Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary on MAX (HBO)

Thanks for the lowdown, OP. I'll ride like the wind over there and watch it right now. I could use a good escape (no pina colada needed)

^ What a fool believes.

Christopher Cross was on acid when he wrote 'Ride Like The Wind'

Baby, come back!

(once you've watched it and let us know how it is)

Oooooohhhh!

Young Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins were so cute

Here's the "Lowdown". If you enjoy "Reminiscing" you will love every "Minute (by Minute)" of this DOCKumentary.

Thanks for being our "Eye in the Sky," OP, and reporting on this.

"I Go Crazy" for these kinds of songs.

Thank you OP, I hadn't heard of this. I love yacht rock!

I loved it! Thought it was really entertaining & interesting. I love all that music but had no idea where or how the term actually originated. Plus, there are fun little nuggets like R3, and the most Donald Fagen-thing ever at the end.

I went to a strict Christian school where secular music wasn't played, but our gym teacher had a young assistant (a college kid) who would play Steely Dan's 'Peg' when we worked out. That's how ubiquitous yacht rock was back then (late 70's).

Peg is a fucking great song. I love Steely Dan, always have.

R11

That’s a great song. ^^^ Probably my favorite Steely Dan song, besides FM.

[quote]Christopher Cross was on acid when he wrote 'Ride Like The Wind'

He should have written under the influence more often. The rest of his catalogue is so vanilla

r14 "Sailing" is a great song.

I'd love to go on a Yacht Rock cruise and meet "The Captain of My Heart"

No, I didn't know there was one, but I'll watch it! I love Yacht Rock!

Does A Horse With No Name count as Yacht Rock?

Yup, r18. At least in my estimation.

No r18 Yacht Rock tends to be a bit more jazzy than that

Thanks for mentioning, OP - will have to check it out.

Horse With No Name is pretty uptempo. Maybe not in a jazzy way, but there are many entries into the Yacht Rock genre that don't sound necessarily "jazzy."

r22 I would put them in with The Eagles who are not Yacht Rock

So, by your estimation r23, Boys of Summer (by the Eagles) is NOT Yacht Rock?

I beg to differ.

On the Dockumentary they said The Eagles are not Yacht Rock. Boys of Summer was Don Henley as a solo artist but I would not consider that Yacht Rock either.

Ok, whatever.

Not in the mood to argue. I would put Boys of Summer and many of America's hits in the Yacht Rock territory. To each their own, I guess.

Yacht Rock was late 70s and early 80s, very early 80s.

The 1985ish Boys of Summer is in no way, shape or form Yacht Rock. Not even a little tiny bit.

Sorry.

There's a bunch of great music from that era that's soft rock, and I listen to a lot of it, including songs like Horse With No Name. It's also great, but it is not, in any way, shape, or form, yacht rock.

America was before 1985.

Again, whatever floats your boat.

LOL.

By the documentary’s definition, Al Jarreau, George Benson, and James Ingram are also under the Yacht Rock umbrella, so it’s not a very clear-cut rule. Strangely, Jimmy Buffet is *not* Yacht Rock.

Thanks, OP! Whenever I call you, friend, I will think of yacht rock!

i would actually be interested in going to a yacht rock concert or on a short yacht rock cruise.

it invokes better times for me.

Steely Dan’s Aja was an entire era in the ‘70s. It was at the top of the album charts FOREVER.

I had the 45 of Hey Nineteen.

R28 - I posted at R20 R23 and R25

R27 is not me but I agree with their post

No hard feelings R28 let’s just enjoy the music together

Has anyone else seen Stereophonic? Watching this documentary puts the Toto reference in perspective.

Ladies! Ladies! Please! You’ve had your fun and games but now it’s time for us to:

BLESS THE RA-INS DOWN IN A-FR-CA!

(Ah-ah, bless the rains!)

This cover performance is a favorite of mine.

Watched it? I lived it!

For those wanting some yacht rock but it’s Wicked weekend…

Music to commit date rape to

Horse with No Name is not yacht rock.

But how about Lady in Red?

That's a no, R40.

I hate Hey 19. The lyrics are awful.

Thanks R41, just thought I'd ask (about Lady in Red).

How about "Africa" by Toto?

[quote] and the most Donald Fagen-thing ever at the end.

