yacht rock documentary netflix

The Source For All Things Pop Culture

Paramount+ To Launch ‘Sometimes When We Touch’ Documentary Exploring The History of “Yacht Rock”

Paramount+ has announced that SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH , a three-part documentary series exploring the history of soft rock music , will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023 and will also stream in the U.K., Latin America and Australia ( Wednesday, Jan. 4 ), Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France ( Tuesday, April 4 ).

SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH is the untold story of soft rock, whose artists dominated pop music worldwide in the ‘70s, only to crash and burn in the ‘80s, eventually experiencing one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history. The series presents all-new interviews with some of soft rock’s biggest legends, like Air Supply (“All Out of Love”), Dan Hill (“Sometimes When We Touch”), Kenny Loggins (“This Is It”), Ray Parker Jr. (“A Woman Needs Love”), Rupert Holmes (“Escape: The Piña Colada Song”) and Toni Tennille (“Love Will Keep Us Together”). Through candid and poignant stories, these stars lead a celebration of the underappreciated music that continues to have a lasting impact on American culture.

The connective stories that propel the series are augmented by exclusive interviews with dozens of classic and contemporary musicians like Daryl “DMC” McDaniels, John Ondrasik, LA Reid, Richard Marx, Robert “Kool” Bell, Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland, Susanna Hoffs and Verdine White; rarely seen archival interview and performance footage; host commentary that embraces the impact of soft rock while acknowledging the cringey excesses that sometimes led it astray; and a review of its continuing power over a new generation found everywhere from hip hop samples and radio remakes to superhero soundtracks and TikTok posts.

The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky. Produced by Van Toffler and executive produced by David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky, co-executive produced by Rick Krim, executive produced and written by Chuck Thompson and executive produced and directed by Lauren Lazin. Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf executive produce for MTV Entertainment Studios, with Jennifer Yandrisevits serving as Senior Director of Production.

Jason Price founded the mighty Icon Vs. Icon more than a decade ago. Along the way, he’s assembled an amazing group of like-minded individuals to spread the word on some of the most unique people and projects on the pop culture landscape.

PICK OF THE WEEK

‘Farscape: The Complete Series (25th Anniversary Edition)’ — Dive Deep Into Otherworldly Adventure With Shout! Factory’s Definitive Box Set!

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Challengers Link to Challengers
• I Saw the TV Glow Link to I Saw the TV Glow
• Música Link to Música

New TV Tonight

• The Veil: Season 1
• Hacks: Season 3
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz: Season 1
• A Man in Full: Season 1
• Acapulco: Season 3
• Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3
• John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA: Season 1
• Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Season 1
• My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Season 4.2
• Shardlake: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• Velma: Season 2
• Them: Season 2
• Ripley: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1 Link to Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Zendaya Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Video Game TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

Poll: Most Anticipated Movies of May 2024

• Trending on RT
• Most Anticipated TV of May
• Seen on Screen
• Zendaya Movies
• Play Movie Trivia

Season 1 – Sometimes When We Touch

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Kenny Loggins

Ray Parker Jr.

Rupert Holmes

Toni Tennille

Executive Producer

More Like This

Sometimes when we touch — season 1, critics reviews, season info.

Type keyword(s) to search

• Advertising

Paramount+ Goes Behind the Music In a Surprisingly Dark Soft Rock Doc

The next time you’re at a drugstore, pay attention to the music being piped through the aisles. Those pleasant background tunes may not sound menacing, but sometimes, they’ve got histories that would make Ozzy Osbourne blush. That’s one of the fascinating revelations in Sometimes When We Touch , Paramount+’s new docuseries about the rise, fall, and rebirth of soft rock.

To be clear, the show is not revolutionizing the music doc genre. (It debuted on January 3, but some premieres can pass even TV critics by.) Charting the careers of sentimental ’70s and ‘80s acts like Air Supply, Christopher Cross, and Ray Parker Jr., it follows the standard Behind the Music formula: Old-timers talk about their glory days and how they were certain they’d last forever. They discuss the hard times, after some new style pushed them off the charts, and they wrap it up with a hopeful look to the future. But as familiar as this might be, the series has a few ingredients that give the recipe a kick.

