best yacht rock cover bands

AMERICA’S FAVORITE YACHT ROCK BAND!™

Winner – 2023 best of las vegas – tribute act – las vegas review journal, 2023 best tribute act – vegas411, 2021 wami – best tribute artist 2019 wami – new artist of the year.

Imagine that it’s 1981 and you’re cruising the Atlantic shores of the Hamptons with your friends. Bikinis are fluorescent, polo collars are popped, and boat shoes are rocked sockless. In the background, your booming sound system is playing the soft-rock sounds of Olivia Newton-John, Toto, Kenny Loggins, The Carpenters, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Christopher Cross, and Air Supply.

The Docksiders are made up of music industry veterans – led by 3-time Grammy™ nominee, Kevin Sucher. Their unique tribute act of your favorite “soft rock” songs of the 70s and 80s – now defined as Yacht Rock – have been entertaining thousands of people for years and the revival of this genre and audiences are only getting bigger.

The Docksiders just completed a 50+ show run at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas… and now Headline at Notoriety Live on Fremont St.

Show stopping hit song after hit song, costume changes, and production, is only topped by their world-class performance.

Take some time to discover our many videos on our  YouTube Channel  and stop by our  Facebook page  for additional entertaining content!

Keep it SMOOTH friends – Thanks for stopping by our website!

“GET ON THE BOAT!!!! The Docksiders show defines Yacht Rock!! They are the total experience of this genre of music! So yes, get on the boat, have a beer, have some pizza, and party with the the greatest Yacht Rock Band in the country …The Docksiders!” – Tony Orlando – Legend

“in a short amount of time, this dazzling couple has made a meteor-sized impact on las vegas entertainment. they’re everywhere, doing everything, and winning hearts wherever they go. erin and kevin sucher truly are gifts to our city. please support their efforts, along with the amazing colleagues, band members, friends, and collaborators who join them in making our city a brighter and happier place.” – sam novak – vegas411, “i just wanted to drop a note to tell you how much i loved the show last night. i seriously wish i could book this band, like, every other week. you are so fun to listen to, and you sounded fantastic. really on point with vocals and musicianship. thanks so much for coming to omaha, i hope to get you back here at some point down the road” – erika hansen, booking manager – omaha performing arts center.

The SIZZLE Reel

See why everyone is saying the docksiders are america’s favorite yacht rock tribute act.

Get on the Boat

Check out our original single available on all streaming platforms..

Upcoming Shows

Booking Info & More

• Arts & Events
• Great Reads
• Atlanta 500
• Block by Block: Stories from the streets that connect us
• Women Making a Mark
• Pride Guide 2022
• Restaurant Reviews
• 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
• Best Barbecue
• 50 Best Tacos
• 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
• 50 Best Bars
• Best Breakfast
• The TOUR Championship Cocktail Contest
• Atlanta Magazine’s HOME Digital Editions
• Artists & Galleries
• Design Advice
• Design News
• Real Estate
• Neighborhoods
• Real Estate All-Stars
• Sponsored: Preferred HOME Partner
• Kitchens for a Cause
• Georgia Design Awards 2023
• School Guide
• Health & Wellness
• Top Doctors
• Top Dentists
• Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles
• Buckhead Guidebook
• Southbound Magazine
• Southbound Digital Editions
• Southbound Newsletter
• 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
• Hidden Georgia
• North Georgia Mountains
• Great Georgia Hikes
• Jekyll Island
• Georgia Travel Guide
• Gilmer: Ellijay Visitors Guide 2022
• Alabama Vacation Guide 2023
• Readers’ Choice
• Subscription Center
• Newsletters
• Digital Editions
• Custom Media
• Give Atlanta
• Internships
• Where to Find
• Georgia Design Awards 2024
• GrillFest 2024
• Whiskey Festival 2023
• Upcoming Events
• Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2022
• 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
• Atlanta Baby and Beyond
• Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2019
• DINES: A Taste of the City’s Best Restaurants
• 2019 Modern Style Showhome
• Best Burger Battle
• Pinewood Forest Idea Home
• 2018 Modern Style Showhouses
• Event Photos
• Issue Archive
• GaBiz Magazine
• Vote for the Best of Atlanta Reader’s Choice 2023

Confessions of a Cover Band: Yacht Rock Revue croons the hits you love to hate

"I never would've guessed I'd be doing what I'm doing now. The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face."

One night in 2012, a man in a Ronald Reagan mask paused beneath a stop sign in the Old Fourth Ward. Armed with a stencil and a can of white spray paint, he transformed the sign into a tribute to a 1978 hit by a mostly forgotten Canadian pop crooner named Gino Vannelli: “I just wanna STOP & tell you what I feel about you, babe.”

“I Just Wanna Stop” is the kind of song whose words most Americans over 40 know despite never consciously choosing to listen to it. After peaking at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, the tune never quite disappeared, becoming the aural equivalent of a recurring wart. The song found a second life—an endless one, as it turns out—in the musical nether region where the smooth, soft-rock hits of yesteryear remain in heavy rotation. Yes, that’s “Africa” you’re hearing in the dentist’s office. And “What a Fool Believes” in line at CVS. And that faint melody burrowing into your brain while on hold for the next available customer service agent? That’s “Steal Away.” Songs like these, disparaged by critics in their time then jokingly christened “yacht rock” by a comedy web series in 2005, are now the soundtrack to American tedium.

They’ve also become the source of a very good—if conflicted—living for the man who defaced the stop sign: Nick Niespodziani, the singer, guitarist, and de facto leader of the wildly popular cover band Yacht Rock Revue , which tours the country, headlines 1,000-plus capacity venues, and occasionally even plays with the original artists behind these hits.

At the time of the Vannelli vandalism, Yacht Rock Revue had begun to graduate from a local curiosity to a national one. Niespodziani’s sister videotaped the incident and posted it on YouTube. They then printed T-shirts of the sign and, when Vannelli performed at the Variety Playhouse, they got one to him.

On a gray Monday afternoon not long ago, Niespodziani was standing at this crossroads, looking at the sign, trying to explain the motivation behind the prank. “We had this idea, so we videotaped,” he said. “It was definitely guerrilla marketing.” Also, he was pretty drunk.

The episode seems to capture something ineffable about Yacht Rock Revue—part fandom, part joke, part self-promotion, each element infused with irony. When YRR takes the stage at Venkman’s, an Old Fourth Ward restaurant and nightclub co-owned by Niespodziani and bandmate Pete Olson, the band is fully in character, complete with gaudy shirts and sunglasses. They crack jokes about each other’s moms and theatrically highlight multi-instrumentalist Dave Freeman’s one-note triangle solo during America’s “You Can Do Magic.”

“This music isn’t easy to perform,” Olson says. Yacht rock songs tend to be filled with complicated chord changes. All seven band members are accomplished musicians, and Niespodziani, who trained for a spell as an opera singer, is a rangy vocalist, capable of gliding through the high notes in Hall & Oates’s “Rich Girl,” Michael McDonald’s gruff tenor in “I Keep Forgetting,” and Dolly Parton’s amiable twang in “Islands in the Stream,” without seeming to strain. He, Olson, and drummer Mark Cobb first played together in Y-O-U, a band they formed at Indiana University in the late ’90s. They found scant support for original music there, so they relocated to Atlanta in 2002.

Photograph by Mike Colletta

Y-O-U built a buzz in Atlanta, thanks to Niespodziani’s catchy, Beatles-esque songs and the group’s playful gimmicks. They performed, straight-faced, as Three Dog Stevens, a sad-sack trio playing what they called “sandal-rock” (a made-up, synth-heavy genre defined by its purveyors’ predilection for wearing sandals with socks); they covered Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” entirely on keyboards while dressed as the Royal Tenenbaums; they created a YouTube mockumentary series about a competitive jump-roping team. “Comedy has always been part of what we do,” Niespodziani said. “We were doing anything to get noticed because we felt we had good songs but just couldn’t break through with them.”

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth.’ He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

In 2008, Y-O-U was booked every Thursday at the 10 High club in Virginia-Highland. They’d stage “Rock Fights,” playing dueling sets of covers by artists like Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and INXS, or rejigger Y-O-U songs as soul rave-ups with horns and backing singers, or do a standup comedy night. Yacht Rock Revue was just another of these goofs: Put on silly clothes, and play songs everybody knows but nobody really likes—or claims not to. It was Cobb and guitarist Mark Dannells who came up with the idea. Dannells thought about calling it “A.M. Gold” but Cobb had recently seen a viral web series called Yacht Rock and felt like the term would resonate. Niespodziani went along because his friends needed his vocals. Two band members wore wigs to that first show, and, at one point, Niespodziani stripped off his shirt. People loved it. The club’s booker invited them back the next Thursday. The gig sold out. He asked them to do it every Thursday.

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth,’” Niespodziani recalls. “He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

Most cover bands are awful. But because they play well-known songs, they often secure regular, paying gigs that bands playing original music can’t. Even for the good ones, there’s a ceiling. Few ever perform further than 20 miles from wherever they played their first gig. What’s more, performing other people’s music for a living carries a degree of shame. Cobb has heard the mutterings about Yacht Rock Revue: “Why are these guys playing covers? They could write their own songs. They don’t need to hide behind a gimmick.”