Was it him telling the producer or director "Fuck You" and hanging up on him or her when Fagen was asked to appear in this?

I haven't watched Yacht Rock because I don't have HBO but I was listening to a DJ on Sirius XM yesterday and he said that's what Fagen did.

I've always been a Steely Dan fan, and Fagen has every right to choose not to participate, but I had no idea that Fagen was such a salty old curmudgeon until Walter Becker died and then the stories all came out about Fagen.

I think Fagen even sued Becker's widow or opposed her on something after Becker died.

The definitive "yacht rock" sound belongs to Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Toto and Steely Dan.

There are numerous others from that era that also fall under that banner, but the idea is that it's really midtempo or upbeat, often with a jazzy element or a very poppy beat. It's also defined by being a lot of white dudes who were mixing elements of jazz or R&B into their songs. Not to say they were singing soul music, but that a small bit of that studio sound, or the beats, were mixed in with more traditional rock elements.

I love America.....Horse With No Name.....just listened to Daisy Jane a few minutes ago. But it's more of the folky, traditional rock sound as was present in the earlier years of the 70s. So not yacht rock.

Boz Scaggs ... Yacht Rock.

R46 yes, absolutely. Because of several of the reasons mentioned above at R45.

I love Boz Scaggs, "Jojo" is my favorite song of his. A white guy singing a song about a black pimp, I doubt that would fly today.

Here's Fagen with the FU to the show's Director. The guy at the beginning of the clip is the lead singer of Ambrosia.

lol ^

Still, Fagen's "The Nightfly" is superb, I never get sick of listening to it.

Donald Fagen was kind of cute.

I’m glad the guy from Toto had his hair done for the documentary.

Donald Fagen was as hideous as a gargoyle in his younger days.

Talented, but a cunt of a human being, one that slapped his wife around. (Libby Titus, his wife, just died a few months ago.)

Streisand sang Loggins’ I Believe in Love in 1976’s A Star Is Born!! But Esther Blodgett wasn’t really yacht rock.

Was Kenny Loggins gay? He always seemed gay to me.

So “Steely Dan” were the producers and Michael McDonald was the vocalist…? Is that right?

Yeah, Kenny Loggins is seeming gay, as he gets older.

R55 No, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were both the producers and the band Steely Dan.

HOWEVER

Michael McDonald's backing vocals figure prominently on a few of their songs, most notably on the chorus of "Peg".

(That was the era when McDonald's vocals were everrrrrryyyyywhere.)

"We were in some hotel, just sitting there, smoking a joint, and in the middle of it, I just said, 'I think I've got to go. I'm a little too high,' and I said, 'I'm gonna go lay down,' " McDonald says in the documentary. "So I went into my room and I leave the TV on, and as I walked in, SCTV was on, and I thought maybe I was hallucinating."

"The whole time I was sitting there, I was going, 'Is this really happening, or am I just losing it?'... And years later, Rick Moranis apologized to me because I guess he wondered if I was offended by it or something. I said, 'Quite the opposite. I got a lot of mileage out of that.' "

All these yacht rock guys look like DADS!! lol

Steely Dan was genius. They are bigger than yacht rock because of their great lyrics.

According to Wikipedia, Thriller (Michael Jackson) is yacht rock.

I don't think the Wikipedia info on Yacht Rock is accurate

Not all of the Thriller album is yacht rock. Just Human Nature because it was written by one of the guys in Toto and has that yacht rock sound.

R63 Yes and no. You're right about the guy that wrote Human Nature.

But there were other yacht rock figures that played on Thriller too. (Greg Philligaines is one, I think.) They didn't go into super granular details about it but yes, Quincy had a lot of the yacht rock guys as session musicians on that album.

The Wikipedia entry looks pretty solid to me.

I like how they separated some of the artists into Yacht Soul - that seems right and is a welcome extension.

Yacht Soul - they need a channel for that. Sirius only has a couple of Yacht Rock channels.

Yammo be there!

A two-part BBC doc on Yacht Rock.

lllll

America Horse With No Name is Not Yacht per this chart

Ok, but Iike it along with these songs.

