yacht rock group

• Sting's North American Tour
• Eagles' Most Memorable Concerts
• Eagles' Tribute to J.D. Souther
• J.D. Souther Dead at 78
• Every Eagles Song Ranked
• Win Up to $30,000

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

Sail Away: The Oral History of ‘Yacht Rock’

By Drew Toal

This story was originally published on June 26, 2015

I n the late 1970s and early 1980s, musical artists like Kenny Loggins , Michael McDonald , Steely Dan , Toto , Hall and Oates , and dozens of others regularly popped up on each other’s records, creating a golden era of smooth-music collaboration.

And on June 26th, 2005, an internet phenomenon was born. In 12 short but memorable episodes — first via the the short-film series Channel 101 and then online — JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, Dave Lyons, Lane Farnham and their friends redefined an era and coined a term for the sultry croonings of McDonald, Fagen, et al.: “yacht rock.”

As “Hollywood” Steve might say, these guys docked a fleet of remarkable hits. This is the story of Yacht Rock, told from stem to stern — a reimagining of a bygone soft-rock renaissance, courtesy of hipsters with fake mustaches, impeccable record collections and a love of smoothness. Long may it sail.

Dave Lyons (“Koko”): You know how, in the Seventies, these big bands started playing arena rock? We liked the idea of these smooth bands playing “Marina Rock.” I thought it was a better name.

Editor’s picks

The 100 best tv episodes of all time, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, 25 most influential creators of 2024.

Lane Farnham (editor, “Jimmy Messina”): JD and I had talked about Journey for a year before we did Yacht Rock. In the third episode, that whole “you need to fly like a pilot” bit? Those are direct lines from Steve Perry in this crazy documentary we found. He’s coked to the gills, in the Eighties, just blabbering about who knows what. We got a kick out of that stuff. 

Ryznar: My musical tastes are not that interesting, and they never were.

Huey: I turned 30 right before we started doing the series, and I thought, well, this is a nice round number. What do 30-year-olds do? I feel like it’s time I get into Steely Dan. I bought most of the catalogue and was like, This is my new identity. I’m gonna unwind, start listening to Steely Dan, and leave parties early.

Ryznar : It was a cool scene at the time: Justin Roiland had [Channel 101 series] House of Cosbys, Dan Harmon had Laser Fart. Our friends Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph, who would go on to play Hall and Oates, they had a show about a regular guy who got angry, and turned into a smaller, shirtless weaker guy who didn’t turn green or anything.

Drew Hancock (“Oates”): That was called “Man to Man: Metamorphosis Ultra.” It was the lowest stakes Incredible Hulk show you could possibly have.

Justin Roiland (co-creator of Rick & Morty and House of Cosbys, “Christopher Cross”): Every single month you’re making something, and then you’re testing it in front of a live audience. You see what works, what doesn’t work.

Ryznar : It was a January 2005 screening where we started the school of Channel 101, where you’re showing the stuff you made in front of 200, maybe 300 people. And then they put it on the “internet,” which was very hard to do back then. There was no “YouTube.” Listen to Old Man Ryznar here.

The Second Coming of Steely Dan

Michael mcdonald on the doobie brothers entering the rock hall: 'they deserve the nod'.

Lyons: Two paddles and a ball that you hit back and forth on the beach. We turned it into a soap opera .

Stair : We started playing Kenny Loggins’ “Playing With the Boys” [from Top Gun ] on repeat as we drove a convertible around Playa del Rey. Just to get in the mood.

Ryznar : There were some Phil Collins music cues, I think. A lot of sports music from Eighties movies — “You’re the Best Around” and whatnot. We used a great Kenny Loggins song for the climax. It’s from Caddyshack II . . .

Christening the Ship Ryznar : Hunter and Dave Lyons came up with an idea for a show about a couple of jewel thieves who lived on a yacht and listened to that music.

Stair : That was actually called Steal Away.

Lyons: I believe Hunter and I were talking about a private eye detective team called Loggins & Loggins that lived on a houseboat and solved mysteries — like Simon & Simon.

Ryznar : I said: How about we play Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald as they co-write “What a Fool Believes” together? We had Stevie Nicks in there originally, for some reason. And then Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph said, we want to be Hall and Oates. I had gotten into the H&O song “Portable Radio” pretty hard. I needed to introduce it to the world. That was very important to me.

Stair : The seed of Koko the manager is . . . there’s a Doobie Brothers album that has a sweet looking manager dude on it. I remember sitting there with JD and being like, look how awesome this guy is.

Ryznar : Dave Lyons invented the Koko character while out drinking with Hunter one night. He just put on a bunch of garbage Seventies clothes he had around the house, and had a little stupid whistle around his neck. All these little touches — that’s what Dave is so great at.

Lyons: No, [Dan Harmon] wasn’t an immediate fan. That’s because he doesn’t get music. Just listen to the theme song for  Community — it’s terrible. Dan looks at things differently than most people, and I don’t think he loves music the way we do. But he came around. He came to really enjoy it. [Harmon would eventually play record producer Ted Templeman in two episodes.]

Huey: I was a published music writer, and that lent me a voice of authority that I might not have otherwise had amongst a hardcore group of music nerds. “Oh this guy’s viewpoint has to be legitimate! He’s published.”

Steve Agee (“Steve Porcaro”): Channel 101 at that point in time was really known for people making videos kind of purposely shitty. So we couldn’t tell if it was made to look bad on purpose.

Hancock: When Wade and I saw the first episode, we were like, eh, this isn’t very good. We didn’t like it. I didn’t understand it. So when it had this meteoric response, I was very surprised.

Ryznar : So Yacht Rock got screened, we were very nervous, and it went over like gangbusters. Just bona fide love from beginning to end from the audience. And we got voted number one on our first try, which hadn’t been done too often on Channel 101.

Stair : It got the biggest laugh of the night. As soon as it was over, we knew we were in. We weren’t totally sure it was going to be number one, but we knew we’d be up there.

Ryznar : A lot of people wanted parts. People had ideas. So we got to work with people we wanted to work with. Before we even knew we were picked up for a second episode, Hunter came up to me and said, “Uh, just talking to Doug Benson. I told him he could play Peter Cetera in the next episode.”

Lyons: The thing about the Channel 101 screenings, they’re always at a place that serves lots of alcohol. And after we saw how well it went over, we’re all drinking at the bar; Dan Harmon is doing a show with Sarah Silverman [ The Sarah Silverman Program ] at the time, and Doug was there with her. Yes, Hunter promised him the role of Peter Cetera. Which is great casting. 

Episode Two: The Songwriting Contest In the second episode, Hall and Oates challenge Loggins and Messina to songwriting contest. It ends with the creation of some of the greatest smooth music ever.

Ryznar : I mean, imagine if you saw Hall and Oates where Oates, with all that hair and the mustache, was the top, and Hall was the bottom? They were sort of the opposite of the smooth California scene. So they sort of made the perfect antagonists.

Huey: The only reason they were picked as antagonists is because they’re from Philadelphia, which is a mean place.

Wade Randolph (“Daryl Hall”): The Hall wig is named the De Carlo. I don’t know why.

Hancock: I remember for the mustache, I think I tried a regular handlebar mustache but it just wasn’t thick enough. So I just ended up taking a lock of the wig and fashioning a mustache out of that.

Stair : And Justin Roiland coming in, doing “Sailing.” The way the whole thing flowed, it’s so fast and perfect. I think that was Yacht Rock ‘s the finest hour.