Most of the guys in Yacht Rock Revue—which also includes bassist/vocalist Greg Lee and keyboardist/vocalist Mark Bencuya—had already spent half a lifetime dragging gear into dank basement bars to play for a few bucks and even fewer people. They did this in an era when the music business was cratering. The rise of the internet taught a generation of consumers that music is free, devaluing the dream to which musicians dedicate their lives.

When Yacht Rock Revue started in 2008, Dannells was nearly 40. “It’s not like the world is beating down the door of 40-year-old rock stars,” he says. Today, Yacht Rock is a business, owing its success partially to the corners of the business that haven’t collapsed: live music and merchandising. Besides their public shows, Yacht Rock Revue plays a steady stream of well-paying corporate gigs. They also sell lots of captain’s hats, T-shirts, and other swag. The success of the franchise means it’s been more than five years since any of them had a day job. Niespodziani and Olson created a company, Please Rock , that provides the bandmembers and their families with health insurance, 401Ks, and all the other trappings of comfortable, upper-middle-class stability few musicians ever achieve. All this grants bandmembers some real creative freedoms. “I just released a whole record of orchestral music,” Dannells says. “I don’t care if it sells. I just do it for enjoyment.”

Niespodziani shuttered Y-O-U years ago but still writes elegant power-pop songs for his other band, Indianapolis Jones . But the difference between his two bands’ profiles is stark. Troy Bieser, who has been working on a documentary about Yacht Rock Revue, says he’s seen this in the juxtaposition of the footage he’s compiled. “I’ve seen Nick going through the journey of being thankful for the success but it also feeling ill-fitting,” Bieser says. “That existential dilemma has followed him.”

Niespodziani knows whenever Yacht Rock plays anywhere, that’s a slot a band like Indianapolis Jones can’t get. “We’re a big part of the problem,” he says. As a 39-year-old father of one, who’s worked hard to get what he has, he isn’t about to give it up, but he’s also honest about the compromises he’s made and doesn’t hide from the question that is a natural byproduct of his own success: When a joke becomes your life, how do you keep your life from becoming a joke?

“I never would’ve guessed I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” he says. “The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face and leave me for dead.”

Yacht rock was mostly made in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but the genre wasn’t named until 2005 when JD Ryznar, a writer and actor, created the Yacht Rock web series with a few friends. The video shorts imagined the origins of songs like the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” and Steely Dan’s “FM.” The music, Ryznar says, was well-crafted, like a yacht, and recurring nautical imagery in songs like Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” or on Loggins and Messina’s album Full Sail made the term fit. According to Ryznar, true yacht rock has jazz and R&B influences, is usually produced in California, and frequently involves a rotating group of interconnected studio musicians. The term was never intended to be a pejorative—“we never thought it was silly music,” Ryznar says—but the web series is most definitely comedy, and feelings about the music itself tend to be buried under layers of hipster irony, warm nostalgia, and veiled contempt. Yacht rock songs are finely constructed: They’ve got indelible pop hooks, but they’re decidedly professional, not ragged and cool like punk or early hip-hop, which were canonized among the music of that era.

For the first Yacht Rock Revue gig, much of the set list came from a compilation CD that Cobb had burned titled The Dentist’s Office Mix. It included songs like Player’s “Baby Come Back,” Ambrosia’s “The Biggest Part of Me,” and Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” “I’d put it on at parties and just see what the reactions would be,” Cobb says. “It was a weird, guilty pleasure.”

Niespodziani’s initial feelings about the music were uncomplicated. “I wasn’t a fan,” he says. “I was really into music that made people feel something, that had some grit and humanity to it. The ethos I thought was important in rock ’n’ roll was rebellious fun crossed with a heart-on-your-sleeve kind of thing. Yacht rock doesn’t do any of that. It doesn’t rebel.” He found a lot of yacht rock to be technical, clinical, and sterile. “Sophisticated for the sake of being sophisticated.”

Onstage, Niespodziani is the picture of unapproachable retro cool. Tall, with shaggy hair and an angular face, he hides behind large, dark sunglasses and frequently surrenders a thin half-smile. In other words, he personifies the classic, arrogant, coked-up, late-’70s rock frontman. In person, he gives off nearly the opposite impression. Over coffee, he’s thoughtful, earnest, and self-deprecating. His sharp facial features are accentuated by wide-lensed prescription glasses, and, having traded the polyester shirts he favors onstage for a camouflage green hoodie, the vibe Niespodziani exudes is hardcore music geek. Olson, who has known Niespodziani since they were in fourth grade in Columbus, Indiana, says when they met, “Nick was the nerdy kid who was good at math and jump-roping.”

Photograph by Emily Butler

Yacht Rock Revue, for Niespodziani, is a part he plays: “I’m almost more an actor than a musician.” He and his bandmates spend hours prowling vintage stores looking for the retro leisure wear that they don onstage—and then a not inconsiderable amount of money getting those old clothes tailored to fit. “It’s a war of attrition,” he says. “You find something that might work, and then it’s itchy or it smells or holes develop because the shirt is older than I am. You have to be shopping at all times.” They once did a gig in street clothes, but it felt wrong. “Polyester,” he says, “is our armor.”

Sometimes that armor hasn’t been enough for Niespodziani. During the band’s first few years, they played weekly at the 10 High. “I would drink a lot and almost sabotage myself, sometimes onstage, and make fun of it,” he says. “People would ask me about the band, and I’d talk down about it and act like I was too cool. I didn’t lash out at people, but it was strange to get well-known for something that didn’t make me feel good about myself. I’d get drunk onstage to deal with it.”

His bandmates certainly noticed, but, for the most part, they let their friend work through it. “He’s been the moodiest about it,” Cobb says. “He just hates Rupert Holmes’s ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song).’ Hates it. But he knows it goes over well.” So when Niespodziani’s got to play it, he’ll often deadpan an introduction comparing Holmes to da Vinci and Picasso. “By talking about how great it is, it helps me shed that song’s terribleness.”

Niespodziani believes the ironic distance he puts between the guy he is onstage and the guy drinking coffee at Ponce City Market is fundamental to the band’s success. “Because we thought—or at least I thought—I was too cool to be doing this, everything has keyed off what the audience reacts to, whether it’s the clothes we wear, the sidestep dance we do, whatever. The audience has been the head of the snake. We’ve just been following it.” It helps that with more than 500 songs in their repertoire, the band doesn ’ t burn out too badly on any tune. “The only song we have to play is ‘Africa.’” The 1982 hit by Toto, by a band made up of talented but largely anonymous studio musicians, has become something of an Internet meme itself, with multiple think pieces devoted to untangling its allure. “Part of it may be the audacity of the synthesizer sound,” Niespodziani says. “They’re just so cheesy. The chords are fairly complex and pretty unexpected. The way it goes to the minor key in the chorus is kind of a cognitive disconnect. And when you listen to the words, it’s not really about anything. Maybe that’s why it’s so quintessentially yacht rock. It’s not so much what the words are saying, it’s how they make you feel, this combination of pure joy crossed with reminiscing.”

Despite his ambivalence about the music, Niespodziani is first among equals within the band. He sings lead on more songs than anyone else, and it’s his judgment they trust when adding songs to their catalog. He has a system: “Generally, the more a song annoys me, the more likely it makes sorority girls want to eat each other’s brains. Also, almost every song would be an encore for the band we’re covering. So, those are the basics: Does it annoy me? Are girls going to like it? Would it be an encore for the band we’re covering?”

“I’m almost more an actor than a musician.”

Others in the band are more unabashed about the music. “I’ve always loved all this stuff,” says Lee, the bassist. “You have to love it before you can play with it in that comedy sense and do it right.” This ability to walk that line between having fun with the music and making fun of the music has won over many of the original artists. When the band first reached out to guys like Dupree, Gary Wright (“Dream Weaver”), and Player’s Peter Beckett, some artists disdained the term “yacht rock” and feared being treated as a joke. Dupree was an early convert and evangelized about the band to his peers, touting their musicianship and enthusiasm. He says those who eventually performed with Yacht Rock Revue were “staggered that they were playing in front of 4,000 people who knew every word to their songs.”

The genre’s rise as a cultural touchstone—Jimmy Fallon has been a big booster, inviting Dupree, Cross, McDonald, and others to perform on TV, and there’s now a SiriusXM station devoted to it—has benefited these artists. Their Spotify and YouTube streaming numbers have risen noticeably. “It’s made a big impact financially,” Dupree says. “Even the skeptics have seen the power of it.”

For a while, the band had a bit of a good-natured Twitter beef with the creators of the Yacht Rock web series. Ryznar admits he initially felt like the band had hijacked his idea, but now his only real gripe is Yacht Rock Revue’s liberal definition of yacht rock. “Half their set is incredible yacht rock,” Ryznar says. “The other half, they play way too much Eagles, America, and Fleetwood Mac. Those aren’t yacht rock bands.”