The music industry is funny. I remember during the Thriller years, it was primarily seen as Michael Jackson’s triumph, perhaps secondarily, Quincy Jones’. I wasn’t a huge fan and it was so ubiquitous, I never bought it but all the hype really made Michael Jackson seem like some kind of genius. And here it is,, must if the music and the sound of it was down to Quincy hiring Toto and Jackson following established vocal lines.

It’s a funny place because just like Milli Vanelli, everyone in the industry was aware of that but they go along with and stroke the hype anyway.

No wonder Jackson was never really able to follow it up and rode the hype wave to his death bed.

I’d rather be Christopher Cross than Michael Jackson.

Also, the Africa section of this documentary is hilarious. And awesome.

[R56] Kenny Loggins not gay, Italian

Yes Thriller is yacht rock but ONLY Thriller, and it's on the "family tree" only because so many of its session players were involved in its making.

[quote] Ok, but Iike it along with these songs.

As I say at R45, I love it too. Love early America. Daisy Jane is a favorite. But it's not yacht rock. Which isn't a bad thing or a negative or anything else. It's in the more general mellow rock category for the 70s.

I think the biggest surprise for me was that I loathed Christopher Cross songs as a kid and after watching last night, I have a renewed appreciation for his songs.

I mean, Sailing and Ride With The Wind really were something.

Michael had a few more Yacht Rock songs like The Girl Is Mine with Paul McCartney and Rock With You according to this list

I watched it Saturday and it was like being in a Hot Tub Time Machine.

so many of the same artists played on so many of the songs.

And seeing the faces behind the music was fun.....most of them still look okay.

A nice look back if you're interested in the music.

Fun fact: Rock With You was originally offered to Karen Carpenter for her solo album but she turned it down.

Sailing is lovely, R78. There was always been something comfortably hypnotic about it.

The one that really was a game changer, as the doc acknowledged, is What a Fool Believes. To have lived in the time when that was first released! I remember waiting for it to come on the radio. I had the 45 and the cassette of Minute by Minute. And I bought Kenny Loggins’ This Is It - I just always loved the intensity of his vocals.

Rock With You is the only Michael Jackson song I ever liked. The Reflex did an amazing reversion of it.

How much longer are we going to tolerate these America fans before we throw them overboard, off the Yacht Rock boat…?

We get it. The vocals confuse you. But tune your ears. CSN aren’t yacht rock either, again, because they’re folk not jazz.

Fagen was hilarious at the end of the doc. lol

The other, perhaps most hilarious thing, was when they cut to Robbie DuPree’s Steal Away, which earned absolutely no respect.

r85, it's pronounced Faggot.

Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald have probably been able to dine out for the past 45 years on the royalties from What A Fool Believes alone, never mind the rest of their catalog. That song was a monster hit and has never stopped being played.

Kenny Loggins played "Footloose" on an episode of "Live From Daryl's House" (Daryl Hall). Daryl's guitarist was trying to learn the guitar part(s) of "Footloose" and Kenny was correcting him (the guitarist). The guitarist said: "Who knew 'Footloose' was so complicated?" I thought that was hilarious and Kenny was probably insulted.

Kenny Loggins was always foot loose.....if you know what I mean.

[quote]Fagen was hilarious at the end of the doc. lol

I liked director Garret Price's take on that. He said Fagen's manager called him back shortly after the hang-up, and gave him permission to use several Steely Dan songs in the doc:

[quote]"I think it's a wink," Price says of Fagen's colorful reaction. "It's like, 'I get it. I understand how important this name ["yacht rock"] is to our music. But I'm gonna let you know how I feel about that.' It's him being him."

Christopher Cross was the biggest revelation for me. As a teenager, I thought he was incredibly "square" and dorky. Sort of a goody two-shoes? (and that perception hadn't changed into my adult years). Come to find out he probably would have been at home touring with the Grateful Dead.

Loved the story about the 1981 Grammys & wanting to meet Streisand post-ceremony....and Aretha Franklin (or whomever) telling him, "Oh honey, tonight isn't the night." LOL

I know that What A Fool Believes is totally a love song, missed opportunity for love or what have you.....but my mother loved McDonald and his voice and listened to that song all the time....so it always reminds me of her, and I end up with tears in my eyes when I hear it now, transported back to those times in the span of a few notes.

I know....silly, silly MARY!

R92 I cackled when he mentioned he was a weed dealer....so at odds with his image.

