2022 interview with Uncut magazine. "Back then I didn’t realize what I was writing, but after I got a little older, I realized that although the world changes physically, every generation has the same wishes, desires and aspirations. If you just write truthfully about life and write things you think will help people, it will resonate."

And indeed, the song did resonate. More than six decades since its release, "You Don’t Miss Your Water" has gone on to become a Southern classic. Countless artists have recorded covers of it, including Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, Taj Mahal, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Black Crowes, Sturgill Simpson, Peter Tosh & the Wailers, Brian Eno, and, most notably, the Byrds, on their seminal 1968 country-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

In 2013, Bell performed "You Don’t Miss Your Water" before President Barack Obama during "In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul." The following year, Bell was featured in the documentary Take Me to the River, reflecting upon American music's soul. He was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2020, the National Endowment for the Arts celebrated him as a Heritage Fellow. Bell was instrumental in ushering in the Southern soul music genre, which is now known as the globally influential "Memphis Sound."

William Bell – Artist/Songwriter

Chips Moman – Producer

Explore The History Of The Grammy Hall Of Fame

Photo: Courtesy of the Recording Academy™️/photo by Rebecca Sapp, Getty Images

Dillon Francis & Diplo In Conversation: 5 Things We Learned From The GRAMMY Museum Event

In honor of Dillon Francis' breakthrough hit "Get Low" turning 10 this year, the DJ/producer sat down with one of his longtime dance buds, Diplo, at the GRAMMY Museum. Check out five revelations from the career-spanning (and highly entertaining) chat.

Dillon Francis and Diplo have respectively built massive careers within dance music — but as they proved on May 15, they may have been just as successful doing stand-up comedy.

The two producers came together at the GRAMMY Museum's Clive Davis Theater for a wisecracking exchange, marking the 10-year anniversary of Francis' breakthrough song with DJ Snake , the platinum-certified "Get Low." It also felt like a celebration of 

their longstanding friendship — which predates "Get Low" — as the conversation was filled with humorous anecdotes, insider stories about key moments in Francis' career, and some of Francis' favorite memories with Diplo.

Since "Get Low," Francis has had a mercurial music trajectory. Though he's released three studio albums and a number of EPs, his landmark mixtapes — 2015's This Mixtape Is Fire and last year's This Mixtape is Fire TOO — are the key highlights. Like many dance acts, collaboration has been at the core of Francis' work, particularly within the electronic community; he's teamed up with the likes of Skrillex , Calvin Harris , Martin Garrix, Kygo, Alison Wonderland, Illenium , Alesso , and even Diplo's trio Major Lazer . 

More recently, Francis has released collaborations with Ship Wrek, Space Rangers and Sophie Powers, and the moombahton Pero Like EP with Good Times Ahead. The EP includes the bouncy "LA On Acid," whose video — which premiered at the South By Southwest Festival in March — features Diplo in its opening sequencing, along with cameos from Euphoria 's Chloe Cherry, Righteous Gemstones ' Tony Cavalero and Master of None 's Eric Wareheim.

Three days after stopping by the GRAMMY Museum, Francis headed out to Las Vegas to perform at North America's largest electronic dance music festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, on May 18. It was one of many festival appearances for Francis this summer, along with one of several trips to Las Vegas, as he has a residency at the Wynn's XS Nightclub.

Below, take a look at five takeaways from Francis' spirited conversation with Diplo at the GRAMMY Museum.

Francis Met Diplo By Sliding Into His Twitter DMs

The two met in person 16 years ago in Francis' hometown of Los Angeles. Before that, Francis would send Diplo demos for consideration for the latter's record label, Mad Decent. Once Francis realized Diplo had heard his song "Masta Blasta," he slid into Diplo's Twitter DMs — and never left. "I was harassing him so much," Francis quipped. "'Let's please hang out right now. God, please let me come and hang out.'"

Diplo invited him to a bar, and they watched the Phillies (Diplo's team) lose. "It was one of my first blind dates," Diplo said. "I tried to make [Dillon] my ghost producer." 

Shortly after their first meeting, the pair worked together on a dubstep remix for Kelly Rowland 's "Motivation" — and the more exposure he had to Francis' production skills, the more convinced Diplo was of his talent. "[Dillon is] too good to be my ghost producer. He's already better than me. We got to do a real record with this guy."

Francis' Superior Social Media Skills Began As A Class Assignment In High School

Francis' comedic online presence is the perfect combination of humor and authenticity, adding another layer to his appeal alongside his music. He traced his savvy skills back to his time at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and a new genres course he took. His teacher considered everything as art, and their creations could be whatever they wanted.

"My friend and I would make comedy videos, basic sketch shows, and we passed the class with flying colors," Francis recalled. "When Vine came around, I did what I did in that class. It was another way of doing stuff I love to do, which is making people laugh."

Diplo then chimed in with a hilariously fitting observation. "You are the Weird Al Yankovic of electronic music," he said. "You had bangers, but you made them funny and you made them accessible to people."

He also commended Francis for opening his eyes to what social media can do for a creator. "You put me onto interaction on social media in different ways," Diplo added. "I don't think any other electronic music DJs were putting their personality out there like you did. You were the first one to do that properly."

Francis' Musical Education Came From Collaboration

As Francis revealed, he dropped out of college after a semester. But as someone who has built his career on collaboration, he's learned everything he needs to know by working with other artists. In fact, he thinks of working with other producers as interning. 

"It's my favorite thing to do," he said. "They're going to learn the way that you produce, you're going learn the way they produce. You can cross-pollinate your ideas and come away with new ways to make music. I feel like it also helps with evolving as an artist."

Diplo agreed, noting that Francis' time as a young producer, interning at studios, learning from producers and gaining relationships in the process was essential to his career. "Not to encourage more people to drop out of college," he joked.

Furious 7 Was A Key Player In The Success Of "Get Low"

Diplo pointed out that "Get Low" had its crossover moment after being included in the soundtrack for Furious 7 , the 2015 installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. He asserted that it is special for a producer to have a song in a big movie, as he experienced with M.I.A. 's "Paper Planes" (which he co-wrote and co-produced) after it was featured in 2008's Pineapple Express .  

As Francis recalled, "Get Low" was already well-received and being played by the DJ community, with about five million plays on Spotify before Furious 7 . But once it was part of Furious 7 — first in the trailer and then in the film — it ramped up significantly (and now has more than 200 million Spotify streams as of press time).

"This is when people were buying music on iTunes," Francis remembers. "From the trailer, it peaked at number 5 or something like that, which is huge for any artist in dance music. We're not usually on that chart. To be right next to Selena Gomez with a song that says, 'Get low when the whistle goes,' is crazy."

He Had A Life-Altering Turning Point At 18

After Diplo concluded his questions, Francis took a few from the audience. In response to one fan about what he would have done differently early in his career, Francis opened up about one of the worst moments in his life — which actually turned into a great learning experience. 

As he explained, at the age of 18, Francis was charged with a DUI (which was eventually downgraded to wet reckless). His parents spent their savings on a lawyer; he lost his car; he lost his license for a year; he did the DUI classes. And all of it put things into perspective.

"That was the first moment where I realized, things can get messed up and lost," he said. "I was like, 'I need to figure out my career. I'm going to go make money and I'm going to pay [my parents] back.' That was a very big driving factor for me."

Now 36, Francis views the incident as one of the best things to ever happen to him — and, in turn, for his path in dance music. "If that didn't happen, I don't think I would be sitting here on the stage today."

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Slash's New Blues Ball: How His Collaborations Album 'Orgy Of The Damned' Came Together

On his new album, 'Orgy Of The Damned,' Slash recruits several friends — from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler to Demi Lovato — to jam on blues classics. The rock legend details how the project was "an accumulation of stuff I've learned over the years."

In the pantheon of rock guitar gods, Slash ranks high on the list of legends. Many fans have passionately discussed his work — but if you ask him how he views his evolution over the last four decades, he doesn't offer a detailed analysis.

"As a person, I live very much in the moment, not too far in the past and not very far in the future either," Slash asserts. "So it's hard for me to really look at everything I'm doing in the bigger scheme of things."