The band makes no apologies. As Niespodziani puts it, “Yacht rock is what we say it is now.” That’s not just bravado. Yacht Rock Revue trademarked the term “yacht rock” for live performances, so other acts can’t use it without permission. The maneuver helped snuff out competition from other cover bands but occasionally puts them in conflict with some of the genre’s originators. When Cross’s manager tried to assemble a “Yacht Rock” tour featuring Cross, Orleans, and Firefall, it ran afoul of the trademark.

“We said, ‘If you want to call it Yacht Rock, we’ve got to be the [backing] band,’” Olson says. That compromise collapsed when Cross’s manager “wanted a piece of the trademark and of all our earnings over three years.” Yacht Rock Revue sent a cease-and-desist letter instead.

The band’s set list is anchored in the classic late ’70s, early ’80s yacht-rock era but can stretch to include songs as old as the late ’60s or as recent as the early ’90s. Of course, there’s a balance to be struck: If they go too far afield, they risk becoming just another cover band, but there are other considerations to take into account, too. As Cobb explains, “Nothing about Whitney Houston is in the genre, but when we play ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ the chicks go crazy, everybody orders another round, the bar sells out of Tito’s and Red Bull, and they’re like, ‘When can you come back? You broke alcohol records.’”

The band’s audiences have evolved over time. The earliest shows were heavy on hipsters and fellow musicians. Then, those fans brought their parents. At a Buckhead Theatre gig in March, the crowd leaned toward balding guys in button-down shirts and platinum-blond women wearing expensive-looking jewelry. Niespodziani once called yacht rock “the music of the overprivileged,” which was a joke, but also not. Getting older, wealthier fans out to shows is an impressive accomplishment most artists would envy, but it has changed something fundamental about Yacht Rock’s appeal. “When we started, it was people elbowing each other, laughing at this music,” Niespodziani says. “Now, there’s no irony.”

On a night off during a Vegas stand in 2015, the entire band went to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band perform at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino. Starr began doing these tours in 1989, fronting a band of aging rockers like Gary Wright, Steve Lukather (Toto), and Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), whose names and faces you might not recognize but whose songs you certainly would. Just past the midway point in the show at the Pearl, Lukather stepped to the mic, and Starr began beating out a familiar rhythm on the drums. As Lukather picked out the first few notes on the guitar and the synths pumped out the insistent melody, the song was instantly recognizable: “Africa.” In the theater balcony, Cobb recalls looking across at Niespodziani and seeing something change in his friend. “I just watched Nick’s face and, all of a sudden, it was as if this weight lifted off him.”

The Beatles had always been Niespodziani’s favorite band. “Now, I’m watching Ringo Starr, and he has to play fucking ‘Africa’ every night, too,” Niespodziani says. “He was in the Beatles! That was a life-changing moment for me.” Starr and his band were touching many of the same nerves in the audience at the Pearl Theater that Yacht Rock Revue touches all the time. “When we started Yacht Rock, I didn’t like the music we were playing. I didn’t like myself for being in a cover band. I had some dark times. It’s been a journey for me to get okay with it. That was a pretty key moment. Once you get to a certain point in the music business, everybody’s hustling. I’m not going to look down my nose at anybody for doing anything that makes it possible to feed their family by singing songs.”

Seeing Starr go yacht rock was a significant step that’s made enjoying Yacht Rock Revue’s triumphs a little easier. For years, Olson and Niespodziani waited for interest in yacht rock—and their band—to fade. Opening Venkman’s was a hedge against that. But Yacht Rock Revue’s stock continues to rise. Their touring business has grown 375 percent since 2014. “It’s not a fad,” Niespodziani says. “This is going to be our biggest year by far.” They play increasingly larger venues and have recently started booking dates overseas, including this summer in London.

The question is, where else can they take this, literally and figuratively? Back in 2013, the band quietly released a five-song EP: four original songs and a cover of—what else?—“Africa.” They used to occasionally drop an original tune into their shows, sometimes announcing it as a “Hall & Oates B-side.” The crowds were amenable, kind of. “It’s hard when they know every word to every song,” Niespodziani says. “They don’t come for discovery; they come for familiarity.” That’s a truism any band who has ever had a hit knows all too well. The essential appeal of Yacht Rock Revue—and yacht rock—is a combination of nostalgia and escape, a yearning for the simpler, easier time these songs evoke. Yet Niespodziani has been wondering lately if it’s possible to pivot fans to his own songs, either with Yacht Rock Revue or Indianapolis Jones.

“That’s still my dream,” he says, “to have one song that matters to somebody the way ‘Steal Away’ matters to people. No matter what else I do in life, if I don’t ever get over that bar, part of me will feel like I failed at the one thing I wanted. I don’t know if I can ever let go of that. I don’t know if I’m ready to face that darkness.”

In 2013, during a commencement speech at Syracuse University, the author George Saunders told graduates, “Success is like a mountain that keeps growing as you hike up it.” Niespodziani brought this quote up to me while we were having coffee. He knows his life is nothing to complain about. He lives a rarefied existence where he gets paid a lot of money to play music. But clearly, the mountain grows in front of him, and the hike up isn’t always easy. He’s still prone to self-deprecating asides about his band, he still kinda envies the Robbie Duprees of the world—but, hey, he doesn’t need to get drunk onstage anymore, and he doesn’t lose sleep wondering if he’s a force for good or evil in the world. That stop sign at the crossroads in the Old Fourth Ward isn’t an omen or a cautionary tale. It’s simply a funny story that makes people smile. He’s just working on becoming one of them.

“The way I really made peace with it is, it occurred to me that everywhere we went, everyone was so happy to see me,” he says. “These people, it’s the highlight of their week to come sing along with these tunes. If your job is making people happy, that’s a pretty good calling.” He leans back in his chair and smiles. “My job is to make it okay for everybody else to have fun. That’s kind of cool.” He gets quiet for a moment and shrugs.

This article appears in our  July 2018 issue .

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

The accidental success of Yacht Rock Revue

Newsletters.

Most recent

The Dining Diva: Christiane Lauterbach dishes on her 40 years as Atlanta magazine’s dining critic

Kevin Maxey’s new Italian restaurant, Pendolino, opens near Chastain Park

Well Served: Chef Brody Olive on oysters and a favorite sailboat outing

Great reads.

The ancestors of Nettie Washington Douglass still have stories to teach us. She just hopes we are ready to listen.

The Fox Brothers redefined Atlanta barbecue—and it all started with a humble backyard cookout

• Business Forum
• Privacy and Cookies Policy
• Terms of Use
• General Contest Rules

• facebook-rs

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.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

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.

Related Stories

Yacht rock babylon, house republicans endorse national abortion ban.

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.

Maroon 5, Lil Uzi Vert, Keith Urban Lead Sprawling Summerfest 2024 Lineup

• Wisconsin Weekends
• By Jon Blistein

Dave Grohl Almost Dedicated a Doja Cat Song to Josh Homme, But Decided to Write Him One Instead 

• Even Better
• By Larisha Paul

Gary Clark Jr. is Way Beyond the Blues on 'JPEGRAW'

• ALBUM REVIEW
• By Joe Gross

Remi Wolf Grooves Through L.A. With Trumpets and Mac DeMarco in 'Cinderella' Video

• Summertime Funk

Radiohead Bassist Colin Greenwood Announces Photo Book 'How to Disappear'

• No Surprises
• By Angie Martoccio

Most Popular

Over 1,000 jewish creatives and professionals have now denounced jonathan glazer’s 'zone of interest' oscars speech in open letter (exclusive), bill maher fires caa after oscar party snub (exclusive), rose hanbury just broke her silence on the prince william affair rumors, kobe bryant's parents face backlash after putting championship ring on the auction block, you might also like, ‘ncis’ prequel series ‘origins’ casts kyle schmid as mike franks, it’s impossible to get your hands on skims’ sculpting maxi dress that flatters any figure — but the bestseller is on sale at nordstrom right now, this folding treadmill is 20% off for amazon’s big spring sale, ‘do not expect too much from the end of the world’ review: radu jude’s marvelous satire skewers a range of modern absurdities , phillies join comcast spectacor in philly sports district revamp.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Angie Greaves 4pm - 7pm

Now Playing

Mrs. Robinson Simon & Garfunkel

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.

• The 40 greatest disco songs ever, ranked
• The 10 greatest and smoothest ever sax solos, ranked

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.

• The Story of... 'Baker Street'

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'!

More Song Lists

See more More Song Lists

A-Ha's 10 best songs ever, ranked

Shania twain's 10 best songs ever, ranked, the 100 greatest movie songs of all time, ranked, the greatest oscars music performances of all time, ranked, mother's day: 10 of the greatest and emotional songs about mums, more features.

See more More Features

Amy Winehouse biopic 'Back to Black': Release date, cast, soundtrack and more revealed

Amy Winehouse

Next James Bond odds: Who is the favourite actor to replace Daniel Craig?