I saw Michael McDonald in concert a while ago. His wife was one of his background singers. Surprisingly enjoyable. (My coworker had a 2nd job at the venue and got us cheap tickets.)

On 40-year-old Virgin, the Best Buy manager was a huge fan, as well.

R94, the McDonald story about the Rick Moranis story. I died.

These guys all seemed like pretty good eggs.

Rikki Don't Lose That Number is another one of Steely Dan's great songs. It's been interpreted as a gay man reaching out to another gay man who is closeted and confused and trying to help him.

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

That was hilarious r96, especially when Rick (as McDonald) spoke in that deep "Michael McDonald" voice.

Michael McD's memoir was interesting, kind of sad.

Despite all his fame he was a sad drunk for a long time, but he came by it honestly.....family full of ne'er do wells and drunks.

Michael McD looked pretty good for a drunkard.

I have had this on a loop playing in my brain today:

"Minute By Minute by minute by minute I keep holding on..."

Michael McDonald was so handsome. He still looks good for his age but now he reminds me of Ralphie from A Christmas Story.

[quote]On 40-year-old Virgin, the Best Buy manager was a huge fan, as well. lol

Although never explicitly stated (nor expressed in the form of a paper-mache bust), Blair Warner was a huge Michael McDonald fan, too. During one of the early seasons of Facts of Life, there was a very nicely framed portrait of him on the wall next to Blair's bed. Apparently, Lisa Whelchel had a big crush on him. (with Kim, in happier times)

Blaire should have guested on What's Happening! Then she could have gone to the Doobie Brothers concert with Dee and Raj.

I would have been as moist as a snack cake for peak era Michael M.

I can’t get Sailing and Africa out of my head. But that’s fine.

I love yacht rock while at the same time bridling at the idea of going back in time to create rather flippant, archly-named genres that didn’t exist at the time the music was made. None of these people thought they were making yacht rock surely? So yacht rock is partly defined by being unintentional - if you set out to make yacht rock, then it cannot be yacht rock.

Agreed. But the definition and categorisation revealed the relationships at the core of all of this music. So, that’s the thing.

I was put off by the shots of those audiences in captain’s hats. They’re completely confusing a smooth, easy sound with an actual scenario but…I guess that’s what fools believe. :)

The comedy stuff is the least cool thing about it. The fact that comics created the name kind of sucks. None of it was funny. As Kenny Loggings rightly said, it was an ass backwards way of honoring the music and the musicians.

I'm with you, R108. Isn't Yacht Rock more or less the same thing as Soft Rock or Adult Contemporary?

R111 It's a subsection of that broader, larger category.

The things that make it yacht rock, apparently, are

(a) Somewhat upbeat or at least midtempo

(b) The presence of a group of musicians or studio players, including various members of Toto, and noted session players

(c) Michael McDonald and/or Kenny Loggins on either main vocals and/or backing vocals.

(d) If not an outright soul/R&B song, the song has some R&B influences

[quote]I was put off by the shots of those audiences in captain’s hats. They’re completely confusing a smooth, easy sound with an actual scenario but…I guess that’s what fools believe. :)

FFS they're just having fun. You should try it sometime.

These America posters are getting on my nerves.

Horse with No Name" predated most of this music., although America is on the doc's chart. Steely Dan employed lots of musically competent session guys---who went on to make a lot of awful, ever worse crap. Toto has to have been the nadir of this and one reason it died out. According to the doc, at least one member of Toto didn't want to put "Africa" on the album--not only was it cultural appropriation, but it's utter trash. I forgot that they one an Emmy.

The link to smooth jazz makes sense---same era and it had all the worst elements of jazz fusion.

R113 - there are ways of having fun that don’t involve being a bit basic

R78: I went down a little Christopher Cross rabbit-hole last night. His guitar solo at the end of "Ride Like the Wind" absolutely shreds, but it's so far back in the mix, you barely hear it on the album. Thank goodness for Midnight Special.

R116 your prisspottitude has been noted

I never thought much of Cross but if this documentary did nothing else, it did remind me or show me that those initial songs of his were pretty well crafted.

He's also apparently not the big square we all thought he was, since he was the neighborhood weed dealer before hitting it big! LMAO

Came across this 20/20 feature about Cross's meteoric rise. Even if one isn't necessarily a fan, it's a neat little 1981 time-capsule.