First is the willingness to go dark. Several musicians and music journalists discuss how soft rock’s eventual collapse was rooted in a hyper-masculine rejection of men who made vulnerable records. There are damning montages of old movies and newspaper articles all but threatening violence against Barry Manilow, Michael McDonald, and their ilk. While many stories have been told about how the disco backlash was rooted in racism, homophobia, and misogyny, it’s enlightening to consider that similar prejudices hounded The Doobie Brothers, too.

At times, though, the trouble came from inside the house. In the show’s frankest interview, Toni Tennille, half of the duo Captain & Tennille, discusses her loveless marriage with Daryl “The Captain” Dragon. While they were gaining millions of fans with bouncy tunes like “Love Will Keep Us Together,” she was going home to a miserable private life, utterly devoted to a man who was incapable of showing her affection. It’s hard to hear their hit “The Way I Want to Touch You” in the same way after she says she wrote it as a plea for her husband to be nice to her. Similarly, Canadian balladeer Dan Hill alters the context of his hit “Sometimes When We Touch” — yes, the one that gives the series its name — when he describes the slightly obsessive relationship that inspired it.

But despite these dark underbellies, many of these songs remain incredibly satisfying. The show’s other standout trait is its eagerness to ask why. Instead of ironically shrugging at the recent boom in “yacht rock” revival tours, director and executive producer Lauren Lazin digs into what makes this music work for a new generation. This includes both a sharp analysis of our need for gentle art and a sophisticated segment on the melodic structures and production techniques in songs like Elton John’s “Daniel” or Toto’s “Africa.” This is where industry interviewees like producer L.A. Reid and Bangles frontwoman Susannah Hoffs prove invaluable: They have the professional expertise to explain what the average listener might only be able to sense.

Best of all, Sometimes When We Touch drops all this knowledge with a generous sense of fun. The narration is lighthearted but not snarky. The soundtrack respects the breadth of the late ’70s and early ’80s by playing classics alongside forgotten hits like Stephen Bishop’s “On and On.” And all the talking heads, whether they were making this music or grew up listening to it, acknowledge the ludicrous moments while celebrating the transcendent ones. That’s just the balance the series needs to capture an era that produced both cheesy variety shows and timeless ballads in record numbers.

Sometimes When We Touch is now streaming on Paramount+. Join the discussion about the show in our forums .

Mark Blankenship has been writing about arts and culture for twenty years, with bylines in The New York Times, Variety, Vulture, Fortune, and many others. You can hear him on the pop music podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs .

TOPICS: Sometimes When We Touch , Paramount+ , Captain & Tennille , Lauren Lazin , Toni Tennille

Soft-Rock Doc Series, ‘Sometimes When We Touch,’ Slated by Paramount+ for January (EXCLUSIVE)

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

• Taylor Swift Debuts With 2.61 Million Units for ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ the Best Number for Any Album in Nine Years 29 mins ago
• Post Malone Turns Stagecoach Into ’90s/’00s Night, and Miranda Lambert Gets ‘Fancy’-ful With Reba, on Fest’s Guest-Star-Studded Night 2 3 hours ago
• At Stagecoach, Eric Church Brings a Full Choir, Saves His Band for the Finale and Has His Polarized Fans Debating a Love-It-or-Leave-It Set 1 day ago

Everybody’s a softie — well, almost everyone — when it comes to a fondness for the not-so-hard-hitting heyday of “soft rock,” which has a strong overlap with what’s come to be known and celebrated as “yacht rock.” Paramount+ is counting on a nation of viewers having a hankering for the soft stuff with its upcoming streaming premiere of a three-part documentary, “Sometimes When We Touch,” slated for the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 3.

Popular on Variety

Among the artists whose hits will come up in the series are — besides the aforementioned Daryl Hall and John Oates — Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Air Supply, Ambrosia, the Carpenters, the Captain & Tennille and Lionel Richie . While some music fans might feel it’s a stretch to consider the last few acts “rock” at all, tell it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which just inducted Richie last month.

