5 Classic Albums That Define Yacht Rock

Among rock genres, the origin of "yacht rock" is by far the strangest. Devised by comedians JD Ryznar, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham, it's the first and only term for a musical subgenre to come from a mockumentary web series. Running from 2005 to 2010, the term crystallized over 20 years after the dominance of the music it denoted had faded. Yet, it perfectly captures the unique smooth, R&B-inflected soft rock that sailed (mostly) from California to take the charts by storm from the mid-'70s to early '80s. Albums by the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, and their cohort became the wind in the sails of a musical movement they never knew they were part of.

Not all soft rock from this time is yacht rock. In the series and the press, Ryznar has insisted that Jimmy Buffett, for instance, isn't. "There's no soul in there," he told Rolling Stone. But as laid out on definitive albums like "Toto IV" and "Minute By Minute," the yacht sound features melodic and harmonic complexity, sophisticated arrangements, slick production, and a little sappiness. It was destined to captivate generations of dads. "You know, like Michael McDonald is singing background vocals and like there's guys on boats on the covers," Ryzner added. "It feels like you're on a yacht listening to it."

We know what he's talking about. But if you don't, these five classic albums should clear things up. As you set sail on your yacht rock voyage, these are the genre's wind, sails, and ships — its definitive cuts.

The Doobie Brothers didn't always play yacht rock — they started off with country-inflected boogie rock and counted Hells Angels as fans. By 1978's "Minute by Minute," they'd fully embraced a slicker, soft-rock-meets-R&B sound. That shift had a great deal to do with former Steely Dan backup vocalist and keyboardist Michael McDonald, one of the genre's GOATs. He'd joined in 1975, filling in as original frontman Tom Johnston was sidelined by health problems. But over the next few years, his writing and singing became central to the band's expanding and evolving sound.

If you want to hear yacht rock fully set sail, then "Minute by Minute" is a vinyl record you should already own. Set against an infectious upbeat groove, McDonald's baritone croon on the album's hit single, "What a Fool Believes, " which he co-wrote with Kenny Loggins, checks every box. Spinning a yarn about a lover in denial about a relationship falling apart — "what a fool believes" is that it isn't over — the song is perfectly marina music: bittersweet, smooth, and infectious. The title track and songs like the closer "How Do Fools Survive?" further encapsulate the unique blend of style, musicianship, and lyricism that made the genre what it was (to become).

Critics at the time, like Robert Christgau, caught on to the stylistic shift. "Tight playing combines with moderately intricate rhythms and harmonies for sexy, dancey pop music of undeniable craft," he wrote in the Village Voice. The craft he's describing is yacht rock leaving harbor.

If yacht rock has a harder edge — perhaps "aggressively softer" is a better way to put it — it comes from Kenny Loggins. By the late '70s, the prolific pop rock singer-songwriter had gone from folky country rock to a more soft rock sound, and his 1979 album, "Keep The Fire," shows just how far the ship had sailed. With polished production, intricate pop arrangements, R&B grooves, and Loggins' soaring, dynamic voice and songwriting, it captures the genre at its most powerful: The peak of the wave.

Co-written by Michael McDonald and featuring his backing vocals, the lead single "This Is It" skips on being sentimental or sweet and becomes confrontational and anthemic. Written while Loggins' father was in the hospital, it's about not losing hope and carrying on the struggle. "It's not a love song. It's a life song," he told American Songwriter. The pre-chorus builds before landing on the aggressive demand: "Stand up and fight." Affirmational and hooky, the single cruised to a clean No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1980. 

Another track on "Keep the Fire" that sails the seas is the jazzy pop number, "Who's Right, Who's Wrong." On top of the gorgeous harmonies and passionate singing, it features a sultry saxophone solo, a fixture of many yacht rock songs. And the title track even uses nautical imagery: "You'd be well on your way / If you could only set sail," goes the first verse, "But dreams can drift away / And sails can fill with doubt." Could Loggins see into the future?

