We’re smack dab in the middle of summer, which means its time for Yacht Rock week here at the Classic Song of the Day blog. With that in mind, your classic Yacht Rock song of the day is “What a Fool Believes” by the Doobie Brothers. This one was written by two of the three kings of Yacht Rock, Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (Christopher Cross is the third king, but he wasn’t involved with this one) and sung by Mr. McDonald. You don’t get any Yacht Rockier than that.
“What a Fool Believes” was released in January of 1979 on the Warner Bros. label. It rose all the way to the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts in April of that year. Yeah, it was on everybody’s FM radio at the time.
Yacht Rock is hard to define; it’s one of those “you know it when you hear it” things. In general, it’s a subtle offshoot of the adult contemporary or soft rock genre of the late-70s/early-80s. Unlike non-Yacht tracks, Yacht Rock is a little more harmonically sophisticated and centered around keyboards instead of guitars. You’re more apt to have a sax solo than a guitar solo, although that rule is not hard and fast. Yacht Rock is not terribly folk or country oriented; it has more in common with the smooth jazz that developed around the same time frame.
Who are the top Yacht Rock artists? Well, the earlier hard rockin’ Doobies wouldn’t qualify, at least not until Mr. McDonald joined up and helped smooth things out. Instead, queue up songs by Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Boz Skaggs, and Toto (more or less). Some of Chicago’s more somnambulistic songs of that era qualify, as well, as do songs from some lesser-known groups, such as Ambrosia, Pablo Cruise, and Player. Some people put Al Stewart, Jimmy Buffet, and Seals and Crofts into the Yacht Rock category, but to my ears they’re more folk-oriented that smooth jazz-like. Oh, and just about anything graced with Mike McDonald’s strangled vocals automatically qualifies as Yacht Rock.
Note that Yacht Rock, despite some nautical-flavored tunes, is not really about yachts. It’s more about music you could play on your yacht, if you had one. The term, which was not used at the time, comes from a 2005 web series titled Yacht Rock, which pictured a fictional bevy of real soft rock artists as goofy friends hanging out on a yacht and composing the softest rock music imaginable. The name stuck and went viral, so we now have Yacht Rock playlists on Spotify and a Yacht Rock channel on SiriusXM satellite radio.
With that past as prelude, this week we’re going to be taking a deep dive into and off the boat as we look at some of my favorite Yacht Rock tunes. You won’t find any Christopher Cross tunes on my list, however; I find his music just too white bread for my spicier palette.
By the way, if you’re not sure whether a song is Yacht Rock or not—there are definite rules—check out the Yacht or Nyacht? website. It’s a fun little trip down memory lane. According to the genre experts on that site, “What a Fool Believes” is the ultimate Yacht Rock tune, the only song with a perfect 100% Yachtski score. The rest of their top five include Kenny Loggins’ “Heart to Heart” and “This Is It,” Michael McDonald’s solo hit “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near),” and Airplay’s “Nothin’ You Can Do About It.” They are all of a kind, to be sure.
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