Who Is the King of Yacht Rock? It’s Not Christopher Cross!?
Yacht or Not?
That’s a controversial question that’s been swirling for years among music aficionado. It pertains to whether or not a song from the ’70s or ’80s falls into this smooth, relaxing, soft rock music genre now defined as yacht rock. Gather your family and ask them first if they know what yacht rock is. Then label one of their favorite songs or artists that might fall into the boat as yacht rock and let the conversation ensue.
Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It” — yacht or not?
Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” — yacht or not?
Toto’s “Rosanna” — yacht or not?
Steely Dan: yacht rock?
Christopher Cross. Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Comedian Fred Armisen defines the genre more like a feeling of “Hey, it’s going to be OK,” and while it’s hard to define, it’s very clear whether it is or isn’t yacht rock. But is it? Does it rock too hard?
Take one look at the “yachtski” chart and you’ll see why some of the founding fathers of the made-up genre (J.D. Ryznar, Steve Huey, Hunter Stair and David Lyons) all have varied opinions with the one exception being that no one — no one — beats Michael McDonald and his Doobie Brothers hit “What a Fool Believes.” Every song from the 1970s to today is compared against him.
Michael McDonald. Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“The way we like to explain it is, almost all yacht rock is soft rock but not all soft rock is yacht rock,” shares Huey. “It wasn’t literally about boats.”
The fascinating history behind this music genre and the opinions on what songs fit into it is the subject of the new HBO documentary Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, debuting Friday, Nov. 29, at 9pm ET/PT (streaming on Max). The doc comes from Garret Price, who did Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage, and features many of the aforementioned originators of the music genre along with the artists themselves.
It’s an unbelievably rich saga of how the genre came to be and a delightfully fun flashback to the ’70s and ’80s. While the sound started in late 1970s Los Angeles, it wasn’t until 25 years later that it got its official moniker of Yacht Rock and has proliferated in pop culture ever since. Think Tony Soprano driving while singing Steely Dan’s “I don’t want to do your dirty work no more.”
Kenny Loggins. Jerod Harris/Getty Images
Rich with video clips and narration, these unheard stories are something for the annals.
Kenny Loggins shares how when he first heard Michael McDonald he knew he wanted to work with him. The first song they collaborated on was “What a Fool Believes,” which Loggins believes was the quintessential yacht rock song of the era.
McDonald’s story about how he first met Loggins, when Loggins came over to his house, is priceless. McDonald’s sister had come over to clean after finding out Loggins was on his way. As he waited, McDonald was riffing piano variations and asked his sister about it. She advised against sharing it with Kenny, thinking he might think of it more as a “circus song,” but Loggins overheard it and the result was “What a Fool Believes.” The song went on to win 1980’s Grammy Song of the Year. After that there was an unspoken worry between the two of how they were going to top that. Loggins says they decided to get together and just get a shitty song out of the way, believing it almost impossible to top it, but they did and won a Grammy the next year with “This Is It.”
The doc includes additional soulful insights from Christopher Cross, Toto’s Steve Porcaro, Steve Lukather and David Paich, Prince Paul (De La Soul), Brian Robert Jones (Vampire Weekend), Thundercat, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (The Roots), Mac DeMarco, music producers, journalists, scholars, and rock critics.
Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary airs on HBO Friday, Nov. 29, at 9pm ET/PT and streams on Max.
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