Among those interviewed for the series, not all of them soft-rockers themselves by trade: Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland of the Police, Run DMC’s Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Susanna Hoffs, LA Reid, Richard Marx, Robert “Kool” Bell, Verdine White and, as seen in the trailer (above), Variety ‘s Owen Gleiberman. Verified soft-rock vets showing up for discussion include Loggins, Toni Tennille, Rupert Holmes, Dan Hill, Ray Parker Jr. and Air Supply.

Van Toffler produced, Lauren Lazin executive-produced and directed, and Chuck Thompson wrote and exec-produced. Other executive producers include David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky; Rick Krim; and Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf for MTV Entertainment Studios. Jennifer Yandrisevits was senior director of production.

The doc will stream in the U.K., Australia and Latin America on Jan. 4, the day after it debuts in the States. Viewers in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France will get their crack at it April 4.

More From Our Brands

Rihanna again teases new album ‘r9’: ‘it’s gonna be amazing’, meet hollywood power couple david and jessica oyelowo, detroit sets nfl draft attendance record at 2024 event, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, survivor: jeff probst announces season 50 will be returning players, verify it's you, please log in.

• Radarscreen
• Realscreen Summit
• Realscreen West
• Realscreen London
• Realscreen Awards

• Messages @if (ViewBag.UnReadMessages > 0) { (@ViewBag.UnReadMessages) }
• Edit my profile
• Account settings

• Arts & Culture
• Current Affairs
• Natural History
• Feature Docs
• Feature Stories
• Game/Quiz Show
• Reality Competition
• Constructed
• Real Estate/Home
• Docureality
• Business News
• People News
• Realtalk Archives
• Formagination
• Factual Under 40
• MIPCOM Picks
• MIPTV Picks

Paramount+ sets soft-rock docuseries “Sometimes When We Touch”

The much-maligned, now (somewhat) reclaimed musical genre of soft rock — inescapably known as “yacht rock,” thanks to the popular web series that parodied/paid homage to it — will receive ....

The much-maligned, now (somewhat) reclaimed musical genre of soft rock — inescapably known as “yacht rock,” thanks to the popular web series that parodied/paid homage to it — will receive the deep-dive docuseries treatment in Sometimes When We Touch , a three-parter rolling out internationally on Paramount+ beginning on January 3.

One of the most commercially successful genres of American pop music from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, soft rock harnessed the breezy, sun-kissed vibe of West Coast leisure and married it to super-sleek studio production. Exemplified by such artists as Christopher Cross, Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald, Toto and Kenny Loggins, the genre became a veritable soundtrack for the lifestyle of the nascent yuppie class as the Reaganite 1980s dawned.

Derided for decades by music critics, soft rock has received something of a re-evaluation in the past decade, with initially ironic appreciation beginning to shade over into the genuine article. The top-flight musicianship and studio sheen that characterized the genre has made it a natural source for hip-hop sampling and social media appropriation, introducing some of soft rock’s biggest stars to a new generation.

Named for the hit song by signature soft rocker Dan Hill, Sometimes When We Touch chronicles the rise and fall and rise again of the genre through all-new interviews with such figures as Hill, Loggins, Air Supply and Rupert Holmes, along with commentary from other musicians and appreciators, including Sheryl Crow, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Daryl “DMC” McDaniels and Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang.

The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios in partnership with Gunpowder & Sky. Director Lauren Lazin and writer Chuck Thompson also share executive producer credits along with David Gale, Floris Bauer, Barry Barclay and Joanna Zwickel for Gunpowder & Sky, and Bruce Gillmer and Vanessa Whitewolf for MTV Entertainment Studios. Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler is the producer, and the co-executive producer is Rick Krim. Jennifer Yandrisevits is senior director of production for Paramount.

About The Author

Gunpowder & S...

Extra: Paramount t...

Paramount+ strikes...