Roiland: JD asked me, would you play Christopher Cross? I’d never heard “Sailing” before, believe it or not. I remember the first few listens going I don’t get the appeal of this fucking song. It’s an acquired taste.

Huey: We didn’t quite know what we had at that point, and so you kind of had to establish the value system. Smoothness is the main value in this world. The second episode, when that screened for the live audience, I’ve never seen a Channel 101 audience go that apeshit for anything. I remember walking out of the screening going, we’re rock stars! Granted, it’s only this one room, with like 300 people in it, but in that one room of 300 people, I think we might be rock stars.

Koko Makes His Final Voyage Lyons: As soon as we got in for the first one, JD called me and said here’s the idea for the second one: I’m gonna kill off Koko. Well, thanks a pantload, JD. He’s like, no it’ll be great. You’ll come back later as a ghost or something.

Stair : So JD wanted this guy Koko to have this totem at this fight; I suggested a trident, since it’s more nautical. But Anchorman had come out, and they had the fight scene with the trident. We still needed something, so we settled on a harpoon.

Stair : You can’t kill Loggins. You can’t kill McDonald. These are real people. Koko had to die.

Lyons: My thought is that Koko fell on his own harpoon and martyred himself. I like to think that Koko was the Jesus Christ of Yacht Rock. [ Pause ] That’s going to sound arrogant. How about: Koko died to deliver smooth music to the rest of the musicians.

Huey: I don’t think it was ever decided who killed Koko until the very end. The important thing is, like Jesus, he died for a cause. Which, in this case, was smooth music. But you know what’s gonna happen if you’re in the middle of a melée with a bunch of guys from the mean streets of Philadelphia. You’re going to die of a harpoon injury. That’s why they call it the city of harpoon murders.

Randolph: I always assumed it was Oates.

Wyatt Cenac (“James Ingram”): Who killed Koko? You know, very good question. If I had to go with anybody… I’d say maybe Loggins and McDonald together. That’s the secret twist. I think they’d been slowly poisoning him for years, and the harpoon was just to throw people of their scent.

Ryznar : I don’t know. Is Tony Soprano dead? Hollywood Steve took the “Koko” answer to his grave.

Stair : I would never name names. Only Hollywood Steve knows for sure, and someone would have to give him big Hollywood dollars to spill.

Any Port in a Storm After 10 stellar installments, including a guest appearance by “Cleveland” Drew Carey ,  a case for Jethro Tull (the 18th century farmer, not the band) to be considered smooth and a primer on how Michael McDonald influenced Nineties G-Funk , Yacht Rock was canceled by Channel 101 after “FM” — about a gang war between the Eagles and Steely Dan. But help was on the horizon.

Ryznar : The record at the time was 12. We really wanted to beat it — but we didn’t. There might have been Yacht Rock fatigue in the audience.

Lyons: It’s not one of my favorites. I’m not a fan of the Eagles, and not a lot of people get Steely Dan.

Ryznar : It was heartbreaking, man. Because the great thing about Channel 101 is, you can feel when the audience isn’t into it. And the audience was not into this. I knew the 101 days were over as soon as the screening was done.

Stair : Nowadays, things have two- or three-year runs at Channel 101. Back then, 10 episodes was a lot.

Ryznar : Not even two weeks after we were canceled, I got an email from someone who booked a bar in Chicago — The Empty Bottle — and wanted to screen all the Yacht Rocks. I forget if they flew us out or if we just happened to be there, but we screened all the episodes back to back. There was a line down the block; the place was filled to capacity. People were quoting lines.

Huey: The show had started to go viral. Working lower level jobs in reality television, and then walking into a bar and being the most famous person in that room didn’t match up with my everyday experience at all.

Cast Off . . . Again After successfully touring the country, JD & co. starting making new episodes, beginning with Footloose. Featuring the likes of Jason Lee and Wyatt Cenac, it tells the story of how Loggins being kidnapped by Jimmy Buffett led to one of the Eighties’ most rockin’ soundtracks.

Huey: Yeah I was really excited to get back into it, because I didn’t really have too much else going on at that point. Let’s do that thing that made me semi-famous again!

Ryznar : We did the Footloose episode. And it turned out even better than I could have imagined. It was nice, since we weren’t limited to five minutes, even though we tried to keep it close: one of the keys to Yacht Rock is jamming everything into five minutes. I had done some work with Jason Lee, who would quote lines every time I saw him. So I asked if he’d play Kevin Bacon, and he was throwing chairs around.

Ryznar : We portrayed parrotheads being brainwashed idiots. You kind of have to be if you’re into Jimmy Buffett. Or just want to be so tuned out of life, that like hey, whatever — kick back with flip flops, drink some margs, listen to some sweet Jimmy Buffett music and let him paint a rosy picture of a reality that does not exist.

Lyons: I always like that artists like Bertie Higgins, Rupert Holmes and Andy Kim have an authentic longing in their music. Buffett is a rich dude getting richer off of the lack of taste of the poor and stupid. He represents the lowest common denominator in music, even worse than country singers profiting off of 9/11. To summarize: I’m not really a fan.

Ryznar : You might be able to argue that Jimmy Buffett music is about escaping from a dark place, but there’s no soul in there. So we just wanted to make him an absolute idiot. Our good friend Vatche Panos, who is super funny, really hit a home run with that one.

Cenac: I remember when we were shooting that, I had no idea there was a song called “Cheeseburgers in Paradise.” Much less that people actually listened to it and liked it.

Ryznar : I hope he doesn’t mind me telling this story, but Wyatt Cenac had just auditioned for The Daily Show , and he was flat broke.

Cenac: Yeah, I was definitely very broke. That isn’t why I did it. I did enjoy it. But there was also a part of being broke where you’ll do anything.

Ryznar : And then a month later, he becomes Wyatt Cenac, the international sensation.

Huey : We did one more, and I didn’t feel like the last episode came together as well as it could have for whatever reason. I think Footloose was a more cohesive episode. Also the original idea for the finale was Gene Balboa was going to kidnap all these people from the “We Are the World” session , take them to an island, and force them to write soundtrack hits for him. Anyone who tried to escape would get hunted down like in The Most Dangerous Game.

Ryznar : That was a hard one to write — the space battle, Hall and Oates shooting lasers, Loggins starting his soundtrack phase. I’m proud of killing off Hollywood Steve and making it a pain drug-induced hallucination. I think that let us go nuts with it. The “We Are the World” part was a fun shoot. You just look around and go, wow, I know so many talented people that are bringing so much to this thing.

Stair : The Hollywood Steve “character” was on morphine, not Huey. Well, he might have been on morphine, I don’t know. That’d be an awesome salacious story about Yacht Rock. Just write that, it’s even better.

Huey : When I was using, it did get increasingly harder to tell where the character stopped and I began. Once you’ve been on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the Nineties,” the public expects you to maintain a certain image, and I guess I got caught up in a myth. [ Pause ] I’m kidding. But I did murder a homeless woman. Just to see what it felt like.

Farnham: One of my favorite moments of all of Yacht Rock is when Giorgio Moroder is whispering into Kenny Loggins’ ear about “the Danger Zone.” I love that. It’s such a good moment.

Ryznar : Loggins going soundtrack is kind of like the end of Yacht Rock. If “Sailing” is one of the greatest yacht-rock songs ever, and that’s in Episode Two, it’s all death from then on. “Danger Zone” — there’s just nothing smooth about that song at all. By 1985, Michael McDonald had released his last great album. The Doobie Brothers were done. Toto didn’t have any more good songs in them. Steely Dan was broken up. It was over.