When barry gibb invited his son and maurice's daughter on stage for emotional revival of 'stayin' alive', when celine dion paid emotional tribute to the bee gees with poignant rendition of 'immortality'.

Celine Dion

When Shania Twain wowed on her TV debut as a plucky 14-year old

Shania Twain

Smooth Playlists

Smooth's all time top 500, smooth soul, smooth country hot hits, smooth chill concentration, smooth podcast picks, they don't teach this at school with myleene klass, take that: this life, runpod with jenni falconer, the news agents.

The Ultimate Yacht Rock Experience

Now Playing in Chicago and Beyond

Follow. Share. Listen.

Chi-ILL At The Beach

Trop rock music fest, august 2 - 4, 2024, upcoming shows.

Saturday, February, 10, 2024 at Matrix Club (The Valentine's Day Show)  at 808 Route 59 in Naperville, IL

Start time @7:00pm to 11:00pm

Saturday, February, 17, 2024 at Evenflow Bar in Geneva, IL

Start time @9:00pm to 12:00am

Friday, March 15, 2024 at Johnny Cabs in Burr Ridge, IL

Start time @7:30pm to 11:00pm

Friday, May 24, 2024 for the Spring Fling in Westmont at Ty Warner Park

Start time @7:00pm to 9:00pm

Friday, June 7, 2024 for a Private Event at the Saddle Club in Chicago, IL

Start time @6:30pm to 9:30pm

Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at the Morton Arboretum

Start time @6:30pm to 8:00pm

Friday, June 28, 2024 for the Winfield Concert Series

Start time @7:00pm to 8:30pm

Friday, July 5, 2024 for the Bartlett 4th of July Festival

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at the Clarendon Hills Concert in the Street on Prospect Ave

Sunday, July 21, 2024 for the Antioch Concert Series

Start time @2:00pm to 5:00pm

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 for the Bensenville Concert Series

Thursday, July 25, 2024 for the Carol Stream Concert Series

Thursday, August 1, 2024 for the Oak Brook, IL Concert Series

Start time @6:30pm to 8:30pm

Saturday, August 3, 2024 at the Parrot Head Summer Chill in Zion, IL

Private Event

Saturday, August 24, 2024 at St. Peter & Paul Fest in Naperville, IL

Start time @ 5:30pm to 7:30pm

August 30, 2024 at The Taste of Melrose Park, IL

Start time @ 5:30pm to 7:00pm- Main Stage

https://www.facebook.com/events/1015183875731997/?ref=newsfeed

Facebook Social Network

httpswww.facebook.com/events/1015183875731997/?ref=newsfeed

Facebook Social Networ

Find out more

Anchors Away was founded in 2018 as a passion project of founder/band leader and percussionist Jim Pallucci. Jimmy grew up hearing all of this music on the radio and it made a lasting impression. It inspired not only his growth as a musician, but his desire to bring the live performance of these songs to audiences who share his fond and lasting memories of this golden era of popular music. 

Knowing that this style can be the most technically challenging of the pop genre, Jimmy set out to recruit some of Chicagoland’s finest and most experienced musicians. Today’s lineup represents the culmination of Jimmy’s efforts to bring the best yacht rock experience to the music stages and venues of the Midwest. Anchors Away uses no “tracks” or pre-recorded music of any kind. What you hear is real music created in real time by real musicians. Every show is live, without a net! 

With only a couple of years’ worth of live performances (obviously hindered by the shutdowns of 2020), Anchors Away is rapidly gathering momentum, and emerging as the premier Yacht Rock band in Illinois. 

So, what is Yacht Rock you ask? 

The general online consensus sums it up like this: 

Yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast sound, or adult-oriented rock) is a broad music style and aesthetic commonly associated with soft rock; one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Drawing on sources such as smooth soul, smooth jazz, R&B, and disco, common stylistic traits include high-quality production, clean vocals, high musicality, and a focus on light, catchy melodies.

an upbeat rhythm

called the "Doobie Bounce" 

High production value

• High production value 

Jazz and R&B influences

• Jazz and R&B influences 

The songs are as light and bubbly as champagne on the high seas, yet oddly complex and intellectual.

Its name, coined in 2005 by the makers of the online video series “Yacht Rock”, was derived from its association with the popular Southern Californian leisure activity of sailing. The factors that they list as relevant to yacht rock include: 

• Use of elite Los Angeles-based studio musicians and producers associated with yacht rock 
• Use of electric piano  
• Complex and wry lyrics 
• Lyrics about heartbroken, foolish men, particularly involving the word "fool". 
• An upbeat rhythm called the " Doobie Bounce" 

Anchors AWay

Band members.

“Anchors Away” is a Yacht Rock extravaganza composed of some of Chicago’s most seasoned musicians. 

Jim Pallucci

Percussion & Vocals

Jeff Kissel

Bass & Vocals

Kevin Flannagan

Saxophone, Flute & Vocals

Guitar & Vocals

Brooke Fauver

Jimmy O'Connell

Vocals & Guitar

ANCHORS AWAY

Chicago, IL 

Phone: 630-417-3654

Email: [email protected]  

S T A Y  T U N E D

© all rights reserved  anchors away website by olive + ash design.

A beginner’s guide to yacht rock in five essential albums

Yacht rock, soft rock – call it what you will. Here are five brilliant albums that define the genre in all its bearded, Hawaiian shirted glory

Was there really ever a genre called yacht rock ? Prior to the 2005 online comedy series of the same name, what we now know of as yacht rock was simply soft rock, largely of the 1970s variety, but occasionally dipping into the 80s as well. It was music that was smooth, slick and did little to challenge the listener in the way that heavy metal or punk rock would. Yet  sold in the multi-millions, made superstars of its creators, and was beloved by industry professionals for the stellar musicianship and high production values. And above all, it was detested by the critics.

Today, yacht rock is the ultimate guilty pleasure genre. Its patron saints - almost exclusively men, generally bearded – never appeared on posters that graced adolescents’ walls. Yet bands and artists such as The Doobie Brothers , Loggins & Messina and Christopher Cross made sweet, soulful music featuring some of the finest musicians of the era and sounding so, so perfect in the process.

Unlike prog, hair metal or krautrock, the boundaries of what constitutes yacht rock are blurred. There’s little to link the jazzy noodlings of Steely Dan , Boz Scaggs’ smooth pop and the later, 80s pop-rock of Hall & Oates beyond the fact that the various members of Toto appeared on many of these albums, making them kind of a yacht rock mafia.

Yacht rock, soft rock, call it what you will: the men who made it are laughing all the way to the bank in their Hawaiian shirts and well-sculpted facial hair while the rest of us celebrate their music in all its frictionless glory. Critics be damned, these are the five essential yacht rock albums for those who want to plunge into the genre.

Loggins & Messina - Full Sail (1973)

Kenny Loggins was a boyish-looking yet handsomely bearded fellow with a penchant for country-esque ballads. Jim Messina had been in Buffalo Springfield and country rockers Poco . The pair teamed up to record some of Loggins’ material and ended up becoming an unlikely success story, notching up hits with  1971 single The House At Pooh Corner and the following year’s Your Mama Don’t Dance , later covered by hair metallers Poison.

But 1973’s Full Sail was their apex. Featuring the ultimate yacht rock album cover (two men, one yacht), the album itself contains everything from the calypso frivolity of Lahaina , and the smooth jazz of Travellin’ Blues to the joyously upbeat My Music and hit ballad Watching The River Run . This is yacht rock’s ground zero. Boys, what did you unleash?

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees (1976)

An early member of the Steve Miller Band , guitarist and vocalist Boz Scaggs’ solo career had begun 1969. But nothing had clicked with the record buying public until he hooked up with David Paich, Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate, all of whom were on the verge of forming Toto , and recorded his seventh solo album, Silk Degrees . A masterful mix of smooth pop and slick ballads, it spawned hits in the shape of It’s Over , Lowdown , We’re All Alone (made famous by Rita Coolidge) and the pulsating Lido Shuffle , a bona fide dancefloor filler.

Classic Rock Newsletter

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!

Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Arguments rage as to whether these protagonists of achingly cool and clever jazz rock belong in the yacht rock genre, but hey, if the people who made the Yacht Rock online series say the are, who are we to argue?

Their sixth album, Aja , saw Walter Becker and Donald Fagan stretching out into longer form pieces of music that were funkier and jazzier than they’d ever been before, capping it off with one of the most pristine production jobs ever – such were their levels of perfectionism that six crack session guitarists tried and failed to lay down the guitar solo on Peg to their satisfaction (it was the seventh, Jay Graydon, who nailed it). Bonus yacht rock points: auxiliary Dan backing vocalist/keyboard player Michael McDonald was also a member of The Doobie Brothers.

The Doobie Brothers – Minute By Minute (1978)

In 1974, Steely Dan guitarist Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter moved across to hugely successful blues rockers The Doobie Brothers on a free transfer. The following year, he suggested recruiting Dan backing singer/pianist Michael McDonald as a replacement for the Doobies’ ailing guitarist/vocalist Tom Johnstone.