While it's still a bit early for me to play Christmas songs at home (as we get plenty of that, out & about), I am delighted to learn that Christopher Cross has a Christmas album! THIS song will definitely be added to my holiday playlist:

Toto - Africa, playing in an empty shopping mall

I remember liking Christopher's music.....and then I saw him on tv for the first time and thought.....ugh......

Now of course he seems okay.....and the doc really made me like him and his music even more.

Chrstopher Cross looked like the average 1970s singers.

It wasn't until the arrival of MTV that the looks of the musicians really started making a difference.

MTV changed everything. Singers had to be thin and attractive.

R124 Which is precisely what he says derailed his career.

r122, that is extremely unsettling

Michael McDonald is one of the best male vocalists in pop history he really gets overlooked. His work as a backup singer in the 70s alone is insanely impressive.

R117 he was meant to play lead guitar on some steely dan songs I think. he's a very good player but never shows it much.

Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald were grossly over-exposed at their peak. That was part of their decline. They also were the end of an era where AM radio mattered to a mass audience.

I agree r26, the eagles are the epitome of Yacht rock! Yes even as solos.

"I Can't Tell You Why" could be Yacht Rock. But there are a lot of Eagles songs that sound way more country.

R130 I love McDonald's music but I think you're right.

The SCTV parody of McDonald appearing for 3 seconds as a backup singer on a song had some truth to it.

Much like the fall of disco was in part an active resistance from listeners and DJs to a Top 10 that was 70-80 percent Bee Gees, I think the same happened w/Michael McDonald and the yacht rock sound, especially once a lot of new wave and British pop acts of the era started to hit the airwaves - and as soon as MTV really spread its reach.

[quote] the eagles are the epitome of Yacht rock!

No. They are not. Not in any way, shape or form.

Ok Don.

Which Steely Dan song is the one that Aretha Franklin threatened to sue because she was pissed with the lyrics?

r136 "Hey, Nineteen"

That's just a dumb rumor. There is no documented evidence that she was upset by the passing reference to her in Hey Nineteen, let alone threated to sue them.

**edit: threatened

Is it really plausible that a 19-year-old in 1980 would have been oblivious to Aretha Franklin?

[quote] No. They are not. Not in any way, shape or form.

Except for "I Can't Tell You Why."

[quote[]he eagles are the epitome of Yacht rock!

As explained in the documentary, yacht rock includes elements of jazz & R&B. The Eagles were a country rock band who later dropped the country element. About the only song of theirs that comes close to meeting that element was "The Sad Cafe" with David Sanborn on sax.

R140: Good point...although, I must admit....I thought the song "Rescue Me" was by Aretha Franklin well into my mid-20s (the mid-1990s). I could never figure out why I couldn't find it on an any Aretha-albums. Finally asked some older guy at a record store, and he laughed at me. "That's not Aretha Franklin!" I felt pretty dumb.

Just watched it and loved it! Michael McDonald was such a fox back then.

R138 It was confirmed in the David Ritz book on Aretha.

I was the originator of the phrase, “The soundtrack of our lives”, right here on DL, on a Beatles thread, I’ll have you Bitches know, or remind you of such.

I thought Michael McDonald was old back then but he probably was in his late 20's. Now he would be my type.

Thanks for the head's up on the show. Watching it now.

They didn't separate out "Yacht Rock" back then, but I liked the softer pop/rock music that came out in the 70s. But there was a difference between the pop/jazz/r&b sound (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Seals & Croft, etc) which differed from the pop/folk/country sound (John Denver, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, etc,) which differed from the pop/rock/soul sound (Fleetwood Mac/Hall & Oats, etc), and per their definition, only the first would be considered "Yacht Rock". I liked them all.

Overall, I would not put the Eagles as Yacht Rock by their definition. IMO they were more country influenced.

Early Eagles was country. Later Eagles (when Don Felder came on board) was more rock-oriented.

But still, again, the Eagles aren't yacht rock. They may be soft rock, but soft rock does not equal yacht rock.

Yacht rock was a subgenre within soft rock.