Ryznar : People actually contacted me and wanted to see if I wanted tickets to [their] shows at the Hollywood Bowl. We went backstage and met Hall and Oates. There’s a picture out there somewhere of Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph with Hall and Oates — and it’s awesome.

Randolph: I don’t know who contacted who, but Oates had seen the show and was apparently a fan of it. Hall didn’t give a fuck about us at all. He was just like whatever.

Hancock: Oates actually understood what we were doing. First of all, he’s the shortest dude on the planet. I’m 5’8, and he looked at me and said, man you’re way too tall to play me. I think he’s 5’4 and had thick heels on too.

Cenac: Oates is the unsung hero in that group. The moment he decides to turn the jets on, watch out.

Lyons: The only negative thing I’ve ever heard from any of the actual people we’ve portrayed was that Kenny Loggins wasn’t a huge fan. My wife met him once, and said my husband played Koko in Yacht Rock. He just got all, huh. Not mean, not nasty. Just: Huh.

Stair : I’m not sure Loggins liked it, [but] I know his son did. A lot of the kids of the guys in the show like. You know, some serious artists. Michael McDonald, I’m pretty sure he liked it.

“I met Steve Porcaro at a book-release party, and he asked, ‘Do you guys hate us?’ We’re writing a love letter to this music and we meant no ill will toward anybody. Except for Jimmy Buffett.”

Michael McDonald (speaking to Time Out New York in 2008): “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.”

Agee: About a year ago, I was at Largo, and one of the guys that works there is married to Steve Porcaro’s daughter. He was like, yeah, Steve is actually here tonight; he loves Yacht Rock, and said he wanted to meet me. I cut out early because I was honestly too nervous.

Stair : I met Steve Porcaro at a book-release party, and he kind of pulled me aside and asked, “Do you guys hate us?” And I was like, oh no, I hope that’s not the impression we gave anybody. We’re writing a love letter to this music and we meant no ill will toward anybody. Except for Jimmy Buffett.

Farnham: I actually worked with an editor who was good friends with the Toto folks, and they said it’s uncanny how close some of these stories are. Apparently there’s a lot more truth than we know.

Agee: So I can see how bands would be like, oh, they’re making fun of us. But I’ve known JD for awhile now, and I know for a fact that he loves that music. I don’t think someone who hated what’s now called yacht rock . . they wouldn’t spend so much time making videos about it.

Sean Combs Offers Private Plane, Mansion, Kids’ Passports in Bail Plea

Teamsters won't endorse a candidate, so local unions back harris, trump calls for government shutdown unless congress makes it harder for americans to vote, republicans are livid about … the fed lowering interest rates.

Lyons: I felt we always treated the music lovingly. It was always treated with respect; what we were trying to make fun of was all these guys hanging out and the ridiculous things they were into. I heard a story that Kenny Loggins got married in the nude. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But that’s the kind of late Seventies/early Eighties Southern California horse shit that is so delightful about Yacht Rock. Like wanting to find out what your root chakra is. That’s what’s funny about it. [ Pause ] I mean of course Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry are going to be into karate!

GloRilla's Debut Album 'Glorious' Finally Has a Release Date

• By Larisha Paul

John Cale's Acclaimed 'Paris 1919' to Be Expanded with Bonus Tracks for Reissue This Fall

• Hanky Panky Knowhow
• By Kory Grow

What's Next For Diddy? Lawyers Weigh In On Bombshell Indictment

• Fall From Grace
• By Andre Gee

Sabrina Carpenter to Spread Christmas ‘Nonsense’ in Netflix Variety Special

• Fruitcake, Anyone?
• By Mankaprr Conteh

Nelly Faces Lawsuit From St. Lunatics Over 'Country Grammar' Credits

• crimes and court
• By Daniel Kreps

Most Popular

Jane's addiction concert ends abruptly after perry farrell throws a punch at dave navarro, is forced offstage by crew, 'the bachelorette' winner devin strader was arrested, had restraining order from ex-girlfriend before show, diddy scores major legal win following nyc arrest, jason kelce may have accidentally revealed taylor swift & travis kelce made a massive relationship step, you might also like, kelce brothers sign deal with amazon’s wondery for ‘new heights’ podcast worth more than $100 million, estée lauder unveils 2024 executive pay, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, fantastic fest 2024: clowns rule at texas’ no-joke genre event set to debut ‘terrifier 3,’ ‘v/h/s beyond,’ and more, relevent to manage bundesliga media rights in the americas.

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

• Arts & Events
• Great Reads
• Atlanta 500 – 2025 Nominations
• Atlanta 500 – 2024
• Block by Block: Stories from the streets that connect us
• Women Making a Mark
• Restaurant Reviews
• 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
• Best Barbecue
• 50 Best Tacos
• 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
• 50 Best Bars
• Best Breakfast
• Atlanta Magazine’s HOME Digital Editions
• Artists & Galleries
• Design Advice
• Design News
• Real Estate
• Neighborhoods
• Real Estate All-Stars
• Kitchens for a Cause
• Georgia Design Awards 2024
• School Guide
• Health & Wellness
• Top Doctors
• Top Dentists
• Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles 2024
• Buckhead Guidebook
• Southbound Magazine
• Southbound Digital Editions
• Southbound Newsletter
• 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
• Hidden Georgia
• North Georgia Mountains
• Great Georgia Hikes
• Gilmer: Ellijay Visitors Guide 2022
• Alabama Vacation Guide 2023
• Readers’ Choice
• Subscription Center
• Purchase Single Issues
• Newsletters
• Digital Editions
• Custom Media
• Give Atlanta
• Internships
• Where to Find
• Magazine Events
• Partner Events
• GrillFest 2024
• Indulge 2024
• Whiskey Festival 2024
• Top Doctors Reception 2024 – Green Screen
• 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
• About GaBiz
• GaBiz Magazine Digital Editions
• Issue Archive
• Atlanta 500
• Submit Your Entry for Georgia Design Awards 2024

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

Musicians, celebs, and Atlanta leaders pay tribute to Jimmy Carter at 100th birthday concert

Finding salvation at the bottom of an ancient spring

The verdict on 3 new Atlanta restaurants: Capolinea, Du Bu Gong Bang, and Raik Mediterranean

Great reads.

Kirk Cousins, the new Atlanta Falcons quarterback, takes aim at a Super Bowl

Younger women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. But better screening practices can save more lives.

What happened to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame?

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

If the Yacht Is a Rockin': Riding the Yacht Rock Nostalgia Wave

It’s not often that an entire genre of music gets retconned into existence after being parodied by a web series, but that’s exactly what happened after writer, director, and producer J.D. Ryznar and producers David B. Lyons and Hunter D. Stair launched the Channel 101 web series Yacht Rock in 2005. Hosted by former AllMusic editor “Hollywood” Steve Huey, the series was a loving sendup of the late '70s/early '80s smooth jams to which many Millennials and late period Gen-Xers were likely conceived.

The yacht rock aesthetic was innovated by a core group of musicians and producers including, but not limited to, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, Robbie Dupree, Kenny Loggins, Toto, David Foster, and hirsute soft rock titan Michael McDonald, along with scores of veteran session musicians from the Southern California studio scene.

The Yacht Rock web series was perfectly timed to coincide with a contemporary renaissance of smooth music from the late '70s, the kind that was previously considered a guilty pleasure because it fell out of fashion in the mid-'80s and was soon thereafter regarded as dated and square compared to other burgeoning genres, like punk rock and hip-hop.