With his blue-eyed soul croon and knack for writing uptempo R&B-infused songs, McDonald helped nudge the band towards smoother waters. By 1978’s Minute By Minute , they had fully transformed from moustachioed chooglers into yacht rock kingpins. The album’s blend of soft rock and R&B reached its apotheosis on the majestic What A Fool Believes – co-written with Kenny Loggins, naturally – which ultimately helped turn McDonald into a bigger star than the band. For the record, the singer’s 1986 Sweet Freedom compilation is also yacht rock gold.

Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross (1979)

When Christopher Cross released his self-titled debut album in December 1979, no-one knew who he was. A year later, he’d racked up four Top 20 hits and swept the boards at the Grammy Awards.

It’s not hard to see why: Cross’ spectacular voice was matched by the brilliance of his songs. Everyone knows Ride Like The Wind , featuring that Michael McDonald fella on backing vocals, but it was the mellower Sailing that hit the No. 1 spot ( Ride… only managed No. 2). A year later Cross’ theme to the movie Arthur won him and co-writer Burt Bacharach an Oscar.

Cross was no slouch as a musician either: Steely Dan had asked him to play on their albums and he even filled in for a sick Ritchie Blackmore at a Deep Purple US show back in 1970.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

Matt Pike teases Sleep comeback: “We’re talking and working on stuff again.”

“I thought Geordie was indestructible”: Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman pays tribute to his late friend, bandmate and “national treasure” Geordie Walker, doesn't want to hear questions about the band's future

“It’s just one of those days!” Watch a 100,000-strong Argentinian crowd sing every word of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff

Most Popular

By Grace Hayhurst 18 March 2024

By Paul Travers 17 March 2024

By Henry Yates 17 March 2024

By Niall Doherty 17 March 2024

By Polly Glass 17 March 2024

By Classic Rock 17 March 2024

By Niall Doherty 16 March 2024

By Jerry Ewing 16 March 2024

By Dave Everley 16 March 2024

Celebrating the Smooth Soft Rock Hits and Groovy Love Songs of the 70’s and early 80’s

The Lonesome Losers are the Twin Cities premiere tribute to Yacht Rock. Covering a blend of soulful smooth soft rock hits that range from1974 to 1984. Featuring music by artists such as Christopher Cross, Ace, Player, Carly Simon, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Orleans, Pablo Cruise, Toto, Supertramp, Gerry Rafferty, Climax Blues Band, Grover Washington, Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Nicolette Larson, Steely Dan, Stevie Nicks, Carole King, Captain and Tennille, George Michael, Ambrosia, The Little River Band and so many more. The Lonesome Losers provide a night of unforgettable talent paired with a one of a kind catalogue of songs that is sure to keep your guests dancing, singing and “Reminiscing” all night long.

Not Your Average Tribute Band

Seven piece losers.

This is the full line up which includes a saxophone player. With the unforgettable lines in songs like Baker Street and Careless Whisper the added saxophone can bring a show to life.

Six Piece Losers

Depending on the size of your venue or budget we offer a slightly smaller version. The six piece line up includes all of the great music with no saxophone player.

Acoustic Losers

Includes three Loser., Comes with sound and lights and is great for any small venue, patio, boat, or house party. This can be done as all acoustic or with high quality backing tracks for a full band sound in a three piece package.

Variety Losers

Maybe you love Yacht Rock but do not want your entire wedding reception to be old 70's and 80's songs. We offer an entire list of top 40 dance hits, country music hits, and all around great dance songs from the last sixty plus years to help bring some variety to your event.

Losers Live Videos

Ride like the wind, lonesome loser, couldn't get it right, careles whisper, i can't go for that, you're so vain, takin it to the streets, silly love songs, hold the line, ain't nobody.

• Latest News

‘Point Of Departure’: Andrew Hill’s Classic Took Jazz To A New Destination

Musicians who are poets: 12 game-changing lyrical masters, pioneering women in early rock ‘n’ roll, ‘lullabies to paralyze’: ‘metal that swings’ by queens of the stone age, ‘rubycon’: how tangerine dream crossed over into new territory, ‘nick of time’: bonnie raitt beats the clock to win grammy glory, roger hodgson and supertramp in 20 songs, mercury studios shares ‘mississippi goddam’ documentary on nina simone’s protest anthem, billie holiday, chet baker, nina simone, and more featured in 2024 acoustic sounds series, amy winehouse biopic soundtrack, ‘back to black,’ available for pre-order, olivia rodrigo announces ‘guts’ deluxe edition, ‘guts (spilled)’, stephen marley announces additional ‘old soul unplugged’ tour dates, mark knopfler’s guitar heroes eyes top of uk charts with ‘going home’, maggie rogers shares ‘so sick of dreaming’ ahead of new album ‘don’t forget me’, yacht rock: a boatload of not-so-guilty pleasures.

The idea of yacht rock conjures up a particular lifestyle, but beneath the surface lies a treasure trove of sophisticated hits that continue to resonate.

Published on

Even some of those who signed up to the subgenre subtleties of what became known as yacht rock may consider it to be a time-locked phenomenon. Certainly, its chief protagonists first cast their subtle soft-rock sophistication in the 70s and 80s, but its melodic echoes can still be heard all these decades later.

Perhaps unusually, the phrase itself was coined as a kind of lighthearted castigation of the adult-oriented rock that seemed to exude privileged opulence: of days in expensive recording studios followed by hedonistic trips on private yachts, typically around southern California. The web TV series of the mid-00s that parodied the lifestyle was even named Yacht Rock ; one of the biggest hits of a chief exponent of the sound, Christopher Cross, was, of course, “Sailing.”

The recent resurgence in the long career of another staple, Michael McDonald, is testament to the durability of a style that was, after all, grounded in musicianship and melodicism of the highest order. Nearly 40 years after he and fellow yacht rock principle Kenny Loggins co-wrote and performed the Grammy-winning “This Is It,” the pair were afforded the high praise of a collaboration with acclaimed modern-day jazz-funk bassist Thundercat, on his track “Show You The Way.” Ahead of that, McDonald’s guest appearance with Thundercat at the 2017 Coachella Festival was a viral sensation.

Setting sail

Like other subgenres that grew from an existing style, just as Americana did from country, the starting point of yacht rock is a matter of endless debate. Some hear it in the early 70s soft rock of Bread and hits such as “Guitar Man,” or in Seals & Crofts, the duo of the same period whose 1973 US Top 10 hit “Diamond Girl” and its follow-up, “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” are pure, classy, elegantly played and harmonised yacht rock.

As the 70s progressed and album rock radio became an ever more powerful medium in the US music business, studio production grew along with the budgets to fund it. High-fidelity citadels such as Sunset Sound and Ocean Way were the industry epitome of the Los Angeles hedonism of the day, and played host to many of the artists we celebrate here. Perhaps it was the combination of financial independence and the sun-kissed surroundings that gave rise to the phenomenon, but this was music that not only sounded opulent – it made you feel somehow more urbane just by listening to it.

California singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop was another of the artists who would retrospectively become part of what we might call the yachting club. Indeed, it’s important to point out that “yacht rock” was not a term that existed at the time the music was being made. Bishop’s acclaimed 1976 debut album, Careless , was a masterclass in well-crafted pop music for those no longer hanging on the words of every chart pin-up. Its tender opening ballad, “On And On,” which peaked just outside the mainstream US Top 10 and reached No.2 on the Easy Listening chart, is a prime example.

Making waves

McDonald, for his part, might be afforded the questionable honor of the Yacht Rock theme tune with his solo hit “Sweet Freedom,” but had earlier been a key part of the unconscious movement as a member of the Doobie Brothers. The double Grammy-winning landmark “What A Fool Believes,” again written by McDonald with Loggins, stands tall in this hall of fame. Similarly, Toto, another band of master studio craftsmen whose critical and commercial stock has risen again in recent times, stood for all the principles of yacht rock with tracks such as “99” and the undying “Africa.”

That 1982 soft-rock calling card came from the Toto IV album, which was, indeed, recorded in part at Sunset Sound and Ocean Way. But Steely Dan , one of the bands to prove that yacht rock could come from other parts of the US where the attendant lifestyle was less practical, made perhaps their biggest contribution to the subgenre after Walter Becker and Donald Fagen moved back to their native East Coast.

After their initial incarnation as a live band, Steely Dan were well established in their peerless cocoon of pristine studio production when they moved back east. That was after recording 1977’s superb Aja , the album that announced their ever-greater exploration of jazz influences. Fans and critics of the band both used the same word about them, perfectionism: some as a compliment, others as an accusation. But 1980’s equally impressive Gaucho was their yacht rock masterpiece.

Ripple effect

In such a subjective phrase, other artists seen by some as yacht rock representatives, such as Daryl Hall & John Oates, Journey, the Eagles, or even Canada’s Gordon Lightfoot, are thought by others to be creatively or geographically inappropriate, or just too mainstream to break out of the overreaching AOR terminology.