While his latest endeavor — his new studio album, Orgy Of The Damned — may seem different to many who know him as the shredding guitarist in Guns N' Roses , Slash's Snakepit, Velvet Revolver , and his four albums with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, it's a prime example of his living-in-the-moment ethos. And, perhaps most importantly to Slash, it goes back to what has always been at the heart of his playing: the blues.

Orgy Of The Damned strips back much of the heavier side of his playing for a 12-track homage to the songs and artists that have long inspired him. And he recruited several of his rock cohorts — the likes of AC/DC 's Brian Johnson , Aerosmith 's Steven Tyler , Gary Clark Jr. , Iggy Pop , Beth Hart , and Dorothy, among others — to jam on vintage blues tunes with him, from "Hoochie Coochie Man" to "Born Under A Bad Sign."

But don't be skeptical of his current venture — there's plenty of fire in these interpretations; they just have a different energy than his harder rocking material. The album also includes one new Slash original, the majestic instrumental "Metal Chestnut," a nice showcase for his tastefully melodic and expressive playing.

The initial seed for the project was planted with the guitarist's late '90s group Slash's Blues Ball, which jammed on genre classics. Those live, spontaneous collaborations appealed to him, so when he had a small open window to get something done recently, he jumped at the chance to finally make a full-on blues album.

Released May 17, Orgy Of The Damned serves as an authentic bridge from his musical roots to his many hard rock endeavors. It also sees a full-circle moment: two Blues Ball bandmates, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis, helped lay down the basic tracks. Further seizing on his blues exploration, Slash will be headlining his own touring blues festival called S.E.R.P.E.N.T. in July and August, with support acts including the Warren Haynes Band , Keb' Mo' , ZZ Ward, and Eric Gales .

Part of what has kept Slash's career so intriguing is the diversity he embraces. While many heavy rockers stay in their lane, Slash has always traveled down other roads. And though most of his Orgy Of The Damned guests are more in his world, he's collaborated with the likes of Michael Jackson , Carole King and Ray Charles — further proof that he's one of rock's genre-bending greats.

Below, Slash discusses some of the most memorable collabs from Orgy Of The Damned , as well as from his wide-spanning career.

I was just listening to "Living For The City," which is my favorite track on the album.

Wow, that's awesome. That was the track that I knew was going to be the most left of center for the average person, but that was my favorite song when [ Stevie Wonder 's 1973 album] Innervisions came out when I was, like, 9 years old. I loved that song. This record's origins go back to a blues band that I put together back in the '90s.

Slash's Blues Ball.

Right. We used to play "Superstition," that Stevie Wonder song. I did not want to record that [for Orgy Of The Damned ], but I still wanted to do a Stevie Wonder song. So it gave me the opportunity to do "Living For The City," which is probably the most complicated of all the songs to learn. I thought we did a pretty good job, and Tash [Neal] sang it great. I'm glad you dig it because you're probably the first person that's actually singled that song out.

With the Blues Ball, you performed Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher" and Robert Johnson 's "Crossroads," and they surface here. Isn't it amazing it took this long to record a collection like this?

[Blues Ball] was a fun thrown-together thing that we did when I [was in, I] guess you call it, a transitional period. I'd left Guns N' Roses [in 1996], and it was right before I put together a second incarnation of Snakepit.

I'd been doing a lot of jamming with a lot of blues guys. I'd known Teddy [Andreadis] for a while and been jamming with him at The Baked Potato for years prior to this. So during this period, I got together with Ted and Johnny [Griparic], and we started with this Blues Ball thing. We started touring around the country with it, and then even made it to Europe. It was just fun.

Then Snakepit happened, and then Velvet Revolver. These were more or less serious bands that I was involved in. Blues Ball was really just for the fun of it, so it didn't really take precedence. But all these years later, I was on tour with Guns N' Roses, and we had a three-week break or whatever it was. I thought, I want to make that f—ing record now .

It had been stewing in the back of my mind subconsciously. So I called Teddy and Johnny, and I said, Hey, let's go in the studio and just put together a set and go and record it. We got an old set list from 1998, picked some songs from an app, picked some other songs that I've always wanted to do that I haven't gotten a chance to do.

Then I had the idea of getting Tash Neal involved, because this guy is just an amazing singer/guitar player that I had worked with in a blues thing a couple years prior to that. So we had the nucleus of this band.

Then I thought, Let's bring in a bunch of guest singers to do this. I don't want to try to do a traditional blues record, because I think that's going to just sound corny. So I definitely wanted this to be more eclectic than that, and more of, like, Slash's take on these certain songs, as opposed to it being, like, "blues." It was very off-the-cuff and very loose.

It's refreshing to hear Brian Johnson singing in his lower register on "Killing Floor" like he did in the '70s with Geordie, before he got into AC/DC. Were you expecting him to sound like that?

You know, I didn't know what he was gonna sing it like. He was so enthusiastic about doing a Howlin' Wolf cover.

I think he was one of the first calls that I made, and it was really encouraging the way that he reacted to the idea of the song. So I went to a studio in Florida. We'd already recorded all the music, and he just fell into it in that register.

I think he was more or less trying to keep it in the same feel and in the same sort of tone as the original, which was great. I always say this — because it happened for like two seconds, he sang a bit in the upper register — but it definitely sounded like AC/DC doing a cover of Howlin' Wolf. We're not AC/DC, but he felt more comfortable doing it in the register that Howlin' Wolf did. I just thought it sounded really great.

You chose to have Demi Lovato sing "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." Why did you pick her?

We used to do "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" back in Snakepit, actually, and Johnny played bass. We had this guy named Rod Jackson, who was the singer, and he was incredible. He did a great f—ing interpretation of the Temptations singing it.

When it came to doing it for this record, I wanted to have something different, and the idea of having a young girl's voice telling the story of talking to her mom to find out about her infamous late father, just made sense to me. And Demi was the first person that I thought of. She's got such a great, soulful voice, but it's also got a certain kind of youth to it.

When I told her about it, she reacted like Brian did: "Wow, I would love to do that . " There's some deeper meaning about the song to her and her personal life or her experience. We went to the studio, and she just belted it out. It was a lot of fun to do it with her, with that kind of zeal.

You collaborate with Chris Stapleton on Fleetwood Mac 's "Oh Well" by Peter Green. I'm assuming the original version of that song inspired "Double Talkin' Jive" by GN'R?

It did not, but now that you mention it, because of the classical interlude thing at the end... Is that what you're talking about? I never thought about it.

I mean the overall vibe of the song.

"Oh Well" was a song that I didn't hear until I was about 12 years old. It was on KMET, a local radio station in LA. I didn't even know there was a Fleetwood Mac before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham . I always loved that song, and I think it probably had a big influence on me without me even really realizing it. So no, it didn't have a direct influence on "Double Talkin' Jive," but I get it now that you bring it up.

Was there something new that you learned in making this album? Were your collaborators surprised by their own performances?

I think Gary Clark is just this really f—ing wonderful guitar player. When I got "Crossroads," the idea originally was "Crossroads Blues," which is the original Robert Johnson version. And I called Gary and said, "Would you want to play with me on this thing?"

He and I only just met, so I didn't know what his response was going to be. But apparently, he was a big Guns N' Roses fan — I get the idea, anyway. We changed it to the Cream version just because I needed to have something that was a little bit more upbeat. So when we got together and played, we solo-ed it off each other.

When I listen back to it, his playing is just so f—ing smooth, natural, and tasty. There was a lot of that going on throughout the making of the whole record — acclimating to the song and to the feel of it, just in the moment.

I think that's all an accumulation of stuff that I've learned over the years. The record probably would be way different if I did it 20 years ago, so I don't know what that evolution is. But it does exist. The growth thing — God help us if you don't have it.

You've collaborated with a lot of people over the years — Michael Jackson, Carole King, Lemmy , B.B. King, Fergie . Were there any particular moments that were daunting or really challenging? And was there any collaboration that produced something you didn't expect?

All those are a great example of the growth thing, because that's how you really grow as a musician. Learning how to adapt to playing with other people, and playing with people who are better than you — that really helps you blossom as a player.

Playing with Carole King [in 1993] was a really educational experience because she taught me a lot about something that I thought that I did naturally, but she helped me to fine tune it, which was soloing within the context of the song. [It was] really just a couple of words that she said to me during this take that stuck with me. I can't remember exactly what they were, but it was something having to do with making room for the vocal. It was really in passing, but it was important knowledge.