Yacht Rock's Early Years

The yacht rock era began roughly around 1976, when yacht rock pillar Kenny Loggins split up with songwriting partner Jim Messina to strike out on his own. That same year, fellow yacht rock mainstay Michael McDonald joined The Doobie Brothers. The two titans of the genre joined forces when Loggins co-wrote the definitive yacht rock hit “What a Fool Believes” with McDonald for the Doobies. They collaborated several times during this era, which was par for the course with such an incestuous music scene that was largely comprised of buddies playing on each other’s albums.

"Look at who performed on the album and if they didn’t perform with any other yacht rock hit guys then chances are [it's] ‘nyacht’ rock,” Ryznar said on the  Beyond Yacht Rock podcast, referencing the pejorative term frequently used to describe soft rock songs that just miss the boat.

"The basic things to ask yourself if you want to know if a track is yacht rock are: Was it released from approximately 1976 to 1984? Did musicians on the track play with Steely Dan? Or Toto?," Ryznar said. "Is it a top 40 radio hit or is it on an album meant to feature hits?" And, of course, does the song celebrate a certain breezy, SoCal aesthetic?

Building the Boat

There are certain key ingredients necessary for a track to be considered yacht rock. For starters, it helps (though is not necessary) to have album art or lyrics that specifically reference boating, as with Christopher Cross's landmark 1980 hit “Sailing.” The music itself is usually slickly produced with clean vocals and a focus on melody over beat. But above all else, the sound has to be smooth . That’s what sets yacht rock apart from "nyacht" rock.

"Its base is R&B, yet it’s totally whitewashed," Ryznar explained on  Beyond Yacht Rock . "There [are] jazz elements. There can be complex, challenging melodies; the solos are all cutting-edge and really interesting. There’s always something interesting about a true yacht rock song. It goes left when you expect it to go right."

Yacht rock’s complex musicianship can be attributed, in part, to the session players on each track. Musicians like percussionist Steve Gadd, guitarist and Toto founding member Steve Lukather, and Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro don’t have much in the way of name recognition among casual soft rock listeners, but they’re the nails that hold the boat together. Steely Dan, “the primordial ooze from which yacht rock emerged,” according to Ryznar, famously cycled through dozens of session musicians while recording their 1980 seminal yacht rock album Gaucho .

"These musicians were not only these slick, polished professionals, but they were highly trained and able to hop from style to style with ease,” Huey explained on  Beyond Yacht Rock . “Very versatile.”

In Greg Prato’s 2018 tome, The Yacht Rock Book : An Oral History of the Soft, Smooth Sounds of the 70s and 80s , Huey broke down “the three main defining elements of yacht rock,” explaining that it requires “Fusing softer rock with jazz and R&B, very polished production, and kind of being centered around the studio musician culture in southern California … It’s not just soft rock, it’s a specific subset of soft rock that ideally has those elements."

Soft rock untethered

Whereas the music of the late 1970s and early ‘80s is often associated with the anti-establishment music of punk pioneers like the Dead Kennedys and the socially conscious songs being written by early hip-hop innovators like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, yacht rock is the antithesis of the counterculture.

Yacht rock occupies a world that is completely apolitical and untethered to current events. Between the oil crisis, a global recession, and inflation—not to mention the fact that the U.S. was still licking its wounds from the loss of the Vietnam War and the disgrace of Watergate—the late '70s were a dark time for Americans. Yet yacht rock, at its heart, is a tequila sunrise for the soul, whisking the listener away to a world where they have the time, and the means, to idle away the hours sipping piña coladas at sea while decked out in flowy Hawaiian shirts and boat shoes.

Yacht rock was never edgy, nor did it ever feel dangerous. Yacht rock didn’t piss off anyone’s parents and no one ever threatened to send their kid to boot camp for getting caught listening to Kenny Loggins's “This Is It.” Yacht rock tracks are more of a siren song that invite your parents to join in on the chorus anytime they hear Toto’s "Rosanna."

Yacht rock songs are meant to set the soundtrack to a life where the days are always sunny, but as Ryznar pointed out on Beyond Yacht Rock , there’s “an underlying darkness”—just not the kind that’s going to derail a day of sailing to Catalina Island. No, yacht rock has elements of low-stakes heartbreak with sensitive male protagonists lamenting their own foolishness in trying to get back together with exes or hitting on women half their age.

The aspirational aspect of the genre dovetailed nicely with the overarching materialism defining the Reagan era. “Yacht rock was an escape from blunt truths, into the melodic, no-calorie lies of ‘buy now, pay never,’ in which any discord could be neutralized with a Moog beat,” Dan O’Sullivan wrote in Jacobin .

Some Like it Yacht

Although the cult comedy series Yacht Rock ceased production in 2010, the soft rock music revival it launched into the zeitgeist is still going strong. For the past few years, SiriusXM has been running a yacht rock station during prime boating season, or what those of us without bottomless checking accounts refer to as the spring and summer months. Yacht rock tribute acts like Yacht Rock Revue are profitable business endeavors as much as they are fun party bands. There’s also a glut of yacht rock-themed song compilations for sale and a proliferation of questionably curated genre playlists on Spotify.

Whether you believe yacht rock is an exalted art form or the insidious soundtrack to complacency, any music lover would probably agree that even a momentary escape from the blunt truths of life is something we could all use every now and then.

• News & Announcements
• Artists & Creators
• Culture & Trends
• Behind the Business
• View All News

• About Spotify
• Press Center
• Life at Spotify
• Safety at Spotify
• Diversity & Inclusion

• Search for:

Suggestions

Popular topics.

Yacht Rock: How the Smooth Sounds of the ’70s and ’80s Became a Genuine Genre

July 9, 2019

When the weather’s warm, the weekends long, and the cocktails crafted using blue curaçao, there’s no better music than yacht rock —the soft, smooth sounds released between roughly 1976 and 1984 that typically feature vocals and keyboards with guitars barely audible in the background. Yet, this genre of music didn’t even have a name until a few years ago.  

Artists like the Eagles , Fleetwood Mac , and Chicago were once viewed as belonging to an adult-contemporary, soft-rock bridge between ’70s disco and ’80s arena rock. But in 2005, a few friends noticed that several artists’ albums of the era had boats on their covers. They jokingly called these albums “marina rock” and created a 12-episode comedy video series that went viral. Yacht rock was born, and today the video series’ creators even have a podcast, Beyond Yacht Rock .

On Spotify, yacht rock is most popular among those aged 45-54 and 18-24, indicating that listeners who came of age during the music’s heyday and their children love those smooth grooves. While yacht rock is most streamed in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, when measured as a percentage of total streams yacht rock is far and away the most popular in New Zealand. In fact, seven of the top 10 cities that keep yacht rock on repeat are in New Zealand (which also just so happens to be the current holder of the America’s Cup —coincidence?). 

But what are the defining characteristics of yacht rock? Let our yacht-or-knot list below be your celestial guide.

Check out the official Yacht Rock playlist .

Charting the Onstage Evolution of The Rolling Stones

Discover more.

Guns N’ Roses Bassist Duff McKagan Sings a Message of Hope

Legend of French Singer-Songwriter Serge Gainsbourg Looms Large on Spotify

How Well Do You Know the Spotify Songs of Summer? Take Our Nostalgia Quiz

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.

See why everyone is calling The Docksiders

America’s favorite yacht rock band™.