If the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan were in the first fleet, Christopher Cross broke through in 1980 as part of yacht rock's second wave. Off his self-titled 1979 debut album, no track better captures the mellow, sentimental vibe of the genre than its (aptly named) second single, "Sailing." With his gentle crooning set against delicate picked guitar lines, sweeping strings, and tight harmonies, the tune was declared the most "softsational" soft rock song of all time by VH1. Topping the Billboard Hot 100 in August, it added to the total of four Top 40 charting singles off the album. It also helped to make Cross a superstar and cemented 1980 as one of the decade's best for summer music.

The whole album is seaworthy, buoyed by Cross' sometimes sweet and sad, sometimes forceful delivery. The lead single, "Ride Like the Wind," is piano-driven soft rock with, you guessed it, Michael McDonald on backing vocals. Then there are the mellow grooves of "Never Be the Same," a danceable, smooth, and bittersweet ballad about what else but the end of a relationship. Cross isn't reinventing the wheel with lines like "No one will ever touch me that way / The way that you did that very first day." But the way he sings them grabs you by the heart.

Despite racking up four Grammys with his debut, Cross scored only one more Billboard top 10 with "Think of Laura" in 1984 before fading from the pop charts. Though brief, his time in the spotlight was yacht rock's commercial peak.

When Toto released "Toto IV" in 1982, the LA-based band were in a make-or-break situation. Their self-titled 1978 debut album was a hit, but the next two flopped. Under pressure from their record company, they leaned on their pop toolkit for their fourth effort. "[W]e're gonna go for it with the biggest, most obnoxiously overproduced record of all time," guitarist Steve Lukather recalled in Ultimate Classic Rock. "And it turns out that's what we do best." Whether or not there was too much studio trickery, what emerged was a defining album for the band and the yacht rock aesthetic in full flower.

Contributing to recordings by artists like Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts, and Michael Jackson, the quintet's fingerprints were all over pop music. But "Toto IV" saw them move into another echelon. Audiences couldn't get enough of the album, and it yielded four Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, including "Africa," the band's only No. 1. Album opener "Rosanna" is quintessential yacht rock: Draping longing for an ex-lover in an energetic backbeat, tight harmonies, and virtuosic solos. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the piano-driven "I Won't Hold You Back," which explodes from a mellow groove to become a power ballad.

Lukather looks back on it all with pride, telling Ultimate Classic Rock, "We had no idea it was going to turn into what it did; we were just trying not to get kicked off the label." Backed into a corner, Toto found a way out with yacht rock.

On "Aja," Steely Dan are smooth without being saccharine — their yacht rock is sophisticated, jaded, and even a bit dark. The album is populated with a menagerie of desperate characters: a bored suburbanite dreaming of being a musician in "Deacon Blues," a jilted boyfriend at his girlfriend's photo shoot in "Peg," and a woman losing herself to the big city nightlife in "Black Cow." It tracks that, unlike their peers, the band — revolving around the collaboration of Walter Becker and Donald Fagan — were East Coast-based, anchored in Manhattan rather than Santa Monica. Colliding jazz, pop, and rock, the songs on this 1977 album sound even cooler today, appealing to music nerds and more casual fans alike.

By the time Becker and Fagan were working on "Aja," bandmembers like guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Michael McDonald had decamped (both for the Doobie Brothers). Without a fixed group, the two had the freedom to work with legends like jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter and top-notch session musicians. As creatures of the studio, they were obsessed with getting the perfect sound. To get the 30-second guitar solo for the album's biggest single, "Peg," five to seven guitarists (depending on who you ask) tried countless times before Jay Graydon gave them what they wanted. "The whole thing probably took about four, five hours," he told Newsweek.

But "Aja" wouldn't be a Steely Dan record without that tight sound. It's refined, top-shelf yacht rock. Pushed along by production and musical prowess, it's the darkest ship in the fleet and perhaps its coolest.