The session that really was the hardest one that I ever did was [when] I was working with Ray Charles before he passed away. I played on his "God Bless America [Again]" record [on 2002's Ray Charles Sings for America ], just doing my thing. It was no big deal. But he asked me to play some standards for the biopic on him [2004's Ray ], and he thought that I could just sit in with his band playing all these Ray Charles standards.

That was something that they gave me the chord charts for, and it was over my head. It was all these chord changes. I wasn't familiar with the music, and most of it was either a jazz or bebop kind of a thing, and it wasn't my natural feel.

I remember taking the chord charts home, those kinds you get in a f—ing songbook. They're all kinds of versions of chords that wouldn't be the version that you would play.

That was one of those really tough sessions that I really learned when I got in over my head with something. But a lot of the other ones I fall into more naturally because I have a feel for it.

That's how those marriages happen in the first place — you have this common interest of a song, so you just feel comfortable doing it because it's in your wheelhouse, even though it's a different kind of music than what everybody's familiar with you doing. You find that you can play and be yourself in a lot of different styles. Some are a little bit challenging, but it's fun.

Are there any people you'd like to collaborate with? Or any styles of music you'd like to explore?

When you say styles, I don't really have a wish list for that. Things just happen. I was just working with this composer, Bear McCreary . We did a song on this epic record that's basically a soundtrack for this whole graphic novel thing, and the compositions are very intense. He's very particular about feel, and about the way each one of these parts has to be played, and so on. That was a little bit challenging. We're going to go do it live at some point coming up.

There's people that I would love to play with, but it's really not like that. It's just whatever opportunities present themselves. It's not like there's a lot of forethought as to who you get to play with, or seeking people out. Except for when you're doing a record where you have people come in and sing on your record, and you have to call them up and beg and plead — "Will you come and do this?"

But I always say Stevie Wonder. I think everybody would like to play with Stevie Wonder at some point.

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Photo: Chris Polk/FilmMagic

How Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black' Changed Pop Music Forever

Ahead of the new Amy Winehouse biopic 'Back To Black,' reflect on the impact of the album of the same name. Read on for six ways the GRAMMY-winning LP charmed listeners and changed the sound of popular music.

When Amy Winehouse released Back To Black in October 2006, it was a sonic revelation. The beehive-wearing singer’s second full-length blended modern themes with the Shangri-Las sound, crafting something that seemed at once both effortlessly timeless and perfectly timed. 

Kicking off with smash single "Rehab" before blasting into swinging bangers like "Me & Mr. Jones," "Love Is A Losing Game," and "You Know I’m No Good," Black To Black has sold over 16 million copies worldwide to date and is the 12th best-selling record of all time in the United Kingdom. It was nominated for six GRAMMY Awards and won five: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Pop Vocal Album. 

Winehouse accepted her golden gramophones via remote link from London due to visa problems. At the time, Winehouse set the record for the most GRAMMYs won by a female British artist in a single year, though that record has since been broken by Adele , who won six in 2011.

Written in the wake of a break-up with on-again, off-again flame Blake Fielder-Civil, Black To Black explores heartbreak, grief, and infidelity, as well as substance abuse, isolation, and various traumas. Following her death in 2011, Back To Black became Winehouse’s most enduring legacy. It remains a revealingly soulful message in a bottle, floating forever on the waves. 

With the May 17 release of Sam Taylor-Johnson’s new ( and questionably crafted ) Winehouse biopic, also titled Back To Black , it's the perfect time to reflect on the album that not only charmed listeners but changed the state of a lot of popular music over the course of just 11 songs. Here are five ways that Back To Black influenced music today.

She Heralded The Arrival Of The Alt Pop Star

When Amy Winehouse hit the stage, people remarked on her big voice. She had classic, old-time torch singer pipes, like Sarah Vaughn or Etta Jones , capable of belting out odes to lost love, unrequited dreams, and crushing breakups. And while those types of singers had been around before Winehouse, they didn’t always get the chance — or grace required — to make their kind of music, with labels and producers often seeking work that was more poppy, hook-packed, or modern.

The success of Back To Black changed that, with artists like Duffy , Adele , and even Lady Gaga drawing more eyes in the wake of Winehouse’s overwhelming success. Both Duffy and Adele released their debut projects in 2007, the year after Back To Black , bringing their big, British sound to the masses. Amy Winehouse's look and sound showed other aspiring singers that they could be different and transgressive without losing appeal.

Before she signed to Interscope in 2007, "nobody knew who I was and I had no fans, no record label," Gaga told Rolling Stone in 2011 . "Everybody, when they met me, said I wasn’t pretty enough or that my voice was too low or strange. They had nowhere to put me. And then I saw [Amy Winehouse] in Rolling Stone and I saw her live. I just remember thinking ‘well, they found somewhere to put Amy…’" 

If an artist like Winehouse — who was making records and rocking styles that seemed far outside the norm — could break through, then who’s to say someone else as bold or brassy wouldn’t do just as well? 

It Encouraged Other Torch Singers In The New Millenium

Back To Black might have sounded fun, with swinging cuts about saying "no" to rehab and being bad news that could seem lighthearted to the casual listener. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s clear Winehouse is going through some real romantic tumult. 

Before Back To Black was released, Fielder-Civil had left Winehouse to get back together with an old girlfriend, and singer felt that she needed to create something good out of all those bad feelings. Songs like "Love Is A Losing Game" and "Tears Dry On Their Own" speak to her fragile emotional state during the making of the record, and to how much she missed Fielder-Civil. The two would later marry, though the couple divorced in 2009.

Today, young pop singers like Olivia Rodrigo , Taylor Swift , and Selena Gomez are lauded for their songs about breakups, boyfriends, and the emotional damage inflicted by callous lovers. While Winehouse certainly wasn’t the first to sing about a broken heart, she was undoubtedly one of the best.

It Created A Bit Of Ronsonmania

Though Mark Ronson was already a fairly successful artist and producer in his own right before he teamed with Winehouse to write and co-produce much of Back To Black, his cred was positively stratospheric after the album's release. Though portions of Back To Black were actually produced by Salaam Remi (who’d previously worked with Winehouse on Frank and who was reportedly working on a follow-up album with her at the time of her death), Ronson got the lion’s share of credit for the record’s sound — perhaps thanks to his his GRAMMY win for Best Pop Vocal Album. Winehouse would even go on to guest on his own Version record, which featured the singer's ever-popular cover of "Valerie."

In the years that followed, Ronson went on to not only produce and make his own funky, genre-bending records, but also to work with acts like Adele, ASAP Rocky , and Paul McCartney , all of whom seemingly wanted a little of the retro soul Ronson could bring. He got huge acclaim for the funk-pop boogie cut "Uptown Funk," which he wrote and released under his own name with help from Bruno Mars , and has pushed into film as well, writing and producing over-the-top tracks like A Star Is Born ’s "Shallow" and Barbie ’s "I’m Just Ken."  To date, he’s been nominated for 17 GRAMMY Awards, winning eight.

Ronson has always acknowledged Winehouse’s role in his success, as well, telling "BBC Breakfast" in 2010 , " I've always been really candid about saying that Amy is the reason I am on the map. If it wasn't for the success of Back To Black , no one would have cared too much about Version ."

Amy Showcased The Artist As An Individual

When the GRAMMY Museum hosted its "Beyond Black - The Style of Amy Winehouse" exhibit in 2020, Museum Curator and Director of Exhibitions Nicholas Vega called the singer's sartorial influence "undeniable." Whether it was her beehive, her bold eyeliner, or her fitted dresses, artists and fans had adopted elements of Winehouse’s Back To Black style into their own fashion repertoire. And though it’s the look we associate most with Winehouse, it was actually one she had truly developed while making the record, amping up her Frank -era low-slung jeans, tank tops, and polo shirts with darker eyeliner and much bigger hair, as well as flirty dresses, vibrant bras, and heels.

"Her stylist and friends were influential in helping her develop her look, but ultimately Amy took bits and pieces of trends and styles that she admired to create her own look," Vega told GRAMMY.com in 2020. While rock ‘n’ rollers have always leaned into genre-bending styles, Winehouse’s grit is notable in the pop world, where artists typically have a bit more of a sheen. These days, artists like Miley Cyrus , Billie Eillish , and Demi Lovato are willing to let their fans see a bit more of the grit — thanks, no doubt, to the doors Winehouse opened.