Upcoming Shows

Booking Info & More

WE ARE YACHT ROCK™ (the band😊) is proud to present the greatest soft rock, pop and dance hits of the 70’s & 80’s…plus some amazing 1-hit wonders (songs you forgot how much you love by artists you can’t remember). This musical genre which has come to be known as “Yacht Rock” has exploded in popularity in recent years….with its own dedicated SiriusXM Radio Station and legions of fans of all ages…and WE ARE YACHT ROCK (the band) captures all that is good/fun/dance-able/sing-able about this great music!!! Made up of professional musicians and vocalists, WE ARE YACHT ROCK has already performed at venues across Florida…from Miami Beach to Marco Island to Fort Myers to Bonita Springs to Tampa to Leesburg to Orlando and into Alabama….WE ARE YACHT ROCK (the band) continues to grow in popularity and is in greater demand than ever with shows booked as far as 18 months in advance. Homeowners Associations, Gated Communities, Festivals, Fundraising Events, Corporate Events, Weddings, Performing Arts Centers….at Amphitheaters, Hotels, Botanical Gardens, on Beaches, on Yachts…….we have seen so much over these past few years and look forward to discussing your event!

At Prestigious Concert Venues like:

• Kravis Center in West Palm Beach
• Arts Garage in Delray Beach
• Mizner Amphitheatre in Boca Raton

For Corporate events at:

• Westin Beach Resort - Ft Lauderdale
• Lowes Hotel - Miami
• JW Marriot Turnburry Resort - Aventura
• Lady Biscayne Yacht at Eden Roc - Miami
• JW Marriot - Marco Island
• Four Seasons Hotel - Orlando
• Marina Jack – Sarasota
• Bayside Academy – Daphne, Alabama
• JP Morgan Chase
• TIAA Insurance
• And so many more...

For the cities of:

• Coral Springs
• St. Pete Beach
• Boynton Beach

And at prestigious Country Club Communities like:

• Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter
• Bonita Bay Club in Bonita Springs.

WE YACHT ROCK pays tribute to the music you know and love by accurately re-creating these timeless classics by bands like Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Paul Simon, Seals & Crofts, America and Little River Band….as well as the biggest “one-hit-wonders” of that era like “Brandy”, “Baby Come Back”, “Dancin’ In The Moonlight” and “Thunder Island”! It’s a trip down memory lane that will have you singing, smiling and dancing all night!!! Amazing vocal harmonies, excellent musicianship, saxophone, flute, catchy lyrics, songs that make you feel good……that’s Yacht Rock. WE ARE YACHT ROCK!

WE ARE YACHT ROCK offers several different public and private show formats, can provide all backline, PA and lighting if necessary and has several options for our “Look”.

Yacht Rock 1

90 Minutes One 90-Minute Set

Yacht Rock 2

120 Minutes Two 1-Hour Sets

Yacht Rock 3

120 Minutes One 2-Hour Set

Upcoming Public Events

Come visit one of our upcoming shows!

While We Are Yacht Rock maintains a very busy schedule, very few of our shows are open to the public…but here are a few future public events:

Fresh Friday's Downtown - Sarasota

Federal Highway Sarasota, FL

Valencia Reserve

Boynton Beach, FL

Mizner Amphitheatre

Boca Raton, FL

Arts Garage Performancing Arts Center

Delray Beach, FL

Kings Point

Tamarac, FL

The Ship has Sailed (Previous Engagements)

• Diplomat Hotel - Hollywood,FL
• JW Marriot - Marco Island, FL
• Ocean Reef Hotel - Key Largo, FL
• Loxahatchee Club - Jupiter, FL
• Wellington Amphitheatre, FL
• City Of Parkland, FL
• Bayside Academy - Daphne, AL
• Valencia Reserve – Boynton Beach, FL
• Breakers Resort – Palm Beach, FL
• Boca Resort – Boca Raton, FL
• Ritz Carleton Orlando
• Ritz Carleton Miami Beach
• Kravis Center
• Friday Night Soundwaves at Las Olas Park
• Bacon & BBQ Classis at Fairchild Gardens
• JW Marriot Turnburry Resort, Aventura, FL
• Rock The Park – City Of Plantation, FL
• Mizner Amphitheatre - Boca Raton - FL

Past Corporate Clients

Just to name a few...

Sample just some of the classics we play.

Baker Street

Diamond Girl

People everywhere feeling good about these tunes!

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sed consul legimus at, cum ei nibh nominati assueverit, an eum solum admodum adolescens. An lorem democritum qui, in his graece pericula. Has soluta neglegentur no.

Thomas Deck 5 Best Songs: Critic's Picks

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sed consul legimus at, cum ei nibh nominati assueverit

Tim Remembers His 'Good' Tom, Talks New Album

London event 2017: 10 must-see showcases, dark 'elimination' album for fans at uk sessions.

Alexander Deck

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sed consul legimus at

Jonathan Cristian

We usually respond within 24 hours.

917-882-2487

[email protected]

Request a Quote

Songs will need to be added to Spotify to add a player.

Coming Soon

Garibaldi Castle is a sprawling medieval construction that dominates the small town of Khryashchevka, Samara. Built in the Neo-Gothic Style the intricate facade, Historical exhibitions, and dazzling stories that runs through the Castle walls will leave you in wonder. Discover an all-new land that celebrates the magic of ancient history. Relive the romance of the Renaissance Era and magic of the past as the heroic tales of rebellion and royalty come to life with Garibaldi Castle’s extraordinary sculptures and gorgeous scenery. You’ll be swept away like never before! Here at Garibaldi Castle your wildest fantasies become a reality. Discover the imminently glamourous and magnificently quirky around every corner of our castle. Reflect on the regal beauty rich legacy of our world’s history. Every decorated archway and castle corridor leads to new medieval explorations that bring the vision to life.

DISCOVER THE MAGIC WITHIN !function(){switch(CHOSEN_THEME){case THEMES.NEMESIS:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN");break;case THEMES.ALLY:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN")}}();

Discover a place like no other and experience an all new, one-of-a-kind adventure. Nestled in the small town of Khryashchevka, Samara, Russia a medieval secret is waiting to be unveiled. Come join us for the enchantment, fun and adventure. Be apart of Garibaldi Castle and make memories that will last a lifetime.

OLD-WORLD ELEGANCE !function(){switch(CHOSEN_THEME){case THEMES.NEMESIS:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN");break;case THEMES.ALLY:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN")}}();

World-class amenities unite with sheer luxury and unique surroundings, to make sure that there’s nowhere you’d rather be. Let the story unfold as you explore the castle grounds on a magical horse and carriage ride, all while taking in the captivating views of medieval architecture that encompass you.

STORIES TO SHARE !function(){switch(CHOSEN_THEME){case THEMES.NEMESIS:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN");break;case THEMES.ALLY:replaceParentInnerHTML(' ',"news-title-NaN")}}();

There’s a regal atmosphere amidst the Garibaldi Waterfront Oasis where the sunsets cast a sparkle over the Tranquil Samara River. If you dare to spoil yourself, take a voyage on the new Garibaldi Yacht, a decadent treat not to be missed. Feel the light breeze and enjoy spectacular waterfront views from our lounging area where modern meets traditional that will leave you telling stories for years to come.

Administrative and municipal status

City divisions, transportation, culture, education, and sports, parks and monuments, october 2007 bomb attack, organized crime, violent crimes, local government, twin towns – sister cities, partner cities, notable people, external links.