But a significant number of other artists, whose names are less quoted today, had their finest hours during the pop landscape of the late 70s and early 80s that we’ve been visiting here. Amy Holland won a Best New Artist Grammy nomination in 1981 helped by “How Do I Survive,” written by McDonald, whose wife she became soon afterwards. Robbie Dupree, a Brooklyn boy by birth, also epitomized the style with his 1980 US hit “Steal Away.” Then, in 1982, America, the band known for their definitive harmonic rock of a decade earlier, mounted a chart return with the suitably melodic “You Can Do Magic.”

The final word goes to Michael McDonald, the unwitting co-founder of the yacht rock sound. When the aforementioned mockumentary series was at the height of its popularity, he was asked if he had ever owned a yacht, and replied (perhaps disappointingly) in the negative. But, he added, “I thought Yacht Rock was hilarious. And uncannily, you know, those things always have a little bit of truth to them.

“It’s kind of like when you get a letter from a stalker who’s never met you. They somehow hit on something, and you have to admit they’re pretty intuitive.”

Listen to the Soft Rock Forever playlist for more yacht rock classics .

October 28, 2019 at 8:42 pm

if you dig this sound, you gotta check out Yachty by Nature the best yacht rock band on the West Coast. They play it all live without the backing tracks (yuck) that some bands do. They just got voted #1 Best Live Cover Band in Orange County and spreading yacht rock all over the country. Dive in!!! #yachtrock https://yachtybynature.com

October 28, 2019 at 8:44 pm

BTW, great article!!!!! Well written and thoughtfully addressed the idea of Nyacht Rock artists to the purists following the genre!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Hall & Boats

Featuring the music of michael mcdonald, toto, huey lewis, steely dan, the doobie brothers, hall & oates, and more, new england's premier yacht rock tribute band, boston common band presents:.

From the very lovely people who brought you Boston Common Band. Hall & Oates is New England’s Premier Yacht Rock Tribute Band. Performing events from New York, to New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. No band provides a more refined taste of the Yacht Rock music years. Furthermore, in addition to performing weddings, we are available for DMC Corporate Party Bands Entertainment Events. Our Party Philosophy

Hall and Boats is the most comprehensive of all Yacht Rock Tribute Bands in the nation; Featuring world class musicians from the Boston, Newport and Cape Cod areas.

Likewise, over the past 10 years our bands have been reviewed by hundreds of brides and grooms, corporate events, industry colleagues., we perform our yacht rock tribute band in boston, but our true homes are performing in the newport, nantucket and cape cod harbors..

If you would like to learn more about Hall & Boats, please email us or give us a ring! We are happy to serve. And also corporate parties, working directly with your DMC event planners.

6-10pc Yacht Rock Band

The All-Inclusive Yacht Rock Band. Providing you with everything you need to smooth out your weekend on Nantucket, Newport, The Cape & Vineyard.

Yacht Rock.. Really?

Answering the question no one asked… You’re Welcome.   We’ve curated a set list of soft-rock bangers you secretly love and hate to admit.

Do You Travel?

Deck of your Yacht, Helipad, or Barge in the Marina. If you have one, we’ll be there. Okay, we’ll probably even play the local pier bar too…

The Very Best of Boston

Who are you guys? Just some of Boston and RI’s most in-demand musicians, looking to keep the fabulous music of the late 70s – 80s alive.

Pass The Bubbly, Would’ya??

Let’s face it, this is new england. —  from may to september, we practically live this genre..

Our band sets weave together the magic of Toto, Michael McDonald, The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, The Police, Christopher Cross, Huey Lewis & The News, Chicago, and more.

Formed like the Voltron,   featuring Boston Wedding Band – Boston Common Band musicians; We are the new standard in Tribute Bands.

Full Steam Ahead!!

Boston Common Band // Hall & Boats Contact Us:

We are an independent (non-agency owned or managed) company. A team of extremely talented individuals keeping the dream of Yacht Rock music alive.

Hotlinks of Interest:

Preferred Venues & Vendors | Live Event Calendar  |  Destination Weddings Sitemap

Hall and Boats performances deliver a smoothed out mix of the best music the late 70s to 80s has to offer! From Boston, to Newport, Nantucket and the Vineyard, bring out your boat shoes and linens and enjoy our Yacht Rock Tribute Band.

© 2024 — Boston Common Entertainment

• Wedding Band + DJ Combo
• Fabulous Friends

Western New York's Premier Yacht Rock Tribute!

From the creators of NERDS GONE WILD , we bring you Western New York's premier Yacht Rock Tribute - THE YACHTFATHERS! The "Dons" of yacht rock, smooth as the Inner Harbor!

We'll put you in the mood to cruise with the best AM Gold and Soft Rock hits from the '70s and '80s. Our show features hits from Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Hall & Oates, Ambrosia, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, and more!

Join the "Yacht Mafia" on Facebook and Instagram !

For booking or inquiries, please click below to to email us!

CLICK to contact us!

Upcoming Shows!

Yachtfathers on facebook.

• Create Account

Signed in as:

[email protected]

about point of sail BAND

The best Album Oriented Rock from the '70s

Point of Sail is a seven piece yacht rock tribute band from Seattle, WA.  We feature five stellar vocalists backed by high caliber multi-instrumentalists including sax, trumpet and percussion. We'll get you up and dancing to your favorite classic '70s grooves with lush vocal harmonies, tasty hot guitar and smoking sax solos!  You won't hear these songs done better unless you're dropping the needle on the vinyl where it was born!

BRIAN GARRISON - Vocals, Percussion

MELISSA FALARSKI - Vocals, Keyboards, Trumpet

GEOFF WOODHOUSE - Vocals, Keyboards

ALLEN MARSHALL - Lead Guitar

ALAN HARDWICK - Vocals, Saxophone, Percussion, Guitar

DAVE SALWITZ - Bass Guitar

MARK PENDOLINO - Vocals, Drums

Photo Gallery

Some of the bands & artists covered by point of sail.....

Sign up to hear about upcoming shows, albums, and events.

Copyright © 2024 Point of Sail - A Yacht Rock Band - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by GoDaddy

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

• Styx Bassist Leaves Band
• Go-Go's 'Talk Show' at 40
• 1974's Most Electrifying Live LPs
• Pretenders Announce Tour Dates
• Perry Journey Songs Ranked
• When Stones Hired New Bassist

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)

Top 100 Classic Rock Artists

Gallery Credit: UCR Staff

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

• Party Planning
• Disco Theme Party
• Western Theme Party
• Decades Themes
• Kids Party Themes
• Kids Parties
• Wedding Ideas
• Virtual Event Services
• Event Inspiration
• Inspiration
• Party Trends
• Cover Bands
• Mariachi Bands
• Wedding DJs
• Bar Mitzvah DJs
• Face Painters
• Singing Telegrams
• Costumed Characters
• Motivational Speakers
• Keynote Speakers
• Wedding Officiants
• Photographers
• Animals For Parties
• Photo Booth Rentals

Yacht Rock Band - YACHTY BY NATURE   Cover Band from Laguna Niguel, CA

Will travel up to 500 miles

Avg 5.0  |  7 Reviews

• 9 Verified Booking s
• Member Since 2017
• 4 Awards & Badges
• Virtual Services Offered
• Accepts Online Payment
• Starting at $ 5,000 per event

About Vendor  

Learn more about this vendor for your event.

View a list of services offered by this vendor.

Check out these verified reviews from bookings on The Bash.

Review by Graeme H .

Corporate Function • Reviewed on November 15, 2019 • From San Diego , CA

Yacht Rock Band - YACHTY BY NATURE :

Review by Elaine K .

Corporate Function • Reviewed on January 29, 2019 • From Newport Beach , CA

Review by Kimberly L .

Community Event • Reviewed on August 16, 2021 • From Beaumont , CA

Awards & Badges  

See why this vendor is top rated on The Bash.

Song List  

Get a feel for the songs performed by this vendor. Contact them directly for special requests.

• Africa | Toto
• All Night Long | Lionel Richie
• Baby Come Back | Player
• Baker Street | Gerry Rafferty
• Biggest Part of Me | Ambrosia
• Brandy | Looking Glass
• Careless Whisper | Wham
• Come Sail Away | Styx
• Cool Night | Paul Davis
• Escape (the Pina Colada Song) | Rupert Holmes
• Fly Like an Eagle | Steve Miller
• Footloose | Kenny Loggins
• Get Lucky | Daft Punk
• Hold the Line | Toto
• How Long | Ace
• I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) | Hall and Oates
• I Keep Forgettin' / Regulate | Michael McDonald / Warren G
• I'd Really Love to See You Tonight | England Dan & John Ford Coley
• Jessie's Girl | Rick Springfield
• Jive Talkin' | Bee Gees
• Joker | Steve Miller
• Kiss on My List | Hall and Oates
• Kiss You All Over | Exile
• Love Boat Theme | Jack Jones
• Lowdown | Boz Scaggs
• Maneater | Hall and Oates
• My Life | Billy Joel
• Oh What a Night (Late December, 1963) | Frankie Valli
• One of these Nights | Eagles
• Peg | Steely Dan
• Reelin' in the Years | Steely Dan
• Rich Girl | Hall and Oates
• Ride Captain Ride | Blues Image
• Ride Like the Wind | Christopher Cross
• Riders on the Storm | Doors
• Rosanna | Toto
• Sailing | Christopher Cross
• Sexy Eyes | Dr. Hook
• Shadow Dancing | Andy Gibb
• She's Gone | Hall and Oates
• Somebody's Baby | Jackson Browne
• Steal Away | Robbie Dupree
• Take it Easy | Eagles
• Theme from Grease | Frankie Valli
• Two Tickets to Paradise | Eddie Money
• What a Fool Believes | Michael McDonald
• You Make My Dreams Come True | Hall and Oates
• You're the Only Woman | Ambrosia

Booked Events  

: The Bash Verified Bookings

Upcoming Events

Past events, share yacht rock band - yachty by nature, plan, book, celebrate—with confidence.