Winehouse also opened the door to the beauty salon and the tattoo studio, pushing boundaries with not just her 14 different vintage-inspired tattoos — which have become almost de rigeur these days in entertainment — but also with her signature beehive-like bouffant, which hadn’t really been seen on a popular artist since the ‘60s.It’s a frequent look for contemporary pop divas, popping up on artists like Ariana Grande , Lana Del Rey , and Dua Lipa .

The Dap-Kings Got The Flowers They Deserved

Six of Back To Black ’s 11 songs , including "Rehab," got their "retro" sound via backing from t he Dap-Kings , a Brooklyn-based soul act Ronson recruited for the project. 

While Winehouse’s lyrics were mostly laid down in London, the Dap-Kings did their parts in New York. Ronson told GRAMMY.com in 2023 that the Dap-Kings "brought ['Rehab'] to life," saying, "I felt like I was floating because I couldn’t believe anybody could still make that drum sound in 2006." Winehouse and the Dap-Kings met months later after the record was released, and recorded "Valerie." The band later backed Winehouse on her U.S. tour. 

Though the Dap-Kings were known in hip musical circles for their work with late-to-success soul sensation Sharon Jones , Back To Black ’s immense success buoyed the listening public’s interest in soul music and the Dap-Kings' own profile (not to mention that of their label, Daptone Records).

"Soul music never went away and soul lovers never went away, but they’re just kind of closeted because they didn’t think it was commercially viable," Dap-Kings guitarist Binky Griptite said in the book It Ain't Retro: Daptone Records & The 21st Century Soul Revolution . "Then, when Amy’s record hit, all the undercover soul fans are like, I’m free. And then that’s when everybody’s like, Oh, there’s money in it now."

The success of Back To Black also seems to have firmly cemented the Dap-Kings in Ronson’s Rolodex, with the group’s drummer Homer Steinweiss, multi-instrumentalist Leon Michaels, trumpeter Dave Guy , and guitarist/producer Tom Brenneck appearing on many of his projects; the Dap-Kings' horns got prominent placement in "Uptown Funk."

Amy Exposed The Darker Side Of Overwhelming Success

Four years after Winehouse died, a documentary about her life was released. Asif Kapadia’s Amy became an instant rock-doc classic, detailing not only Winehouse’s upbringing, but also her struggles with fame and addiction. It won 30 awards after release, including Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards and Best Music Film at the 58th GRAMMY Awards.

It also made a lot of people angry — not for how it portrayed Winehouse, but for how she was made to feel, whether by the British press or by people she considered close. The film documented Winehouse’s struggles with bulimia, self-harm, and depression, and left fans and artists alike feeling heartbroken all over again about the singer’s passing. 

The documentary also let fans in on what life was really like for Winehouse, and potentially for other artists in the public eye. British rapper Stormzy summed it up well in 2016 when he told i-D , "I saw the [documentary, Amy] – it got me flipping angry... [Amy’s story] struck a chord with me in the sense that, as a creative, it looks like on the outside, that it’s very ‘go studio, make a hit, go and perform it around the world, champagne in the club, loads of girls’. But the graft and the emotional strain of being a musician is very hard. No one ever sees that part." 

These days, perhaps because of Winehouse’s plight or documentaries like Amy , the music-loving population seems far more inclined to give their favorite singers a little grace, whether it’s advocating for the end of Britney Spears ’ conservatorship or sympathizing with Demi Lovato’s personal struggles. Even the biggest pop stars are still people, and Amy really drove that point home.

We Only Said Goodbye With Words: Remembering Amy Winehouse 10 Years Later

Image courtesy of the Recording Academy

GRAMMY Museum Announces Hip-Hop Block Party On June 6: What To Know About The Museum Takeover For Black Music Month

Inspired by the GRAMMY Museum's 'Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit,' this celebratory event ignites the Museum with an array of interdisciplinary arts and experiences. Get all the details here.

The 50th anniversary of hip-hop may have come and gone — but the celebration is far from over.

On June 6 , experience the potency of hip-hop culture like never before, at the GRAMMY Museum's Hip-Hop Block Party.

The event will take place on site at the GRAMMY Museum, located on 800 W Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

This follows in the footsteps of the GRAMMY Museum's ' Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit ,' — an expansive series of historical hip-hop eexhibit running until Sept. 24, 2024.

The GRAMMY Museum's Hip-Hop Block Party will introduce an exciting array of interdisciplinary arts and experiences, immersing new audiences in the power of hip-hop. This will include:

Dynamic dance showcases lead by Leslie "Big Lez" Segar and Richard "Swoop" Whitebear

A cutting-edge fashion show featuring Cross Colours and the Black Design Collective

A captivating Sight & Sound photo gallery presented by Alvin Allure & Entertain the Angels and Corentin Villemeur

Riveting live performances by UraelB, Nilla Allin, and Xian Bell, and vibes curated by DJ R-Tistic on the ones and twos

As such, every floor of the GRAMMY Museum will be activated, and transformed into a living canvas of artistic expression.

The Hip-Hop Block Party will celebrate and empower local artists and businesses, creating an unforgettable celebration of creativity, community and culture in celebration of Black Music Month. This event is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

So don't miss the block party on June 6, at the GRAMMY Museum — and keep checking GRAMMY.com for all things commemorating the enduring power of hip-hop!

GRAMMY.com's 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Coverage: A Recap

• 1 Explore The 2024 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inducted Recordings: Lauryn Hill, Guns N' Roses, De La Soul, Donna Summer & Many More
• 2 Dillon Francis & Diplo In Conversation: 5 Things We Learned From The GRAMMY Museum Event
• 3 Slash's New Blues Ball: How His Collaborations Album 'Orgy Of The Damned' Came Together
• 4 How Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black' Changed Pop Music Forever
• 5 GRAMMY Museum Announces Hip-Hop Block Party On June 6: What To Know About The Museum Takeover For Black Music Month

• Manage Account

75 Best Breakup Songs of All Time

From Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo to Alanis Morissette, check out the world's hardest-hitting heartbreak anthems here.

By Hannah Dailey

Hannah Dailey

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Breaking up is hard to do. When a relationship comes to a painful end, however, there is one bright side — you get to enjoy breakup songs with a newfound vigor.

It’s true: Grammy winners such as Taylor Swift , Olivia Rodrigo and  SZA just hit different once you’ve actually gone through the tender-hearted scenarios they so poignantly describe in their lyrics. Maybe you, too, have had an ex hang on to your old scarf because it smells like you, even after calling you up again just to break you like a promise. Or, maybe you had to watch as your partner left you for the older blonde girl they had previously told you not to worry about, possibly right before you passed your driver’s license test.

Or God forbid, maybe you’ve even been dumped by someone you uhh … had an intimate moment with at a theater, a la “You Oughta Know” (which is absolutely, without a doubt, 1,000% on this list). Hey, Billboard  doesn’t judge.

But just as not all breakups are sad, neither are all breakup songs. Just ask Lizzo, whose self-love, leave-his-behind, booty-shaking bangers will transform listeners from heartbroken to happily single and ready to mingle. Alternately, allow Beyoncé’s discography to remind you just how much you’re worth. Or better yet, take a cue from Ariana Grande and simply say to your ex, “Thank you, next.”

Whether you’re angry, relieved, wallowing in grief or gleefully moving on from your latest romantic split, allow Billboard ‘s 75 favorite breakup songs to ease you through the aftermath.

Dionne Warwick - "Walk On By"

Even when you feel like falling apart, Warwick’s timeless hit will help you keep it moving. Listen here .

Taylor Swift - "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

Rumor has it Ms. Swift wrote this song to spite a pop music-hating ex-boyfriend, even going so far as to deliberately pen a main hook that’s so contagious, you can’t get it out of your head no matter how hard you try. And if that was, in fact, the intention — congratulations to Taylor on a job well done.

(For the record, she told Billboard in 2012 that the song was inspired by an unwanted studio run-in with an ex’s friend. “He made some comment about how he heard how I was gonna get back together with my ex. And after he left I was talking to Max [Martin] and Shellback [the song’s co-writers and producers] and was like, ‘We are never ever getting back together!’ she said at the time. “And after that happened I just grabbed my guitar.”)