The city is best known as the home of Russia's largest car manufacturer AvtoVAZ ( Lada ). For this reason, Tolyatti is often dubbed "Russia's motor city" or "Russia's Motown" (in reference to Detroit in the United States —the spiritual home of the American automotive industry). It was renamed after Italian communist politician Palmiro Togliatti in 1964. [11]

Stavropol was founded as a fortress in 1737 by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev . [12] It was often informally referred to as Stavropol-on-Volga to distinguish it from Stavropol , a larger city in southwest Russia, although Stavropol-on-Volga was never its official name. [13] [14]

The construction of the Kuybyshev Dam and Hydroelectric Station on the Volga River in the 1950s created the Kuybyshev Reservoir , which flooded the existing location of the city, and it was completely rebuilt on a new site.

In 1964, the city was chosen as the location of the new VAZ automobile plant: a joint venture between Fiat and the Soviet government. It was then renamed Tolyatti after Palmiro Togliatti , the longest-serving secretary of the Italian Communist Party , who had been instrumental in setting up the venture with Fiat. Much of the modern city was constructed in the 1960s to house the workers of the factory, and today AvtoVAZ dominates the economy of the city. [15]

Within the framework of administrative divisions , Tolyatti serves as the administrative center of Stavropolsky District , [1] even though it is not a part of it. [16] As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of oblast significance of Tolyatti —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . [2] As a municipal division , the city of oblast significance of Tolyatti is incorporated as Tolyatti Urban Okrug . [3]

For the administrative purposes, the city is divided into three districts:

• Avtozavodsky ( Автозаво́дский ), also called Novy Gorod (literally New City ), is the most modern; it was designed to host the workers of the city's AvtoVAZ factory, home of the Lada car;
• Tsentralny ( Центра́льный ), also called Stary Gorod (lit. Old City ), home of the city government and industrial center;
• Komsomolsky ( Комсомо́льский ), the oldest district, built to house Hydroelectrical Plant builders.

The city's main claim to fame has been automobiles Lada ( Zhiguli ) manufactured by AvtoVAZ car plant employing some 110,000 people: in cooperation with Italy's Fiat since 1970, with General Motors since 2001 [17] and with the Renault-Nissan Alliance since 2012, and once again becoming an independent, state-owned enterprise in 2022.

Other industries have moved into Tolyatti because it is close to abundant supplies of electricity and water. Petrochemicals are well represented in the city. Among the significant enterprises based there are " TogliattiAzot " (Russia's biggest ammonia manufacturer headed [ when? ] by Sergei Makhlai ) and " KuibyshevAzot " (a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer and Russia's biggest caprolactam and polyamide producer). Other industries include building materials production, ship repair and electrical equipment and electronics. [ citation needed ]

In 2011 the Tolyatti Special Economic Zone was launched in order to develop the region further and diversify the economy of the city. Several auto-component producers (German Mubea and Japanese Sanoh among them) have since been registered, as well as large industrial manufacturers ( Praxair and Edscha ). By November 2012 the value of project investment totalled 10 billion Rubles and around 3000 jobs were being created. [18]

The transport system is well developed in the city. Public transport includes municipal buses and trolley-buses, and so-called "alternative" (commercial) transport or marshrutkas .

External transport routes are provided by two bus stations, two railway stations and a city harbour. Tolyatti has its airport as well, but it is used by personal aircraft only (the nearest international airport, Kurumoch , is located 40   km away, towards Samara ). The city is linked to the federal road network by the M5 "Ural" highway . [ citation needed ]

The creation of the Kuybyshev Reservoir in the 1950s destroyed much of the city's history, so almost all the city's cultural points of interest date from the Soviet period, but the city administration has continued to build new monuments and cathedrals. A recent notable event was the 1998 opening of the large Tatishchev Monument near the Volga . The Transfiguration Cathedral was completed in 2002.

Education is represented by over one hundred public and ten private schools, as well as several higher education institutions. Most notable ones include:

• Togliatti State University ( Тольяттинский государственный университет, ТГУ )
• Volga Region State University of Service ( Поволжский государственный университет сервиса, ПВГУС )
• Tatishchev University of Volga ( Волжский университет имени В. Н. Татищева, ВУиТ )
• Togliatti Academy of Management ( Тольяттинская академия управления, ТАУ )

• AvtoVAZ Technical Museum
• Tolyatti museum of local lore

In the eyes of the Soviet leaders, Tolyatti was a perfect Soviet city (since most population migrated here during the construction of AvtoVAZ factories)   – many sports facilities appeared so that the "perfect Soviet person" could be healthy. The city has high-quality sports facilities: gymnasiums, swimming pools, ice arenas, association football and racing stadiums   — as a result, many athletes, including Olympic Champion Alexei Nemov , Stanley Cup winners Alexei Kovalev and Ilya Bryzgalov had moved to Tolyatti. Former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin , and former Washington Capitals winger Viktor Kozlov and defenseman Alexei Tezikov were born there. Daria Kasatkina , a professional tennis player, was born there. [19]

Tolyatti is represented in almost every kind of team sports. Tolyatti's Lada-sponsored Ice Hockey Club broke the Moscow teams' domination of the game. The Lada women's football team has won the Russian championship several times   — and the Lada women's handball team, who are the Russian and European Champions, is the core for Russian national women's handball. Men's football ( FC Lada Togliatti ), basketball and handball teams also take part in national championships. As for the traditional national sport of Russia, bandy , there is a team founded in 2013, TOAZ, [20] which however only takes part in a recreational league.

Mega-Lada Togliatti who race at the Anatoly Stepanov Stadium are a record 17-times champions of Russia . [21]

Tolyatti has many parks, and many of these contain monuments of cultural, historical, and aesthetic interest. Examples include Victory Park with its Victory Monument and other monuments, Liberty Square with its Obelisk of Glory and other monuments, Central Park with its Mourning Angel (a memorial to victims of Soviet repression), large statue of Lenin , and other monuments, and other parks.

And there are other monuments outside the parks. The City Duma has been energetic in creating or designating historical and cultural monuments, ranging from the colossal equestrian Tatishchev Monument to the tumbledown Repin House and a monument to a faithful dog , and many other types.

There are a number of local newspapers published in Tolyatti: Ploshchad Svobody , Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye ( Tolyatti Observer ), business newspaper "Monday" ("Ponedelnik"), Volny Gorod , Gorodskiye Vedomosti , and a few others. In the end of the 1990s, Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye published a series of articles on a local crime group. The stories drew attention to the group's connections with the local police. [22] [23] Subsequently, Togliatti Review saw two of its editors (Valery Ivanov and Alexei Sidorov) killed in 2002–2003. [24] [25] [26] [27]

The only local-born FM-band radio station is Radio August   [ ru ] at 70.64 and 102.3   MHz.

Tolyatti is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious city. Most religious people in the city are of the Orthodox Christian faith. Muslims are the second largest group of believers. [28] Also in the city are organizations of almost all major religions: Old Believers , Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists and others.