The defining elements that make a song or band's output yacht rock include:

(1) A heavy jazz or R&B influence

(2) A certain set of studio players that sang/played/appeared on all these records, including Michael McDonald, members of Toto, and various jazz session players.

(3) More keyboard based, not guitar based. (Think the opening notes of "Steal Away" by Robbie Dupree or "What A Fool Believes.")

I didn't realize how much What A Fool Believes "influenced" (i.e. was ripped off by) so many other artists.

.....

People can quibble about strict definitions, but Pablo Cruise is going on any "Yacht Rock" playlist I put together.

R153 They come in pretty high as a "yes" on the Yacht or Not list.

I mean, "cruise" is part of their name and they have palm trees on their album cover. Sorta guessed they'd be yacht rock.

Cross last name is Geppert. He was a military brat and has said his childhood wasn’t a happy one because of his dad’s alcoholism. He’s a fun follow on social media and regularly responds to fans. He’s still pissed that Warner Brothers gave General Hospital permission to use “Think of Laura” for an arc on the show about Luke and Laura, when the song was about a friend of his then girlfriends who was shot and killed by a stray bullet during parents weekend at her college.

One of these nights gets regular rotation on the Sirius yacht rock channel, so does Ventura highway, daisy jane, and you can do magic so make of that what you will.

Barbra and Barry’s guilty falls into yacht rock territory. Nicolette Larsons lotta love, Carly Simon’s you belong to me, stumblin in by Suzy Quatro and Chris Norman, and Kim Carnes more love are in rotation on the Sirius channel, but not too many women are in the genre.

Some of the quiet storm late 80s R&B has some yacht rock sounds.

The Bee Gees Love you inside out and the title track to the spirits having flown has a yacht rock sounds.

WTF did Kenny Loggins do to his face?! He's practically a Wildenstein!!

You should see his AZZ.

Yes, Kenny Loggins got a LOT of work done.

Not quite as severe as the Kenny Rogers deal, where it looked as if Kenny R moved into an entirely new host body, but Loggins has nevertheless had a fuckton of work.

[quote] Some of the quiet storm late 80s R&B has some yacht rock sounds.

Yes, they mentioned that in the documentary. Kind of ironic since most of the acts were white dudes stealing a glossy R&B/jazz infused sound.

George Benson was one of the names that kept popping up.

A lot of the session players outside of the Toto guys that people mentioned in the doc, ones that say "if this person is on the record it may be yacht rock" are R&B or jazz musicians - Greg Phillingains is an example.

[quote]Kind of ironic since most of the acts were white dudes stealing a glossy R&B/jazz infused sound.

Stealing? No.

[quote]He’s still pissed that Warner Brothers gave General Hospital permission to use “Think of Laura” for an arc on the show about Luke and Laura, when the song was about a friend of his then girlfriends who was shot and killed by a stray bullet during parents weekend at her college.

Christopher Cross may not have gotten a licensing fee for General Hospital using "Think of Laura" for Genie Francis' return to the show in November 1983.

But those six-weeks of airplay on General Hospital gave him a huge amount of exposure which caused a spike in his album sales which in turn caused him to earn a lot of money.

So, he can whine all he wants to about "Think of Laura" while counting all the money that the General Hospital exposure brought him.

Think of Laura is such a cringey song. I have a high tolerance for schmaltz and cheese in pop music but Think of Laura is just too much

[quote]So, he can whine all he wants to about "Think of Laura" while counting all the money that the General Hospital exposure brought him.

Think of Laura, but laugh don't cry. I know, she'd want it that way.

[R155] You Belong to Me: co-written and covered by Michael McDonald

You Belong To Me was co-written by Carly Simon and McDonald. I think during a time where they may have been fucking.

It was recorded by the Doobie Brothers first in 1977, but as we all known, the Carly version - released the following year - is the one that became a hit and is now considered the definitive version.

Re: Christopher Cross and General Hospital

The whole use of music in those days wasn't really something that was done officially. So many shows would just throw music on in the background. It was thought that any exposure of any music was good for its sales (a perfectly logical thought).

It was really after some of the big mergers of entertainment and licensing companies that the rules of licensing and use became enforced a bit more in the ways we see/hear/understand today.

It's screwed up the ability to see a few older TV shows - for some older ones with smaller audiences, they may never be replayed again because the licensing fee to cover what was included in those episodes is far greater than any profit that might be generated.