Selena Gomez - "Lose You to Love Me"

“Lose You to Love Me” is a stunning tribute to emerging from a breakup stronger than you were before. Written on Valentine’s Day in 2019, this track marked Selena Gomez’s first ever Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. Listen here .

Gracie Abrams - "I Miss You, I'm Sorry"

With her breakthrough track “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” paving the way, Gracie Abrams is steadily becoming the Gen Z queen of heartbreak songs. Listen here .

Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler - "You Were Good to Me"

It seems like most breakup songs focus on getting dumped, but Zucker and Cutler recognize how hard it can be to be the person who leaves on this devastating duet. Listen here .

Lady A - "Need You Now"

“Need You Now” takes place in the aftermath of a breakup, in that horrible transition period where the only person who can comfort you is the reason you’re sad in the first place. Listen here .

Joni Mitchell - "River"

Part Christmas song, part breakup song, full-on masterpiece. Listen here .

Lewis Capaldi - "Someone You Loved"

Lewis Capaldi’s pain seeped through every crack in his gut-wrenchingly raspy voice on this breakthrough single, which became the Scottish artist’s first ever Hot 100 No. 1. Even if it was about his grandmother , most listeners have applied the song to their ill-fated romances. Listen here .

Kanye West - "Love Lockdown"

Kanye’s dark period brought us this career curveball — a sharp left turn from the euphoria of  Graduation that changed the rap game forever. Aside from paving the way for Drake and Kid Cudi’s sensitive careers, Ye bared his soul and showed us how even the biggest egos can succumb to heartbreak. Listen here .

King Princess - "Talia"

One of five tracks on King Princess’ breakout project Make My Bed , “Talia” is the WLW heartache song to end all WLW heartache songs.

Neil Sedaka - "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"

The message and hook of this Sedaka classic are so straightforward that they’re reassuring — no matter how hairy and complicated a breakup is, we can all take comfort in the fact that splitting up is hard for everyone. Listen here .

Conan Gray - "Maniac"

Sometimes, relationships definitely do not end on good terms. If you’ve ever had an ex talk trash about you after you called it quits, this standout single on Conan Gray’s Kid Krow is the song for you. Listen here .

Etta James - "Stormy Weather"

James easily laid down the most piercing cover of this Great American Songbook staple. Listen here .

The 5th Dimension - "One Less Bell to Answer"

“One Less Bell to Answer” recognizes the specific pain of knowing you’re better off without someone, but still missing their presence. Listen here . 

Joji - "Glimpse Of Us"

“Glimpse Of Us” is a certifiably epic breakup song. Singing over stripped back piano about pining for your ex after moving on with someone else, Joji found his first ever Hot 100 top 10 hit in 2022 with this emotional rollercoaster of a ballad. Listen here .

A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - "Say Something"

“Say Something” is just as dramatic and grief-stricken as the worst breakups feel in the moment. Listen here .

Linda Ronstadt - "You’re No Good"

Ronstadt’s 1974 take on “You’re No Good” is easily the most famous cover of the song, hitting No. 1 on the Hot 100. It brilliantly calls out a rotten ex while also acknowledging that those in glass castles maybe shouldn’t be throwing stones. Listen here .

Harry Nilsson - "Without You"

Listening to this song, it’s hard not to envision an overwrought heartbreak scene in some B-movie. Cheese factor aside, the sound of Nilsson’s voice blasting through this Grammy-winning Badfinger cover is the sound of someone who literally “can’t live anymore.” Listen here .

Drake - "Marvins Room"

Drunk texting isn’t a good idea, even if you’re Drake. Listen here .

Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Debilitating epilepsy and his own infidelity were ruining Ian Curtis’ life when he wrote the harrowing words to “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” now seen as one of indie rock’s most lasting statements. The single was released three months after his suicide in March 1980 and its title was inscribed on his tombstone. Listen here .

Jeff Buckley- "Lover, You Should’ve Come Over"

Released in 1994 on Grace , the only album Buckley made before his premature death, “Lover” is a breathtaking postmortem on a relationship the rocker clearly hoped would get resurrected one day. Listen here .

Ariana Grande - "Thank U, Next"

Released just after Grande’s highly publicized breakup from  SNL ‘s Pete Davidson, “Thank U, Next” was as much of a cultural reset as any one song can be. It reimagined how one can look back on their past, failed relationships — with an appreciation for the lessons learned in place of bitterness — all while earning the pop star her first ever Hot 100 No. 1.

Mary J. Blige - "I’m Goin’ Down"

Blige’s 1994 cover of Rose Royce’s original gets increasingly heart-wrenching from start to finish, with the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul going from spiraling about her breakup to fully pleading with her ex to take her back. Listen here .

Jojo - "Leave (Get Out)"

“At 13, I didn’t even have my first kiss yet,” a 22-year-old Jojo told Billboard in 2013 . “What the f–k was I talking about? ‘Get out’? Get out of where — my playground?” She’s grown older and wiser, but her 2004 hit is still a breakup playlist essential. Listen here .

The All-American Rejects - "Gives You Hell"

If The All-American Rejects taught us anything, it’s that it can be okay to not  wish someone well. Where’s your picket fence, love? Listen here .

Harry Styles - "Falling"

A standout single from Styles’ sophomore album  Fine Line , “Falling” remains one of the boy band star’s most vulnerable songs to date.

Beyoncé - "Irreplaceable"

To the left, to the left. This 2006 Bey banger remains one of her most take-no-sh-t, give-no-f–ks songs ever — and that’s saying something. Listen here .

Carole King - "It's Too Late"

“There’ll be good times again for me and you/ But we just can’t stay together, don’t you feel it, too?/ Still I’m glad for what we had and how I once loved you.” Sad but hopeful, real and raw, King gives a masterclass on dealing with the end of a relationship with a healthy mindset. Listen here .

FKA Twigs - "Cellophane"

Pain. Listen here .

Frank Ocean - "Ivy"

Sometimes, it’s the right person at the wrong time. Frank Ocean explores a tale of young romance that was doomed from the start on “Ivy,” reminding us that no one ever really forgets their first love. Listen here .

Phoebe Bridgers - "Motion Sickness"

What happens when you finally start realizing your ex mistreated, manipulated and took advantage of you the whole relationship? As Phoebe Bridgers expertly puts it, “emotional motion sickness.” Listen here .

Roy Orbison - "Crying"

Orbison didn’t actually cry in the recording booth, but the way he runs through the titular word in this Hot 100 No. 2 hit from 1961 gives you all you need. Listen here .

Billie Eilish - "Happier Than Ever"

The whisper-soft first half of the title track to Eilish’s second studio album is definitely good, but the screaming, punk rock, unhindered catharsis, rip-your-ex’s-heart-out-and-spit-on-it second half? Greatness.

The Police - "Every Breath You Take"

Before it was sampled in Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ Biggie tribute “I’ll Be Missing You,” Andy Summers’ immortal guitar line soundtracked one of the ’80s biggest soft rock jams (both songs went No. 1 on the Hot 100). It’s a stirring tale of post break-up devotion… perhaps a little too much devotion, considering Sting admitted its undertones of control and surveillance. Listen here .

Patsy Cline - "I Fall to Pieces"

What’s more difficult, the actual breakup or the act of moving on? Patsy Cline makes a good case for the latter. Listen here .

The Airborne Toxic Event - "Sometime Around Midnight"

Of all the post-breakup songs on this list, this is the one you listen to when you just need to rage . Listen here .

Paramore - "All I Wanted"

When you would’ve done anything for a person and they still walked away? That’s a hurt only Paramore can remedy. Listen here .

Dinah Washington - "After You've Gone"

Dinah was one of countless singers to record this American Song Book classic, but her singular voice makes her version arguably the most comforting. Listen here .

Giveon - "Heartbreak Anniversary"

Cheers to everyone reminding you of them, no one else coming close to comparing, and not ever being able to just “get over it.”

Katy Perry - "The One That Got Away"

Lots of people dream about being someone’s “the one that got away,” but Katy Perry’s hit single (No. 3 on the Hot 100) of the same name reveals that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Listen here .

