If you love smooth, breezy, soft-focus ’70s and early ’80s vibes, you’ve probably got a Yacht Rock playlist hiding somewhere on your phone.
And if you don’t, congratulations, you’re about to mentally set sail. A new ranking is stirring up the waters in the Yacht Rock world, because UltimateClassicRock.com has declared their official Big 4 of the genre. Yes, the Mount Rushmore of smooth. And no, Christopher Cross fans, you might want to sit down.
According to the site, the core four captains of Yacht Rock are Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, and Michael McDonald.
Those names are basically SEO gold for Yacht Rock searches, so if you’re looking for the essential artists behind the genre’s most iconic songs, this is where you start.
For longtime Yacht Rock diehards, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald feel like no-brainers. Loggins basically lived on the Billboard charts during the era, and McDonald’s voice is so buttery smooth that even butter is like, “tone it down.” Boz Scaggs also fits comfortably in the mix thanks to polished staples like “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle”.
The most controversial passenger on this very classy yacht is definitely Steely Dan. Their fans tend to resist the label, and Ultimate Classic Rock acknowledges that plenty of Steely Dan tracks don’t fit the Yacht Rock mold at all. But when they do drift into smoother waters with songs like “Peg”, “Dirty Work”, and “Hey Nineteen”, the site says they set the “studio standard” for the genre. Their take is basically: when Steely Dan got silky, nobody did it better.
Still, it’s hard not to notice the Christopher Cross–shaped hole in this list. The man wrote “Sailing”, which many people would consider the official national anthem of the Yacht Rock lifestyle.
Not including him on a Mount Rushmore of Yacht Rock feels a little like leaving ketchup off the Mount Rushmore of condiments. He’s not mentioned in Ultimate Classic Rock’s reasoning, but fans are definitely pointing it out.
Whether you agree with the list or want to angrily rearrange it in the comments section, it’s fun to see Yacht Rock getting another moment online. Nostalgia cycles come and go, but something about this genre just sticks. Maybe it’s the breezy harmonies, or maybe it’s the fact that sometimes you just need music that makes you feel like everything in life comes with a complimentary mai tai.