Nicolette Larson's "It's Gonna Take a Lot of Love" is a Neil Young song which she released after they broke up. Young's version has a much less yacht-y arrangement.

The problem with defining this genre is that the musicians may have originated in sessions with, for example, Steely Dan, which wasn't yacht-y, but the musicians evolved into ever more schmaltzy, proto-emo lyrics and music. A song like "It's Gonna Take a Lot of Love" is a good example of how a song might not be inherently yacht-y but an arrangement could make it so.

R167 It's just called Lotta Love.

R161

I thought he was more upset that they used a meaningful song for a soap opera, thereby cheapening it.

[quote]The whole use of music in those days wasn't really something that was done officially. So many shows would just throw music on in the background.

Not true. WKRP in Cincinnati had to jump through some hoops to be able to use the pop music on the show and that was back in the 70s. TV shows would frequently use soundalike versions of songs presumably because they didn't want to pay rights for the original artists.

Maybe soap operas had some different deal since episodes were basically one-and-done with no repeats but I imagine Cross could have demanded payment or that they stop using the song if he really wanted to. Since it was basically his last big hit he probably decided the bump in album sales was worth more than a cease and desist.

Think of Laura got a lot of airplay on General Hosptial -- multiple times an episode over a period of 3-4 weeks in lat October and Novermber 1983, until Luke and Laura were finally reunited.

The exposure fueled album sales. Christopher Cross made a ton of money off of General Hosptial using that song. It was only played for 3-4 weeks, but then radio stations started playing the song because of the General Hospital exposure. And that led to sales of many albums.

Back in those days, music companies typically let soaps use the music for free -- happy to get the exposure, much the same way radio stations play songs for free.

And it wasn't just current songs being played on soaps. I recall 60s songs by the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones all playing on soaps in the 1980s. Of course, this was soon after CDs came out and older catalog songs playing on soaps was believed to help fuel some older catalog CD sales as well.

[Quote] I’d rather be Christopher Cross than Michael Jackson.

Especially now.

Is Rickie Lee Jones yacht rock?

[quote] Is Rickie Lee Jones yacht rock?

I will slap you with a fish and kick you in the cuntbone for even suggesting

Yacht-adjacent, perhaps. RLJ doesn't fully capture the emo aspect of the genre.

Chuck E's in Love is more nyacht than yacht, according to the chart.

It is the only song that has sort of the "bounce" of yacht rock, but even then, it is a weak example.

[quote] Not true. WKRP in Cincinnati had to jump through some hoops to be able to use the pop music on the show and that was back in the 70s. TV shows would frequently use soundalike versions of songs presumably because they didn't want to pay rights for the original artists.

True, I may have generalized a bit too much at R166. Rights were enforced for some higher profile shows and movies. Soap operas not so much because they were considered disposable - no one thought we'd ever be in a scenario where people would watch older episodes.

But I know from talking to some people who worked in the industry that some movies and shows also could use small snippets without issues. The promotional aspect was considered a plus. The record companies and/or publishers were more concerned if it was a big name and/or if the entire song was being used. That all changed a lot with mergers and once people started to access music without paying, those companies chased after every cent.

Aretha Franklin covered What A Fool Believes one year after the song was released. Interesting interpretation.

R175 I just watched the doc and it reminded me of my question. Sure enough RLJ isn’t mentioned at all in the doc.

And it’s pretty clear that women weren’t a major part of the phenomenon — except Brenda Russell.

But funnily enough, Wikipedia has her listed as yacht rock:

I wish HBO would make more of their excellent movies as in the past. They seem to have become more focused on series.

In the weeks since this aired, I have been regularly listening to Christopher Cross’ Sailing and I can’t believe what a brain bath it is. No wonder it was such a big hit - and I was around back in the day. But for a lot of reasons, this is the song I need right now.

r181 I have a new appreciation for Ride Like The Wind. He was popular when I was in junior high and I thought I was too cool for his music then.

Yes, R181 & R182! If nothing else, this doc has given me a whole new appreciation of Christopher Cross (who I would have never admitted to liking in 1979-80).

Kim Fields geeking out to Ride Like The Wind in NYC. (aside from the dumb hats, that looks like fun)