The Supremes - "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

Even in her early days with The Supremes, Diana Ross’ passion couldn’t be denied. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” is one of the most desperate, impassioned Motown songs you’ll hear, so it’s no surprise it grew with the times. After the Supremes took it to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1966, Vanilla Fudge’s psychedelic, sludgy cover took it to No. 6 in 1968; in 1987, Kim Wilde brought it back to the top of the Hot 100 with her version. Listen here .

Noah Kahan - "Stick Season"

Whether it’s been weeks, months or years, “Stick Season” is a requiem for everyone who’s still. Not. Over it. Listen here .

Justin Timberlake - "Cry Me A River"

The end of the Justin-Britney relationship coalesced in the start of the Justin-Timbaland connection, and we can’t argue with the results. Ice-cold sarcastic shade rolls off JT’s tongue over studio work from Timb that hints at the wonders of the years to come. Listen here .

Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"

Inspired by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps,” Kelly Clarkson’s anthemic breakup rocker hit No. 2 on the Hot 100. Listen here .

Bonnie Raitt - "I Can’t Make You Love Me"

Raitt paints a vivid picture of the final hours between two people on very different pages regarding their relationship. Side effects may include: lots and lots of tears. Listen here .

Lizzo - "Truth Hurts"

With her breakout , Hot 100-topping single, Lizzo reminded everyone that there’s nothing wrong with knowing you’re too good for someone.

Gotye feat. Kimbra - "Somebody That I Used to Know"

“Somebody That I Used to Know” had the world in a chokehold for weeks (eight weeks at No. 1, to be exact) not only because it’s incredibly catchy, but also because it addresses one of the rarely talked-about, hardest parts of any breakup: the shock of being lovers one moment and strangers the next. Listen here .

Usher - "Burn"

“Climax,” “U Don’t Have to Call” — there are plenty of Usher songs we could have picked for this list, but this  Confessions slow jam (which topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks) just hits the hardest. In the chorus, he pledges to let the breakup run its course, but by the next verse, wonders what it’ll take to get his shorty back. Love is confusing. Listen here .

Elvis Presley - "Always On My Mind"

In true Elvis fashion, the icon’s mournful croon made this song — previously recorded by Brenda Lee — a hit on Hot Country Songs, reaching No. 16 in 1972. Listen here .

Bruno Mars - "When I Was Your Man"

“When I Was Your Man” doubled as an apology letter to all the ladies who haven’t been treated right by their partners, as well as a warning call to all the men who don’t prioritize what’s most important. Thank you, Bruno Mars. Listen here .

Natalie Imbruglia - "Torn"

When being in a relationship makes you feel lonelier than if you were on your own, queue up this one from Natalie Imbruglia. She gets it. Listen here .

Fleetwood Mac - "Landslide"

“Landslide” is technically a Fleetwood Mac song, but all credit goes to Stevie Nicks’ stunning, soul-shaking lyricism about forging ahead in the face of utter heartbreak. Listen here .

Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive"

A “Since U Been Gone” for an earlier generation, “I Will Survive” was a women’s strength anthem for the disco era. Really though, this track would have been pure fire in any generation. Listen here .

Sinéad O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"

O’Connor scored her first and only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 — where she stayed for four weeks — with her haunting take on Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Listen here .

Carly Simon - "You're So Vain"

Who is this song about? Mick Jagger? Warren Beatty? Simon’s never told us for sure, but that’s probably helped this song’s legend grow. Who doesn’t know someone that could fit the “so vain” bill? Okay, maybe not the parts about the Learjet and the yacht. Listen here .

The 1975 - "Somebody Else"

Matty Healy hits you right where it hurts on this one. Not wanting to be with your ex, but not wanting them to be with anyone else either? Ouch. Listen here .

Leonard Cohen - "Hallelujah"

Mournful, sullen and devastating, Leonard Cohen’s world-famous lyrical masterpiece is one of the most-covered songs of all time. Listen here .

Toni Braxton - "Un-Break My Heart"

Toni’s timeless slab of emotion over a luscious R&B beat earned her 11 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996 and 1997.

Barbra Streisand - "The Way We Were"

This cinematic classic from The Way We Were starring Streisand and Robert Redford could be the national anthem for a country called “Right Person, Wrong Time.” Listen here .

Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"

Even if you’re not breaking up with another member of your internationally famous rock band, it’s easy to get behind “Go Your Own Way” — which conveniently doubles as a great running song (just ask Forrest Gump). Listen here .

Dolly Parton - "I Will Always Love You"

Two decades before Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard rendition brought it back into the spotlight (and to the top of the Hot 100), Dolly wrote and performed this sentimental standard about her professional split from Porter Wagoner, the country legend who discovered her (Parton later performed the song in the 1982 movie musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ). She’s well known for her sassy sense of humor, but Dolly’s got heart, too — and this song took her to the top of Hot Country Songs in 1974 and 1982. Listen here .

Olivia Rodrigo - "Drivers License"

Come on, you knew this song would be on here. Rodrigo’s debut single reigned the Hot 100 for eight weeks in 2021 thanks to its show-stopping bridge and all too relatable lyrics about still being in love with the person who dumped you for someone else.

Mariah Carey - "We Belong Together"

“We Belong Together” is one of Mariah Carey’s many, many Hot 100 No. 1s (19 to be exact), but with lyrics like “Who am I gon’ lean on when times get rough? / Who’s gon’ to talk to me ’til the sun comes up?,” few of them are as heartbreaking. Listen here .

Imogen Heap - "Hide and Seek"

Heap’s musical pinnacle feels like a fever dream, as do the most crushing breakups. Listen here .

The Beatles - "Yesterday"

Just after the love-at-first-sight giddiness of “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” The Beatles’  Help! (U.K. version) hits you with the heartbreak of “Yesterday.” Paul McCartney’s two-minute acoustic confession proves just how quickly emotions can shift, even on a track listing. Listen here .

*NSYNC - "Bye Bye Bye"

Ever need a song to get hyped before breaking it off with someone who doesn’t deserve you? *NSYNC will give you the courage to say bye, bye, bye. Listen here .

Adele - "Someone Like You"

Unlike many of the songs on this list, this one isn’t bitter, or even sarcastic. Adele’s anthem to taking the high road — despite the heartbreak it entails — is one of the truest ballads the 2010s have given us so far. Listen here .

Lorde - "Supercut"

The combined pain of saying goodbye to a relationship and reconciling yourself to the mistakes you made isn’t an easy thing to capture in just one song, but Lorde is no ordinary songwriter. Her sophomore album Melodrama  is filled with nuanced notes on rediscovering and reclaiming yourself after a breakup, from “Green Light” to “Liability” — but there’s just something special about “Supercut” that’s made it a time-tested fan favorite in particular. Listen here .

Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"

There had been plenty of breakup songs before Alanis, but few female artists in the mainstream really went there like she did here. Mr. Duplicity is still feeling the burn. Listen here .

Amy Winehouse - "Back To Black"

One of Winehouse’s most celebrated songs with frequent collaborator Mark Ronson, “Back To Black” was able to capture the specific, blackhole type of hurt that comes when you fall back to your vices to comfort you after a breakup. Listen here .

Whitney Houston - "I Have Nothing"

In addition to being one of Houston’s most stunning vocal performances, “I Have Nothing” is the epitome of continuing to fight for something long after it’s already over.

SZA - "Kill Bill"

SZA’s first No. 2 single, “Kill Bill,” is the standout single from her critically-acclaimed album SOS (which, for the record, is chock-full of excellent breakup songs). It finds the R&B/pop star shamelessly living out a fantasy many of us have had at some point, if we’re honest with ourselves: murdering an ex in cold blood. Listen here .

"I Want You Back" - The Jackson 5

“I Want You Back” is one of The Jackson 5’s first and biggest hits. It’s a lighthearted reminder that sometimes, we’re the ones in the wrong when it comes to a breakup — and any heartache can be soothed with a little dancing. Listen here .

Robyn - "Dancing On My Own"

There’s a reason this track has stuck with people so profoundly ever since it came out in 2010. Few other artists have so masterfully blended pulsing dance club beats with the total, utter devastation of watching someone you still love move on to someone else. Listen here .

Taylor Swift - "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)"

It truly takes an incredibly talented musician to score two songs on this list — and a duly talented heartbreaker to be the subject. Swift’s 2022 ten-minute track served as an extended version of the original one she released in 2012, meaning five minutes’ worth of searing, specific details of her and her ex’s crash-and-burn relationship were brought to light 10 years after the fact. It’s a lyrical masterpiece that scored the pop star the record for the longest song to go No. 1 on the Hot 100.