Find Cover Bands in Laguna Niguel, CA to bring your event to life.

Trusted Vendors

With verified reviews and thousands of ratings, it's easy to book the perfect Cover Bands for all types of events in Laguna Niguel, CA—no matter how big or small.

Free Booking Platform

It's free to book and make secure online payments through The Bash. Once the booking for your selected Cover Band is confirmed, it's covered by our Booking Guarantee.

Top-Rated Service

Our US based team of Account Specialists are here to help every step of the way. Since 1997, we've connected planners with vendors for over half a million events.

FOR ALL THE LATEST TOUR INFO TRACK US ON BANDSINTOWN 

"Sex On The Beach"

Official music video.

"Seas The Day"   The new EP from Yächtley Crëw is available now on all streaming platforms. Listen here!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS. 

YÄCHTLEY CRËW MAILING LIST

GET ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND MORE

Yächtley Crëw exclusively uses Steve Clayton custom picks and accessories 

Yachty by Nature

Midwest Yacht Rock!

Midwest yacht rock.

With so much to report on the state of the Yacht, I really don’t know where to start.  Before our next cruise to Midwest Yacht Rock, how about starting with the next big shows ?  Yachty by Nature is coming to the heartland this Yacht Rocktober.  In fact, we’ll be back there in the summer of 2019 for more fun.  Additionally, we hope to add shows to our Midwest swing next June.

The band is continuing a smooth run of quality ALL LIVE yacht rock shows in Southern California to amazing crowds and traveling the U.S.  Thus, we are the ONLY yacht rock band other than Yacht Rock Revue covering such a wide swath of territory.  As you know, we’ve played North Carolina, Las Vegas, Arizona, Northern California and of course, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.  More importantly, we’re now sailing to the Midwest .  Although we get a lot of calls from Wisconsin, we haven’t been there yet.  However, Yachty by Nature’s very own guitarist, Ben Shreddin’ was recruited by the Docksiders to play a show with them on September 20.  Yes, Ben flew out for their yachty show in Milwaukee and had a blast playing Midwest Yacht Rock for the very first time.

BEST OF Orange County…

In recent news, we’ve been nominated for OC Weekly’s Best of 2019.  In fact, we are proud to be up for Best Live Cover Band in Orange County!  Increasingly, we are stoked to be able to play this genre of smooth 70’s and 80’s music totally live.  So, with great pleasure we hope that with your votes we will take the crown with the popular vote of the OC.  Not a karaoke band with tracks, not a performance art, but a real LIVE yacht rock band playing their own instruments.  THANK YOU in advance Orange County for knowing the difference.  Thus, cross your fingers and hope that we got the votes to do this.  And, thanks for pouring your votes in before the deadline in September, you are so precious to our success OC!!!  Case in point, we’ll bring our BEST to the Midwest Yacht Rock shows shortly!

Upcoming Shows

10/3/19 – This week we’ll performing at another fundraiser at Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine on October 3, 2019.  To all the Yachties that would like to come, they will even do $50 tickets at the door without dinner.  Thanks for helping to raise money for CHOC and the Lupus Foundation through the Charitable Foundation’s fun night of Yacht Rock.  In fact, we really appreciate you lending a helping hand.  This show is aptly titled Get On Board With Giving and urges everyone to hop in the yacht for a great cause.  Click the link for tickets and hope to see you out there!  As you know, there’s lots of great stuff coming up:

10/5/19 – Private party, wish you could come.  In addition, it’s a yacht club party!  Ooooooh, gonna be smooth.

10/12/19 – Midwest Yacht Rock private party – Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Sioux City, St. Louis, what’s it gonna be!  Wish you were there.

10/26/19 – Halloween Special at Back Bay Bistro – get your table reservation going now, it’s gonna be a smooth Yacht Rocktober.

11/2/19 – Topgolf Las Vegas get ready cuz here we come.

12/7/19 – Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood get your tickets now for a night to remember, we’ll drop it like it’s YACHT.

Before the Midwest Yacht Rock…

Looking back, let’s examine our course before we ship out for Midwest Yacht Rock .

Truthfully, we really had an outstanding turn out for Shannon’s Benefit fundraiser in August.  Thank you so much again to all of our wonderful sponsors and everyone who pitched in.  In fact, we really made a difference and raised about $14,000 for Shannon’s fight against breast cancer.  Thank you Costello’s, Diageo, Daily’s RSM, Stance Socks, Arroyo Trabuco, Westin Long Beach, San Juan Creek Golf, Paul’s Pantry, El Cortez, Mission Viejo Country Club, Skip and Ashley, Shlee Art, Jaz Ramos, Disney Dave, Huntington Beach Bicycle Company, Jesse Murphy, Riptide Sushi, Popgun Rerun, Kimberly Frazier, AR Workshop in San Juan, Stressbusters, Massage Heights, Dayna Page and more!

Again, our show at Nood Beach opening for Snoop was a huge!   This year has been full of amazing shows, lots of growth, new tunes, new fans and too much GREAT to mention.  Each step forward we do so with a passion for live music and a love for our fans.  Thanks for being our buoy on this journey and sailing the seas of smooth with us every step of the way.  Continue to spread the word to our new Yachties out there and continue to celebrate LIVE smooth music with us.  As I always say, we are climbing Mount Smootherest with you one small cruise at a time.  Indeed what a pleasure cruise we are having and can’t wait to share more and exciting news ahead.

Cruise with Us

Also, let’s not forget about a summer of smooth at all those Concerts in the Park.  Thanks for enjoying us in the park and a record setting 12 Park Shows!!!  And how about our summer residency on the beach at Sea Legs.  Not to mention, we had one of our cruisiest yet at Sea Legs with a fine bicycle ride with HBBC and Cruise With Us including School of Rock on the stage!  We also rocked the Campus Jax again and just love playing to fun audiences there.  We love getting yachty in the sand, on the coast, and most of all listening to those golden vocals of Scotty McYachty!

As outlined in our upcoming shows, there are some big ones.  Make sure you don’t miss the boat at Whisky a Go Go and then who can resist our concert in Las Vegas.  Topgolf is always great and we’ve only just begun.  Specifically, October features our Halloween show and the Back Bay Bistro is one comfy dinner concert.  Get those tickets and let’s get Yachty!  In fact, there’s only one LIVE yacht rock show in Southern California on a regular basis, so hop aboard.  As always, we’ll have some shows to be thankful for around Thanksgiving.  Stay tuned to the calendar and we can’t wait to cruise with you and your yachty crew soon.

#yachty #yachtybynature #yachtrock #softrock #topgolf #yachtrockrevue #yachtrockxm #yachtrockradio #midwestyachtrock #dropitlikeitsyacht #yachtrockyoutube

About Author

Post a comment Cancel reply

You can write your comments about this post through the form below

Get to know Us

Captain Carl (949) 510-3264 [email protected]

Drop us a line

Things To Do | Weekend things to do: Skating at Florida…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)

Daily e-Edition

Evening e-Edition

• Restaurants

Breaking News

Things to do | officer shot, suspect dead in exchange of gunfire at fort lauderdale hotel, things to do, subscriber only, things to do | weekend things to do: skating at florida panthers’ new home, fau owls watch parties, rock en español tribute band, the best events, shows and festivals this weekend in south florida, from west palm beach and boca raton to fort lauderdale and miami..

The Florida Panthers will open their long-awaited new downtown Fort Lauderdale practice facility on Thursday, bringing family skating, club hockey and other activities on NHL-quality ice to the renovated and expanded War Memorial Auditorium complex in Holiday Park.

A limited schedule of opening-weekend events at Baptist Health IcePlex includes the debut of public skating on Thursday, with two-hour sessions at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. There also will be skating on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., 3:15 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets will cost $17 ($14 for military). Skate rental is $5, and it’s $10 per hour for a skating aid (sort of a walker on ice). Before taking the ice at the venue, participants must register and sign a waiver at FTLWarMemorial.com .

An abbreviated selection of food and beverages will be available on opening weekend. The team shop will be open.    

Going forward, the venue will be open for public skating daily, along with freestyle figure skating sessions, learn-to-skate classes, free hockey tutorials, youth hockey camps and more. Registration also is open for adult hockey leagues, which begin in April. 