Scout Productions ups David Marker to VP of development

Former Discovery+ docs chief Igal Svet boards Lionsgate label Blackfin

• Documentary

History Channel slates Memorial Day debut for new WWI event series

UK’s Zinc Media looking at “strategic acquisitions” after reporting record profits

• About Realscreen
• Magazine Issues
• Advertising
• Terms of Use
• #247791 (no title)
• #237827 (no title)
• Contributors
• Featured Posts
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Join the Realscreen community!
• Magazine Issues
• New Magazine Issues
• Popular Posts
• Recent Posts
• The Brief Global Pitch Guide Introduction
• Upcoming Industry Events

™ Realscreen is a trademark of Brunico Communications Ltd. Site copyright © 1997-2024

Realscreen title, tagline and logo are trademarks of, and the events are produced by Brunico Marketing Inc.

View our privacy policy

• RealTalk Archives
• Pathways Mentorship Program
• Magazine Archive

• Industry Events

Recent Topics

• A+E Networks
• BBC Studios
• Investigation Discovery
• ITV Studios
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Channel
• NBCUniversal

Latest Posts

We understand your decision to use an ad blocker, however realscreen journalism takes time and funding...

Subscriptions and advertising are both necessary to fund the journalism we bring to you.

Please, whitelist realscreen.com in your ad blocker and refresh your browser.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Soft Rock Documentary Sometimes When We Touch Coming to Paramount+

By Allison Hussey

A new three-part documentary about soft rock is coming to Paramount+, Variety reports. It’s titled Sometimes When We Touch and it hits the streaming platform on Tuesday, January 3. Watch the teaser trailer for it below; scroll down for the documentary’s poster.

Subtitled The Reign, Ruin and Resurrection of Soft Rock , the documentary digs into the history of the genre, which boomed in commercial popularity from the seventies through the early eighties. Sometimes When We Touch also features commentary from Kenny Loggins, L.A. Reid, Sheryl Crow, Susanna Hoffs, and more.

MTV Entertainment Studios co-produced Sometimes When We Touch with the studio Gunpowder & Sky. It focuses on performers like Hall & Oates, Loggins, Lionel Richie, Air Supply, and Michael McDonald, among others. Richie, who had solo hits with soft rock cuts like “Hello” and “Truly,” was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Pitchfork

By Nina Corcoran

By Madison Bloom

By Jazz Monroe

By Matthew Strauss

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

I Can Go for That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock review – lushly comforting

Katie Puckrik takes a leisurely voyage through the suave micro-genre of pop pioneered in the 70s by Hall and Oates and the Doobie Brothers

F riday night on BBC Four: time for a documentary aimed at the sort of music fan who, when it comes to genre categorisation, appreciates the finer things. It’s important to separate, for example, yacht rock from the slightly but crucially different sounds of soft rock, smooth rock, FM rock, AOR, MOR, cocaine rock and wine-bar pop. To do that, Katie Puckrik moseyed through the cultural shifts in America in the 70s in part one of I Can Go for That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock.

A good genre-based rockumentary is always about the social change that brought about the new style, and if that part’s done well it can compensate for any shortcomings of the musical appreciation itself. We heard how the death of 60s mass-movement idealism led, in the new decade, to introspective individualism, personified by the solo singer-songwriters who congregated in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. Then bands came back in vogue, retaining the lush, laid-back sound while dialling down the navel-gazing lyrics to create the perfect soundtrack for listeners trying to ignore Watergate and Vietnam.

This reassuringly vague escapism spread into middle America, helped by the rise of FM radio and boosted by the idea that women were now controlling household spending and would enjoy smooth but heartfelt ballads, with the flipside of that gender emancipation being that men felt freer to convey their emotions in song. Meanwhile, Reaganite consumerism was looming, and pop production was becoming more sophisticated, yet Californian pop was still expected to offer some token counterculturalism.

What did all this amount to? Essentially, the Doobie Brothers . Puckrik majored on the “lovely, comforting, furry vocals” of hairy Doobies singer Michael McDonald but, despite all the Spotify playlists and not-ironic club nights that have retrospectively made it a thing, comprehensively defining yacht rock – aspirational but not luxurious, jaunty but lonely, pained but polished – is hard. Then again, part of the glory of micro-genres is the way certain records are arbitrarily ruled in or out. So here, Michael Jackson’s Thriller : yacht. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours : not yacht. What?