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Music | This Bay Area band was ‘yacht rock’ way before…

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Music | two-alarm fire breaks out at tesla plant in fremont, music | this bay area band was ‘yacht rock’ way before ‘yacht rock’ was a thing, pablo cruise brings its soft-rock hits to guild theatre.

For Bay Area band Pablo Cruise , however, the connection to the genre has been longer — and more literal — than for most.

“Our headquarters was an 82-foot schooner in the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon,” says Cory Lerios, who co-founded Pablo Cruise in 1973. “So, we were definitely yacht rockers back before yacht rock was a term.”

From that base, the band has delivered some defining gems in what is now known as the yacht rock genre, which celebrates the smooth a.m. radio staples of the ‘70s and early ‘80s delivered by such artists as Toto, Nicolette Larson, Poco and the Little River Band.

Most notably, Pablo Cruise was responsible for the meticulously produced soft-rock numbers “Whatcha Gonna Do?” and “Love Will Find a Way,” both of which were Top 10 hits and rank as first-tier yacht rock staples.

Those songs — which sound as good today as they did when they first came out in the late ‘70s — are two of the biggest reasons why fans will turn out to see Pablo Cruise when it performs May 9 at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are $49, guildtheatre.com . The group also plays May 8 at the Felton Music Hall and May 10 at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, pablocruise.com .

The Menlo Park show will be a homecoming for Lerios, who now lives in Thousands Oaks but was born in San Francisco and grew up in nearby Palo Alto. It was on the Peninsula where he began playing piano and joined his first bands in junior high school.

“I never really thought I would make a career of it,” Lerios says of playing music. “But one thing led to another and I kind of never looked back.”

He’d find his first taste of real success as a member of Stoneground, a Concord-based rock act that released a number of albums on the Warner Bros. records label in the 1970s. After a few years, however, Lerios and two other Stoneground members — vocalist-guitarist David Jenkins and drummer Steve Price — would leave the fold and go on to form Pablo Cruise with the help of bassist Bud Cockrell (previously of the Bay Area act It’s a Beautiful Day).

One thing to note from that list of original band members is that none of them are, in fact, named Pablo Cruise. Neither are any other of the current or former members, for that matter. So, it’s probably a good time to pause and clear up the origin of the moniker, which Lerios says has certainly drawn plenty of questions over the years.

“The truth is that it was a nickname of a buddy of mine from Colombia, South America,” he says. “It was just a nickname I gave him — Pablo Cruise. He was a very bright guy, very charismatic. And I just called him Pablo Cruise.”

So, when it came time to name this new post-Stoneground outfit, Lerios remembered his ol’ pal’s nickname and thought it fit in with one of the trends of the era.

“It was kind of at that point where you had Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull — a lot of two names for these bands — and Pablo Cruise just had a great ring to it,” Lerios reckons.

Whatever they called themselves, these four musicians were bound to get discovered at some point — given that they were all great players and wrote memorable tunes. So, not surprisingly, it wasn’t all that long before A&M came knocking and Pablo Cruise was thrilled to sign with such a well-regarded record label.

“A&M was notable for sticking with a band,” Lerios says. “Today, labels barely sign bands. But they don’t support bands like they did a lot of back in the day. They supported tours. They supported the making of the record, the travel — all kinds of things that they don’t do anymore.”

The result was the band’s 1975 eponymous debut, which eeked its way into the Billboard 200 and began setting the foundation for the success that would later come. It didn’t produce any hit singles, but it did give listeners a wonderful 12½-minute instrumental number called “Ocean Breeze” that drew plenty of spins at album oriented radio (AOR) stations.

“If you want to check out some deep Pablo Cruise, you should listen to that — because it’s a phenomenal piece of music,” Lerios says. “And that (song) really got us going. Still, everywhere we play now, people ask to hear ‘Ocean Breeze,’ which is always nice to know that people have gone that deep into the repertoire.”

A second album, titled “Lifeline,” followed in 1976 and managed to hoist the band a bit further up the charts, but Pablo Cruise still lacked that hit to really take it to the next level.

All of that would change with the third album, 1977’s “A Place in the Sun,” although not overnight. In fact, the first single released from that album was “Atlanta June” and it didn’t live up to expectations. Oh, but the B-side was a catchy little number called “Whatcha Gonna Do?”

“(Radio stations) played ‘Atlanta June’ and it got some acclaim, but it didn’t really take off the way they’d hoped,” Lerios remembers. “So, somebody flipped it over and put on ‘Whatcha Gonna Do?’ and, all of sudden, it started to blow up.”

The song slowly climbed the charts, eventually breaking into the top 10. The group then scored a second hit with the album’s terrific title track.

“When it gets to that point, everything changes,” Lerios says. “The phones really start to ring. You are getting offers to be on TV shows. All of a sudden, it’s like you’ve arrived.”

The band quickly followed up that album with another winner, 1978’s “Worlds Away,” which produced three hits – including the slam-dunk single “Love Will Find a Way.”

Both albums, “A Place in the Sun” and “Worlds Away,” would be certified platinum.

That would be the zenith of the band’s career, although it did produce two more albums — 1979’s “Part of the Game” and 1981’s “Reflector” — which still did quite well on the charts. The same could not be said of the band’s last studio record, 1983’s “Out of Our Hands,” which failed to chart as listeners had moved on from Pablo Cruise-style soft rock to other styles of music.

“There was a certain instrumentation, a certain form of writing that was predominant back then,” Lerios says of the a.m. hits of the era. “Then, all of a sudden, like the Knack, Johnny Rotten and all these bands came in and punk rock kind of took over and just squashed soft rock.”

By the mid ‘80s, the band members parted ways.

“Success can change things and as we just evolved in our lives, Dave (Jenkins) and I weren’t hitting it anymore,” Lerios says. “We really weren’t writing a lot. And what we were writing, we didn’t really like – and nobody else seemed to like it either.

“I had other aspirations and I know Dave did. So, we split. We didn’t necessarily break up the band. We just went different directions.”

Lerios managed a really cool second act in Hollywood, scoring films and TV shows. In that realm, his credits include the 1993 Wesley Snipes action flick “Boiling Point,” the awesome 1991 horror epic “Child’s Play 3” and, most famously, “Baywatch.”

Jenkins also experienced a good deal of post-Pablo success, including spending a few years in the country group Southern Pacific and recording with Hawaiian vocalist Kapono Beamer.

About 20 years ago, Lerios and Jenkins decided to give Pablo Cruise another shot and they’ve been peddling the soft rock to eager crowds ever since. Yet, it’s not just the old-school fans who are showing up. Pablo Cruise — which now consists of Lerios, Jenkins, bassist Larry Antonino, drummer Sergio Gonzalez and vocalist Robbie Wyckoff — is also seeing a healthy contingent of younger listeners.

“One of my jokes is that ‘you are too young to be here,’” Lerios says. “Kids come up and say, ‘My parents played this music in the house all the time. I love it. Big fan.’

“You know, music — even though we try to compartmentalize it and try to give it a decade or a whatever – good music is good music.”

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10 Best Elton John Songs Of All Time As Music Icon Turns 77

S ir Elton John is the iconic greatest musician of all time. Popular for his music, vibrant fashion, and trademark glasses, he has revolutionized the music industry with his pop culture and music. 

He is not only the greatest musician but also a singer, pianist, and composer who started his solo career in 1967. He met ic collaborator Bernie Taupin and became best friends for over 50 years.  Elton's career took off in August 1970 when he performed at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, California. He's since earned 5 Grammys, 2 Academy Awards, ten number-one singles, eight number-one albums, and numerous other prestigious achievements.

The Grammy Award winner Elton and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin have crafted numerous hit songs over the years, making it difficult to choose a favorite. With 31 studio albums and 464 tracks released in his six-decade career, the selection is vast. We'll focus solely on his original compositions, excluding collaborations and covers. Some of Elton John 's standout tracks are.