Baptist Health IcePlex is the first space to open after a $60 million renovation of the War Memorial complex, which also will include a new music hall and a second-floor restaurant, The Federal. 

The venue has two ice rinks, one public and one for Panthers practices that also can be used by the public when the team is away. Practices are open to the public, and admission to the bleacher seats around the team rink is free. 

For more information, visit FTLWarMemorial.com .

Boogie night: The other kind of skating happens on Thursday with a free night of roller disco at the Miami Beach Bandshell as part of the North Beach Social series. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., dance tunes will be provided by Charlie   Soul Clap with an opening set by Max Baum , against a backdrop of immersive visuals by artist Natasha Tomchin . Skate rental is $10 (free for Miami Beach residents), or you can bring your own. Food and beverages will be available for purchase, and the rear deck will be open to those not skating. Admission is free with an RSVP (required). Visit MiamiBeachBandshell.com .

Wait for it: The nationally touring production of “ Hamilton ” ends its run at the Arsht Center in Miami this weekend with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Starting at $49+, tickets are available for all performances, though some availability is limited. Visit ArshtCenter.org . The musical will be at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach from April 10 to 21. Visit Kravis.org .

Yacht party: The Palm Beach International Boat Show returns Thursday through Sunday with more than 50,000 visitors expected in downtown West Palm Beach to ogle in excess of $1 billion in boats and accessories. Visit PBBoatShow.com . Of course, the influence of PBIBS will be felt all over town. For instance at Spruzzo , the rooftop bar at downtown boutique hotel The Ben , DJ Kristian Caro and Veuve Clicquot will kick off the weekend with a yacht-rock party on Thursday at 7 p.m. Your hosts would like to see you in ’70s attire. As if you needed encouragement. Visit Facebook.com/thebenwestpalm .

Weekend laughs: Comedian, actor and late-night talk show staple Nick Swardson is at the Dania Improv in Dania Beach this weekend with shows at 8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $35+, VIP reserved seats $45+. Visit DaniaImprov.com .

Ladies night: Another nostalgic soundtrack will be the attraction at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale when yesteryear pop queens Taylor Dayne, Tiffany and Sheena Easton team up for the “ultimate ladies night” on Thursday beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $40+ at BrowardCenter.org . 

FAU watch parties: The Owls of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton are again part of March Madness college basketball brackets around the world this week. Coach Dusty May’s squad begins what they hope is a second consecutive run to the Final Four with a game at 12:15 p.m. Friday against Northwestern. If they win, they’ll play on Sunday, time and opponent TBD.  If you want to get on the bandwagon now, the FAU Alumni organization has official Owls watch parties planned on Friday at Biergarten Boca Raton and Duffy’s Sports Grill locations in Coconut Creek and North Palm Beach . Other spots that have hosted FAU watch parties include The Irishmen and American Social in Boca Raton. Visit FAUAlumni.org .

Purple prose: Small Wine Shop in downtown Fort Lauderdale ’s Flagler Village on Friday will host The Prince Experience with Professor Dink , a casual night of wine tasting set to a Prince soundtrack orchestrated by local storyteller and wine explorer Dinkinish O’Connor . The gathering is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $49 at SmallWineShop.com .

Still Blurry: Rap stylist Drake brings his long-running It’s All A Blur Tour — Big As The What?, featuring Lil Wayne , back to South Florida for two shows at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets start at $105+ at SeatGeek.com . 

Dip me in the water: Julian and Lisa Siegel will celebrate the sixth anniversary of Tarpon River Brewing in downtown Fort Lauderdale with another edition of the Take Me to the River Music Festival on Saturday from 2 to 11 p.m. The day will include music, food, vendors and beer from favorite local breweries, among them Orchestrated Minds, Invasive Species, Brewlihan, Gulf Stream, LauderAle, Yeasty Brews, Savage Lyfe, 3 Sons Brewing and many more. There will be music from, among others, Tand, Smerks and the Nightmares, Davie, Blackwater Sound, The Honest Liars and Dylan Zangwill . General-admission tickets cost $15, which includes a free beer ticket (guests younger than 21 pay $10, with ticket for soda, tea, lemonade). An individual beer ticket costs $8 (10 for $70), and an individual food ticket is $25. A VIP ticket costs $75 and comes with a food ticket, three beer tickets, a commemorative poster, an anniversary bottle and a crowler bag. Tickets are available on-site and at the Eventbrite.com . Visit TarponRiverBrewing.com .

Weekend opera: Opera star Nadine Sierra , a Fort Lauderdale native who attended Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach , can be seen in more than 20 movie theaters across South Florida on Saturday afternoon in a live transmission of the Metropolitan Opera production of Gounod’s “ Roméo et Juliette ,” joined by tenor Benjamin Bernheim. The screenings, which begin at 12:55 p.m., are part of the Met Opera’s long-running Live in HD series . For a list of theaters, visit MetOpera.org .

‘Prom’ dates: Slow Burn Theatre Co. opens its new production of “ The Prom ” at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday for a run through April 7. The critically praised 2018 Broadway musical tells the story of an Indiana high school student who is barred from bringing her girlfriend to the prom, which attracts a quartet of well-intentioned New York theater folks who come to town to “help.” Critic Jesse Green at The New York Times called the show “such a joyful hoot. … With its kinetic dancing, broad mugging and belty anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again.” Performances this weekend are at 1 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $54+ at BrowardCenter.org . 

Rooftop tribute: Celebrating its fifth anniversary, nationally touring Miami-based rock en Español tribute band SurDeluxe will perform on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Skye Rooftop Bar , on the 11th floor of Hilton’s Serena Hotel Aventura . Expect to hear covers of iconic 1980s-2000s bands including Mana, Café Tacvba, Caifanes, Soda Stereo and Hombres G surrounded by a euphoric crowd that knows all the words. Tickets cost $25. Visit Facebook.com/SurDeluxeBand .

Ultra music at DAER: Ultra Music Festival is this weekend in downtown Miami. Of course, it’s sold out . But you can still catch UMF-level DJ talent on Saturday at DAER at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood . At noon, Kaskade will do the music at the dayclub (tickets $100+), while producer Galantis (he co-wrote Britney Spears’ Grammy-winning “Toxic”) will perform at the nightclub at 10 p.m. ($40+). Visit HardRockNightlife.com . (Looking ahead, the waitlist is open for the 25th anniversary edition of Ultra Music Festival , set for March 28-30, 2025. Three-day, general-admission passes cost $349.95 at UltraMusicFestival.com ).

Guitar gods: Joe Satriani and Steve Vai will bring their co-headlining Satch-Vai U.S. Tour to the Pompano Beach Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available, starting at $49.50+, at PompanoBeachArts.org/amp .

Driven men: Three creators and stars of truTV’s “ Impractical Jokers ” — Brian Quinn (Q), James Murray (Murr) and Sal Vulcano — bring The Drive Drive Drive Drive Drive Tour to Hard Rock Live in Hollywood on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets to the show, which includes never-before-seen videos and storytelling stand-up, start at $55+ at MyHRL.com .

Take the kids: The fourth edition of The World’s Greatest Kite Festival returns to Miramar Regional Park on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The free event includes kite giveaways, build-your-own demonstrations, food trucks and live music. Visit MiramarKiteFestival2024.eventbrite.com .

Comics and food trucks: Beloved Lauderhill hangout Tate’s Comics will throw a party befitting its 31st anniversary on Saturday and Sunday, with a massive tent sale filled with comic books (thousands of titles for $1 each), graphic novels, toys and general good vibes. You’ll also find top-notch food trucks: Kaminari Ramen, Carlos & Pepe’s and Fresh Coconut on Saturday, and Kaminari Ramen, Garden Diva and Mr. Meatball on Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Visit Facebook.com/tatescomics .

Current event: Rhythm by the River is a free community festival that celebrates Black voices on Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. in Esplanade Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale . The afternoon will include music, dance, workshops, vendors, games and food from J&J Soul Food, Tropical Soul Food, Wontons on Wheels, Reggae Beets and Sweet Sensations by Charlene . Headlining performers include the Lauderhill Steel Ensemble (2 p.m.), jazz saxophonist Randy Corinthian (2:55 p.m.), roots-reggae band Jah Steve & the Counteract Crew (4 p.m.) and Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter Alexander Star (5:20 p.m.). The event is part of the Broward Center’s Arts for Action: Black Voices initiative, co-presented by Baptist Health and JM Family Enterprises. Visit BrowardCenter.org .

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at  [email protected] . Follow on  Instagram @BenCrandell  and   Twitter @BenCrandell .

More in Things To Do

Movies | 10 spring movies to savor before the popcorn season kicks in

Restaurants, Food and Drink | 133 rodent droppings in kitchen/dining areas, bag of corn stored in sink: 7 South Florida restaurants ordered shut

Things To Do | It’s eggs-traordinary! Find Easter egg hunts in South Florida as early as this weekend, plus plan your photos with the Bunny

Florida Panthers | Nice ice, baby: Florida Panthers open new practice venue in downtown Fort Lauderdale