Hall and Oates gave the show its title and they were definitely canon, performing the coolly anguished She’s Gone in a 1976 archive clip that must have been a formative influence on Flight of the Conchords . John Oates was interviewed in the present day but was, amid a sea of yacht-rock bloggers and semi-interested rock critics, one of very few contributors who had set sail themselves.

Puckrik filled the gaps, more essayist than presenter as she applied her hazy intelligence to Steely Dan , America and the Eagles , while nailing the overall feel of yacht rock with the phrase “ennui deluxe”. There’s a touch of ennui deluxe about I Can Go for That, stretched as it is across two languid episodes (next week: the 80s) when one would have sufficed. But who cares that these Friday-night BBC Four rockumentaries have been mining that era of pop for so long, it’s turned to sparkling dust? Letting it lazily run through our fingers feels good.

• Television & radio
• Pop and rock
• Documentary

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Culture | TV

I Can Go For That, The Smooth World of Yacht Rock: Sail smoothly away to the aspirational land of Hall & Oates and The Doobie Brothers

Before we get on board with Yacht Rock, let’s test the idea to see if it’s seaworthy.

As a concept, it’s slippery. It exists on the edge of parody. Aficionados of the genre seem to be aware that there is something funny, almost confessional, about expressing a fondness for it.

For Katie Puckrik, a presenter known for her sass and verve on The Word - a Nineties music show that burned brightly in the firmament of yoof broadcasting - it seems to be an ironic delight, though Puckrik is doubtless sincere in her irony (just kidding).

What is Yacht? As described here, it was a Seventies thing, stretching into the Eighties. It was, says Puckrik, sunny, escapist music. “It was a balm, it was a promise.” Yacht was the music of Men’s Lib, which — it says here — was something that happened after feminism, when emotional men started to appear, often with moustaches, sometimes in waistcoats, occasionally in brown trousers. “Yacht was a place where men could be sensitive,” Puckrik observes.

Can you hear it? “It’s timeless,” Puckrik says. “It’s like medicine for the soul. It promises joy and it promises escape … And at the same time it lets you lose yourself. It’s kind of irresistible.”

Can you see what it is yet? Well, possibly not. It would be cruel to suggest that Puckrik’s documentary is a parody of rock documentaries just because it employs serious cultural critics, such as Professor Sarah Churchwell, to question the veracity of the American Dream in the context of a discussion of the music of The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan. But that’s how it feels. “People started to point out that it [the American Dream] had definitely never been true for people who were not white men,” says Churchwell, amid clips of Nixon, Vietnam, the energy crisis of the Seventies, all that s***.

How does this relate to Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts? “There’s nothing about any Yacht Rock record that has any cultural relevance,” says Dylan Jones, a magazine editor.

Here’s the thing. Yacht Rock didn’t exist when the records that comprise its canon were being recorded. The concept appears to have been dreamed up by actor/writer JD Ryznar for his online series fictionalising the lives of soft rockers such as Hall & Oates. It was a joke. It still is. But as is the way of these things, the joke was embraced by the artists who were its punchlines, and the Yacht concept provides a guiltless way of enjoying music that escaped critical acclaim despite its success.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Critics have a way of missing the point, so the mid-Seventies are seen as the era of punk, when disco and reggae were of equal, or greater, significance. Should Yacht take its place at the top table? Its popularity is not in doubt. Its advocacy of technique over expression, of harmonic atmosphere over passion, of adult navel-gazing over youthful vigour, is worthy of stylistic analysis. But even Yacht’s advocates seem unclear about whether to praise or bury the genre.

The epitome of Yacht can be found in the voice of Michael McDonald. It also appears on the records of The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Christopher Cross and Kenny Loggins. “It was like a pigeon coo-ing,” says one of Puckrik’s musicological shipmates, “or an owl.”

Taylor Swift reveals new album's name and release date

Only Fools and Horses the Musical extends its West End run

Rihanna said to be renting entire Essex island to record new music

site categories

Jessica rothe shares ‘happy death day 3’ update: “we just need to wait for blumhouse & universal to get their ducks in a row”, breaking news.