During the morning rush hour of 31 October 2007, a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in the city, killing at least eight people and injuring about 50 in what Irina Doroshenko, a spokeswoman for the investigative wing of the local prosecutor's office, said could be a terrorist attack. [29] At the beginning of the investigation, it was believed to be the work of terrorists from the North Caucasus . [ citation needed ] Early reports indicated possible involvement of Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov . [ citation needed ] However, the officials later named a 21-year-old Evgeny Vakhrushev, who also died in the blast, as the only person to be responsible for the tragedy. [ citation needed ]

The city also has a reputation for gang violence . [30] [31]

The city has witnessed a mafia killing spree: there have been 550 commissioned killings in Tolyatti over 1998–2004, five of those murdered were journalists. [32]

Three chief architects of Tolyatti were victims of violent crimes: Valery Lopatin was shot to death on July 7, 2004, Mikhail Syardin and Aleksander Kiryakov were also injured in violent attacks. [33]

A former city mayor (1994–2000), Sergey Zhilkin   [ ru ] , was murdered on November 15, 2008. [34]

On December   13, 2008, Anatoly Stepanov, a vice-speaker of Duma of Samara Oblast, a former head of administration of Tsentralny City District of Tolyatti in 1991-1997 and Tolyatti mayor candidate in 2004, was attacked on a street and left with serious head injuries. He died in hospital on February   24, 2009. [35]

The city's mayor in 2000–2007, Nikolay Utkin   [ ru ] , was sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges. [36] [37] [38]

Mayor Antashev Sergey Alexandrovich was born on December 16, 1959, in the city of Saransk , Mordovia . In 1994 he moved to Tolyatti, was accepted to the post of director of the heating network enterprise of TEVIS. In 2000 he graduated from the International Market Institute with a degree in management. From 2000 to April 9, 2012 - Marketing Director - Energy Sales Director of TEVIS. Deputy of the Duma of the city district of Togliatti IV (from 2005 to 2009) and V (from 2008 to 2012) convocations. From April 2012 to February 2015, he served as deputy mayor of the city of Tolyatti on urban economy. On April 12, 2017, the Tolyatti City Council appointed Sergey Antashev as the mayor of the city. [39]

On March 4, 2021, Igor Ladyka was appointed acting mayor of the Togliatti city district, in connection with the resignation of Sergei Antashev. [40]

On April 30, 2021, Nikolai Rentz took office as head of the Togliatti city district. [41] [42] The inauguration ceremony was attended by the Governor of the Samara Region Dmitry Azarov. [43] [44]

Tolyatti is twinned with: [45]

• Bo Andersson , (born 1955), CEO of AvtoVAZ
• Varvara Bakhmeteva (1815–1851), Mikhail Lermontov's love interest and muse
• Vasily Banykin (1888–1918), chairman of the executive committee of the city after the October Revolution
• Ilya Bryzgalov (1980) Former NHL goalie who won the Stanley cup in 2007
• Artyom Dubinin (born 1989), professional ice hockey player [46]
• Denis Gurianov (born 1997), ice hockey player
• Daria Kasatkina (born 1997), professional tennis player
• Valentina Stupina , (1920–1943), pilot
• Vasily Tatishchev (1686–1750), founder of the city
• Alexei Nemov , (born 1976), Olympic champion in Artistic gymnastics

• ↑ Russian: Ста́врополь , IPA: [ ˈstavrəpəlʲ ] . Also referred to as Stavropol-on-Volga ( Ста́врополь-на-Во́лге , Stávropol-na-Vólge ) or Stavropol-Volzhsky ( Ста́врополь-Во́лжский ).

Related Research Articles

Samara Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Samara. From 1935 to 1991, it was known as Kuybyshev Oblast . As of the 2021 Census, the population of the oblast was 3,172,925.

Novokuybyshevsk is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern bank of the Volga River, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) away from it. Population: 108,438 (2010 Census) ; 112,973 (2002 Census) ; 112,987 (1989 Soviet census) .

Neftegorsk is a town and the administrative center of Neftegorsky District in Samara Oblast, Russia, located 103 kilometers (64 mi) southeast of Samara, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 19,254 (2010 Census) ; 19,388 (2002 Census) ; 18,895 (1989 Soviet census) .

Bogatovsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the east of the oblast. The area of the district is 824 square kilometers (318 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Bogatoye. As of the 2010 Census, the total population of the district was 14,142, with the population of Bogatoye accounting for 41.9% of that number.

Bolsheglushitsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,534 square kilometers (978 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Bolshaya Glushitsa. Population: 20,477 ; 21,626 (2002 Census) ; 21,388 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Bolshaya Glushitsa accounts for 47.2% of the district's total population.

Khvorostyansky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the west of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,534 square kilometers (978 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Khvorostyanka. Population: 16,302 ; 16,098 (2002 Census) ; 14,634 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Khvorostyanka accounts for 31.7% of the district's total population.

Kinel-Cherkassky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the east of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,469 square kilometers (953 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Kinel-Cherkassy. Population: 47,362 ; 48,922 (2002 Census) ; 51,193 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Kinel-Cherkassy accounts for 36.4% of the district's total population.

Kinelsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the center of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,103.7 square kilometers (812.2 sq mi). Its administrative center is the town of Kinel. Population: 33,258 ; 30,484 (2002 Census) ; 31,000 (1989 Soviet census) .

Klyavlinsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the northeast of the oblast. The area of the district is 1,160 square kilometers (450 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Klyavlino. Population: 15,988 ; 16,437 (2002 Census) ; 30,179 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of the administrative center accounts for 43.6% of the district's total population.

Pestravsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southwest of the oblast. The area of the district is 1,960 square kilometers (760 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Pestravka. Population: 17,779 ; 18,340 (2002 Census) ; 18,815 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Pestravka accounts for 37.0% of the district's total population.

Sergiyevsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the north of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,720 square kilometers (1,050 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Sergiyevsk. Population: 47,548 ; 48,976 (2002 Census) ; 48,574 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Sergiyevsk accounts for 18.2% of the district's total population.

Stavropolsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the west of the oblast. The area of the district is 3,662 square kilometers (1,414 sq mi). Its administrative center is the city of Tolyatti. Population: 54,181 ; 45,167 (2002 Census) ; 40,347 (1989 Soviet census) .

Volzhsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the center of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,481 square kilometers (958 sq mi). Its administrative center is the city of Samara. Population: 83,377 ; 77,621 (2002 Census) ; 64,974 (1989 Soviet census) .

Yelkhovsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is located in the north of the oblast. The area of the district is 1,201 square kilometers (464 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Yelkhovka. Population: 10,046 ; 10,187 (2002 Census) . The population of Yelkhovka accounts for 32.5% of the district's total population.

Alexeyevka is an urban locality under the administrative jurisdiction of the town of oblast significance of Kinel of Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 10,411 (2010 Census) ; 9,703 (2002 Census) ; 9,179 (1989 Soviet census) .

Ust-Kinelsky is an urban locality under the administrative jurisdiction of the town of oblast significance of Kinel of Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 9,988 (2010 Census) ; 8,995 (2002 Census) ; 7,257 (1989 Soviet census) .

Bolshaya Chernigovka is a rural locality and the administrative center of Bolshechernigovsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 6,356 (2010 Census) ; 6,318 (2002 Census) ; 6,274 (1989 Soviet census) . It takes its name from the Ukrainian city Chernihiv.

Isakly is a rural locality and the administrative center of Isaklinsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 4,334 (2010 Census) ; 4,451 (2002 Census) ; 4,632 (1989 Soviet census) .

Koshki is a rural locality and the administrative center of Koshkinsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 7,969 (2010 Census) ; 8,149 (2002 Census) ; 7,352 (1989 Soviet census) .

Chelno-Vershiny is a rural locality and the administrative center of Chelno-Vershinsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 5,747 (2010 Census) ; 6,062 (2002 Census) ; 6,531 (1989 Soviet census) .