10. I’m Still Standing (1983)

ALSO READ:   Why Tiffany Haddish Didn't Drink Alcohol at Elton John's Party? The Comedian Reveals to the Guests

I'm Still Standing is a timeless favorite. This upbeat pop song resonates with its charismatic vibe and uplifting message, often seen as an anthem for resilience in tough times. The iconic music video boosted its popularity, especially among younger American fans who were introduced to Elton John's music through MTV.

9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting (1973)

Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) is an energetic anthem with early rock and roll influences, featuring strong guitar riffs and rock vocals that always get the crowd going. Bernie Taupin aimed for a classic American rock and roll sound, adding his British upbringing to enrich the song's storytelling. It stands as one of Elton's most iconic and frequently performed tracks.

8. Madman Across The Water (1971)

This six-minute song gives a vibe similar to progressive rock, featuring Rick Wakeman on Organ. This track stands out as one of Sir Elton’s darker and more dramatic tracks with a chilling string arrangement that would suit a scene from Psycho. The song is set in a psychiatric hospital on visiting day and is sung in character by Elton John, who declares himself a madman in the opening verse. He delivers his lines with intensity, especially in the second verse, where he contrasts descriptions of insanity with mundane observations like You better get your coat, dear, it looks like rain.

7. Bennie And The Jets (1973)

The opening chords of this song feature one of the most recognizable piano arrangements ever. It hooks listeners with catchy melodies and intriguing lyrics that tell a story. Elton and Bernie aimed for a futuristic rock and roll vibe in its creation. Despite Elton's initial hesitation to release it as a single, Bennie and The Jets quickly climbed to number one and remains one of his most beloved tracks.

6. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road isn't just the title of Elton's acclaimed album; it's also the beloved title track. This emotional piano ballad, featuring impressive falsetto vocals, resonates with its message of returning to one's true self after losing sight of who you don't want to be. Drawing inspiration from The Wizard of Oz, the song received widespread praise from music critics and fans alike. As Elton embarks on his final tour, he concludes his shows with this poignant track, offering fans an emotional yet bittersweet farewell.

5. Rocket Man (1972)

Rocket Man has significantly influenced Elton John's career. The biopic featuring Taron Egerton, released in 2019, was titled Rocketman after this song. This title also became a nickname for Elton. The track, distinguished by space-like synthesized instrumentals, departed from his previous work. Its lyrics were inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story The Rocket Man, leading fans and analysts to interpret it as a metaphor for the isolation experienced by musicians like Elton John.

4. Tiny Dancer (1971)

Tiny Dancer initially faced challenges with its length, but it eventually became one of Elton John's most beloved hits. Starting with simple vocals and piano, it builds into a rich orchestral arrangement with impressive vocal performances. Its storytelling, musical tones, and catchy chorus made it a classic rock staple. Its use in the 2000 film Almost Famous further boosted its popularity, introducing it to a new generation of fans. Recently, its chorus was featured in a remixed song called Hold Me Closer, a collaboration between Elton John and Britney Spears, revitalizing its appeal.

3. Crocodile Rock (1972)

Crocodile Rock marked Elton's first U.S. number-one single. This upbeat pop-rock tune drew inspiration from the 50s and 60s, evoking nostalgia for listeners. Elton aimed to incorporate elements from his upbringing into this record, resulting in a captivating track with storytelling that quickly became a fan favorite. You can't help but dance and sing along whenever this song plays.

2. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (1974)

Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me is a beautifully crafted song with captivating instrumentals and strong vocals that build throughout. The combination of lyrics and music evokes sadness and empowerment by the end. While the solo version succeeded, a live recording featuring Elton John and George Michael became a massive hit.

1. Your Song (1970)

When one thinks of Elton John, Your Song immediately comes to mind. It's not just the song that launched his career, but is also considered one of the greatest songs ever written. Its simplicity, heartfelt lyrics, and beautiful melody make it a timeless love ballad. Over the years, audiences have embraced it and influenced other musicians. Many artists, including Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga, and Ewan McGregor in the movie Moulin Rouge!, have covered it. Your Song also began a long-lasting collaboration between Elton and Bernie. Even 50 years later, this song remains universally cherished, played, and performed.

Elton John is the iconic British singer and five-time Grammy Award winner. His music journey is filled with many top chartbuster songs that everyone still loves listening to. Even though he's retiring from live shows soon, his music and legacy will endure forever. 

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Apple Music celebrates the greatest records ever made with the launch of inaugural 100 Best Albums list

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Text of this article

May 13, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

A 10-day countdown kicks off today with the reveal of albums 100-91, featuring works from Solange; Tyler, The Creator; George Michael; and more Discover, share, and follow along as Apple Music journeys through the albums that shaped, inspired, and fundamentally changed music

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA  Apple Music today announced the release of its 100 Best Albums of all time, a celebratory list of the greatest records ever made, crafted by Apple Music’s team of experts alongside a select group of artists, including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon, and Nia Archives, as well as songwriters, producers, and industry professionals. The list is an editorial statement, fully independent of any streaming numbers on Apple Music — a love letter to the records that have shaped the world music lovers live and listen in.

Apple Music is bringing its 100 Best Albums to life with a countdown celebration beginning today, revealing 10 albums each day for the next 10 days, along with a brand-new 100 Best microsite, new and exclusive content, dedicated Apple Music Radio episodes, and so much more. The countdown will culminate on the final day with the reveal of Apple Music’s top 10 albums of all time during a broadcast radio special.

“100 Best brings together all the things that make Apple Music the ultimate service for music lovers — human curation at its peak, an appreciation for the art of storytelling, and unparalleled knowledge of music and an even deeper love for it,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s senior director of content and editorial. “We have been working on this for a very long time, and it’s something we are all incredibly proud of and excited to share with the world.”

“Putting this list together was a true labor of love, both in that it was incredibly difficult to do and in that we are all so passionate about it,” said Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1. “We were tasked with selecting the 100 best — that’s practically mission impossible. But as music fans, it was also amazing to really take a minute and sit and think about the music and albums and artists that we love so much in this context. If this list sparks more debate among fans outside of Apple Music and gets people talking passionately about the music they love, then we’ve done what we set out to do.”

The first 10 albums, revealed today, offer a glimpse into Apple Music’s unique approach with 100 Best. With seven of the 10 records hailing from the 21st century, two from the 90s, only one from the 70s, and various genres represented, the list spotlights contemporary artists like Tyler, The Creator; Robyn; Lorde; Travis Scott; Solange; Burial; and more who have helped define this century through their music and its influence on others.

100. Body Talk , Robyn 99. Hotel California, Eagles 98. ASTROWORLD, Travis Scott 97. Rage Against the Machine , Rage Against the Machine 96. Pure Heroine , Lorde 95 . Confessions , USHER 94. Untrue , Burial 93. A Seat at the Table , Solange 92. Flower Boy , Tyler, The Creator 91. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 , George Michael

“There are so many fun facts for our listeners to discover about these albums,” said Scott Plagenhoef, Apple Music’s global head of music programming. “For example, two of the records revealed today were promoted without the image of the artist, but for opposite reasons — Burial’s Untrue because the artist was still operating anonymously at the time, and George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 because the artist was actually retreating from fame.”

To accompany the list, today Apple Music also revealed a dedicated microsite that will update every day of the countdown, making it easy for listeners to follow along. Available now at 100best.music.apple.com , the new 100 Best microsite spotlights in-depth analysis of each album, archival interviews, and more, and makes it easy for fans to share their favorite albums with friends and on their social channels.

Explore records 100-91 of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com .

Fans will also be treated to a full 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits, where round-the-clock specials with Apple Music Radio hosts and daily specials at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET) will be broadcasted, plus exclusive content will drop every day on demand on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts.

The last 10 albums will be revealed on Wednesday, May 22, with a special roundtable discussion broadcasting globally on Apple Music that features guest artists Nile Rodgers and Maggie Rogers reflecting on the list alongside Apple Music’s own Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden. Lowe will also curate a special mashup-style DJ mix featuring songs from all 100 Best Albums.

Apple Music will keep the momentum going after the countdown ends with an additional week of 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits.

All 100 Best Albums recipients will be given an award comprised of blasted anodized aluminum, sourced entirely from recycled Apple products, in a unique polished PVD gold. The design on the back of the award takes its cues from a vinyl LP record and is inscribed with the artist’s name, the album title, and the album’s year of release.

Explore Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com and check back daily to discover the full list. Get exclusive content by following @AppleMusic on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X.

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