Woody Harrelson In Talks For Lionsgate’s Yacht Rock Musical ‘Sailing’ From ‘Rock Of Ages’ Creator Chris D’Arienzo

By Anthony D'Alessandro

Anthony D'Alessandro

Editorial Director/Box Office Editor

More Stories By Anthony

• Nicole Kidman Teases “A Lot More Than” Hot Chocolate In Swiss Alps Set Season 2 Of Hulu’s ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’
• ‘Challengers’ Serves Biggest U.S. Opening To Luca Guadagnino At $15M; Best For Zendaya Live-Action Non-IP Pic – Sunday AM Update
• Zendaya-Palooza Box Office Weekend Pushes ‘Dune: Part Two’ To $700M WW; ‘Godzilla x Kong’ To Half Billion As Legendary Warner Pics Count $1.2B WW

EXCLUSIVE: Three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson is in talks to join Lionsgate ‘s ensemble 1970s jukebox musical Sailing from  Rock of Ages  creator Chris D’Arienzo.

Project is billed as a bunch of musicians in the late 1970s as they discover the smooth sounds and smoother lifestyle that is yacht rock, the soft rock music genre that took over FM radio during that era.

D’Arienzo sold the pitch with Jeremy Plager, who will develop and produce with MegaMix (Jonathan Levine and Gillian Bohrer) and Harrelson.

Speaking of yachts, Harrelson recently starred as the hysterical, Marxist captain of one in the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winning comedy  Triangle of Sadness. 

“Everything about the yacht rock vibe, ethos and lifestyle will be brought on board this fun and hilarious nostalgic comedy,” said Lionsgate president of production Erin Westerman. “We’re thrilled to be working with Jeremy, Jonathan, Gillian, Chris, and Woody, and we’re confident that it will not only have a phenomenal soundtrack, but it will also put you in a summertime mood.”

Related Stories

2024 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming

Derek Luke To Play Johnnie Cochran In Lionsgate's 'Michael'

Meredith Wieck and Jon Humphrey are overseeing for Lionsgate. Bonnie Stylides negotiated the deals on behalf of the studio.

Harrelson most starred in last year’s blockbuster Venom: Let There Be Carnage which grossed over a half billion worldwide. His upcoming work includes The Man from Toronto opposite Kevin Hart and Champions , for director Bobby Farrelly, as well as the HBO television series The White House Plumbers . He is represented by Steve Burkow at Ziffren Brittenham.

Rock of Ages  received five Tony Award nominations in 2009 including Best Musical. D’Arienzo co-adapted his musical book for the big screen; the 2012 pic directed by Adam Shankman and starring Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Cranston, Russell Brand among others.  D’Arienzo also wrote  Barry Munday  starring Judy Greer, Patrick Wilson and Chloe Sevigny.

D’Arienzo is repped by Chris Till at Verve. Plager is represented by attorney Greg Slewett at Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole LLP

Levine and Bohrer’s Megamix has a first-look film and television deal with Lionsgate; and they’re behind the studio’s sequel to Dirty Dancing , with Jennifer Grey reprising her role as Baby Houseman. They also have Mick Fleetwood’s musical drama, 13 Songs , in development at Fox.

Levine recently directed all eight episodes of the hit Hulu limited series Nine Perfect Strangers, and directed the 2008 Sundance award-winning coming of age comedy The Wackness , with Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck. Other directorial credits include Golden Globe-nominated 50/50 and The Long Shot , starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen. Bohrer, who met Levine while working on Warm Bodies , spent 13 years as a studio executive at Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate before launching Megamix with Levine. While at Lionsgate, Bohrer oversaw such films as the Twilight series, Oscar-winner La La Land , the sleeper hit Wonder , and Divergent .

Must Read Stories

Joe biden & colin jost roast donald trump; red carpet + party photos.

CBS Axes Series After 3 Seasons; Lachey “Gutted”; Stars, Creators React

Zendaya’s ‘challengers’ looks to hit $15 million in its opening set, 86 top “career producers” launch collective to address fees, benefits & more.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

• Seasons & Episodes

TV Listings

• Cast & Crew

I Can Go For That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock

• Documentary

Offers a reappraisal of "yacht rock", a critically neglected era of music popularized by a boom in FM radio stations and its smooth sound. The gleaming yacht sound was, in part, always defined by a group of LA-based session players and composers who worked across a range of yacht bands, informing their specific tone and level of musicianship. Some of these artists talk about the yacht phenomenon and being part of the scene back in the day.