• 1 2 3 Государственный комитет Российской Федерации по статистике. Комитет Российской Федерации по стандартизации, метрологии и сертификации.   №ОК 019-95   1 января 1997 г. « Общероссийский классификатор объектов административно-территориального деления. Код   36 240 », в ред. изменения №278/2015 от   1 января 2016 г.. (State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation. Committee of the Russian Federation on Standardization, Metrology, and Certification.   # OK 019-95   January   1, 1997 Russian Classification of Objects of Administrative Division (OKATO). Code   36 240 , as amended by the Amendment   # 278/2015 of   January   1, 2016. ).
• 1 2 3 4 Charter of Samara Oblast
• 1 2 3 4 Law #189-GD
• ↑ Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. ( Russian Post ). Поиск объектов почтовой связи ( Postal Objects Search ) (in Russian)
• ↑ Выписка из реестра Российской системы и плана нумерации Archived April 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Федеральное агенство связи (Россвязь) / ABC code plan by Rossvyaz (Federal Communications Agency of Russia)
• ↑ Russian Federal State Statistics Service. Всероссийская перепись населения 2020 года. Том 1 [ 2020 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1 ] (XLS) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service .
• ↑ Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том   1 [ 2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol.   1 ] . Всероссийская перепись населения 2010   года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service .
• ↑ Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов   – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3   тысячи и более человек [ Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000 ] (XLS) . Всероссийская перепись населения 2002   года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian).
• ↑ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989   г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [ All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers ] . Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989   года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 – via Demoscope Weekly .
• ↑ "Office of the Mayor: History and geography" . Archived from the original on March 10, 2012.
• ↑ "История / О Тольятти / Администрация городского округа Тольятти" .
• ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on December 10, 2012 . Retrieved December 1, 2019 . {{ cite web }} : CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link )
• ↑ "Русская семья со шведской фамилией / Православие.Ru" . www.pravoslavie.ru .
• ↑ "АвтоВАЗ" запустил предсерийное производство Lada Vesta NG
• ↑ Государственный комитет Российской Федерации по статистике. Комитет Российской Федерации по стандартизации, метрологии и сертификации.   №ОК 019-95   1 января 1997 г. « Общероссийский классификатор объектов административно-территориального деления. Код   36 440 », в ред. изменения №278/2015 от   1 января 2016 г.. (State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation. Committee of the Russian Federation on Standardization, Metrology, and Certification.   # OK 019-95   January   1, 1997 Russian Classification of Objects of Administrative Division (OKATO). Code   36 440 , as amended by the Amendment   # 278/2015 of   January   1, 2016. ).
• ↑ "Home" . www.lada-owners-club.co.uk .
• ↑ "Особая экономическая зона "Тольятти" " . oeztlt.ru .
• ↑ "Daria Kasatkina | Player Stats & More – WTA Official" .
• ↑ "Информация о команде "ТОАЗ" Самарская область - Реестр - Федерация хоккея с мячом России" . rusbandy.ru .
• ↑ "Russian Team Championship" . Speedway History . Retrieved April 8, 2024 .
• ↑ Togliatti Journal; Gathering News in This New Russia Can Be Fatal , Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times, 16 May 2002.
• ↑ How the Togliatti Observer Was Born Excerpt from "That's How It Happened", Togliatti Observer, 11 April 2002.
• ↑ Newspaper Editor Killed , Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, 11 October 2003.
• ↑ Court acquits suspect in Togliatti editor's murder Ann Cooper, Committee to Protect Journalists, 12 October 2004.
• ↑ The Togliatti Murders: 'They Can't Kill Us All' Committee to Protect Journalists, 15 September 2009.
• ↑ UNESCO Condemns Assassination of Russian Journalist Alexei Sidorov UNESCO Press Release 2003-80.
• ↑ "Информационный сервер Тольятти-Новости" .
• ↑ Bomb on Russian Bus Kills at Least 8 , Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, 1 November 2007.
• ↑ Eight killed in Russia bus blast BBC, 31 October 2007.
• ↑ Криминальная история Тольятти Crime history of Tolyatti.
• ↑ Russian journalism comes under fire Paul Jenkins, BBC, 2 July 2004.
• ↑ В Тольятти новый главный архитектор Archived April 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Tolyatti has a new chief architect, TLT.ru, April 10, 2009. (in Russian)
• ↑ "Togliatti State University: We are mouring" . Archived from the original on March 10, 2012 . Retrieved August 27, 2010 .
• ↑ Загадки убийства Степанова Mysteries in assassination of Stepanov, TLTgorod.ru. (in Russian)
• ↑ Togliatti Mayor Suspected of Extorting 4-Storey House Archived September 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Pavel Sedakov, Kommersant, 17 August 2007.
• ↑ Mayoral Elections Criticized After Arrest Archived March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Natalya Krainova, The St. Petersburg Times, 2 March 2010.
• ↑ "Экс-мэр Тольятти Николай Уткин осужден на семь лет" . February 12, 2008.
• ↑ "Общая информация / Администрация городского округа Тольятти / Структура администрации / Власть / Администрация городского округа Тольятти" . tgl.ru .
• ↑ "Igor Ladyka appointed Acting Head of the city of Togliatti" . tgl.ru . March 4, 2021 . Retrieved July 8, 2022 .
• ↑ Дмитрий Азаров уверен, что у Николая Ренца получится конструктивный диалог с тольяттинцами City Traffic (in Russian). April 30, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2023
• ↑ "Новый мэр Тольятти приступает к работе" . April 30, 2021.
• ↑ "Николай Ренц вступил в должность главы Тольятти" . April 30, 2021.
• ↑ "Губернатор поздравил Николая Ренца со вступлением в должность мэра Тольятти" . April 30, 2021.
• ↑ "Города побратимы" . tgl.ru (in Russian). Tolyatti . Retrieved February 4, 2020 .
• ↑ Tolyatti profile and statistics at KHL.ru
• Самарская Губернская Дума.   №179-ГД   18 декабря 2006 г. «Устав Самарской области», в ред. Закона №6-ГД от   11 января 2016 г.   «О внесении изменений в Устав Самарской области». Вступил в силу   1   января 2007   г. Опубликован: "Волжская коммуна", №237 (25790), 20 декабря 2006 г. (Samara Governorate Duma.   # 179-GD   December   18, 2006 Charter of Samara Oblast , as amended by the Law   # 6-GD of   January   11, 2016 On Amending the Charter of Samara Oblast . Effective as of   January   1, 2007.).
• Самарская Губернская Дума.   Закон   №189-ГД   от   28 декабря 2004 г. «О наделении статусом городского округа и муниципального района муниципальных образований в Самарской области», в ред. Закона №23-ГД от   30 марта 2015 г.   «Об осуществлении местного самоуправления на территории городского округа Самара Самарской области». Вступил в силу   по истечении десяти дней со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Волжская коммуна", №247, 31 декабря 2004 г. (Samara Governorate Duma.   Law   # 189-GD   of   December   28, 2004 On Granting the Status of Urban Okrug and Municipal District to the Municipal Formations in Samara Oblast , as amended by the Law   # 23-GD of   March   30, 2015 On the Implementation of Local Self-Government on the Territory of Samara Urban Okrug of Samara Oblast . Effective as of   after ten days from the day of the official publication.).
• Official website of Tolyatti
• Official website of Tolyatti (in Russian)
• Interactive map of Tolyatti (in Russian)
• Togliatti State University
• Togliatti Academy of Management
• Volga Region State University of Service
• Volzhsky University after V.N. Tatischev
• Ploshad Svobody (in Russian)
• Togliatti Review (in Russian)
• Volny Gorod (in Russian)
• Gorodskiye Vedomosti (in Russian)
• Radio August (in Russian)
• Виртуальный Тольятти (in Russian)
• Information server TLTnews.net
• Главная страница (in Russian)
• TLT.ru - Новости Тольятти | Городской информационный портал (in Russian)
• Soviet postcards: Togliatti, die Autostadt (in German)

• United States
• Czech Republic