"Yacht rock is a variation of popular soft rock that peaked between the years of 1976 and 1984. Significant "yacht rockers" include Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, and Toto.

While the music has existed for years, popular usage of the term yacht rock is relatively new, coming into circulation through the online comedy series of the same name."

We went back into our collective memories to isolate a list of top Yacht Rock Songs, but we didn't limit ourselves to the tunes from the wiki-identified era. In our humble opinion, there is no yacht rock list that can ignore yachting's greatest icon, Jimmy Buffett. But in fairness to everyone else, we limited his selections to one...

We also considered such 70s soft rock icons as James Taylor and Carol King, but their music had a slightly different quality. Having lived through that era, it was reminiscent of hanging out with a bunch of friends but not actually dreaming about escaping. There's was a comfortable sound rather than an inspirational one. You can lump Fleetwood Mac in there, too. Great stuff but not quite yacht rock. We sure did have alot of good music in the 70s!

Enjoy the list and send us your favorites. Also, visit channel101.com to peruse the wildly successful Yacht Rock spoofs. For other suggestions about tunes for boating, please visit the CB music page.