Loading. Please wait...

My cable/satellite provider:

There are no TV airings over the next 14 days. Add it to your Watchlist to receive updates and availability notifications.

Cast & Crew See All

Katie puckrik, latest news see all, popular shows see all shows, what happened in oslo.

Elizabeth Taylor: Her Final Days

Russian yeti (russian yeti), democratic party national conventions: a historical survey, tv in black: the first fifty years.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Mockumentary web series about American soft rock stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s era. Mockumentary web series about American soft rock stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s era. Mockumentary web series about American soft rock stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s era.

• Lane Farnham
• J.D. Ryznar
• Hunter Stair
• 'Hollywood' Steve Huey
• 4 User reviews
• 1 Critic review

Episodes 12

• Michael McDonald
• Kenny Loggins

• Koko Goldstein …

• Gene Balboa …

• Christopher Cross …
• Jim Messina
• Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter

• Steve Porcaro …
• Steve Perry
• Donald Fagen
• Walter Becker
• Bette Midler …

• Michael Jackson …
• Eddie Van Halen

• Alex Van Halen …
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Connections Featured in I Can Go for That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock: 80s (2019)

User reviews 4

• Jun 26, 2010
• How many seasons does Yacht Rock have? Powered by Alexa
• June 26, 2005 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 5 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Screen Rant

16 best music documentaries on netflix.

The best music documentaries on Netflix show just how much the streaming service has to offer to music lovers.

Whether it's behind the scenes of a movie franchise or a famous musician, die-hard fans relish the opportunity to get a deeper look into the workings of an artist.  As one of the top streaming platforms, Netflix has created–and given viewers access to–riveting stories focussing on some of the music industry's top artists.

Viewers are captivated by the emotional and heartfelt struggles artists face in making names for themselves, and they love watching them share their stories through documentaries. A variety of music documentaries on Netflix show the rise and fall of Grammy-winning artists, their lives before fame, and how they adjust to life in the limelight.

Updated on June 30th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: While they might not be as popular as a scripted drama series like Stranger Things or a superhero movie like Spider-Man: No Way Home , there is a lot to love about a good music documentary. While Netflix will always offer the mainstream releases like those above, the streaming giant also knows that one key to keeping its subscription totals from dropping is to offer niche things that a smaller, but an important, group of subscribers want to see. Music documentaries fit that description, with some offering concert footage, others offering a look at the lives and travels of the musicians, and others looking posthumously at the greats of yesteryear. Since the streaming service often switches out what they offer, this list removed those docs that left and added some more great music documentaries on Netflix.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)

If there is one iconic and legendary filmmaker who loves to make music documentaries, it is Martin Scorsese. He created one of the most legendary music documentaries of all time in the 1970s with  The Last Waltz , with The Band's final concert. One singer at that show who performed was Bob Dylan and Scorsese has since made two documentaries about that legendary singer as well.

RELATED:  10 Best Songs In Martin Scorsese Movies

No Direction Home  is one of the best music documentaries on Netflix, released in 2005. It tells the story of Dylans' life from his arrival in New York in 1961 and his retirement from touring in 1966.

The Sparks Brothers (2021)

Edgar Wright had a great year in 2021 when it came to movies. He released the horror-thriller  Last Night in Soho and then followed that up with a documentary titled The Sparks Brothers , following the careers of the legendary and iconic indie music sensations.

The great news is that The Sparks Brothers is on Netflix now for all to see. For those unaware,  The Sparks Brothers spent their entire career overlooked and ahead of the curve, meaning they made music that would be popular a few years later, but never had a chance to enjoy the height of that surge because they always changed their styles to whatever they felt was next. This music documentary on Netflix is possibly even better for people who have never heard of the band.

The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story (2019)

One of the most iconic rock bands in history is Queen, and their performances and songs recorded with the late Freddy Mercury remain legendary. However, after Mercury died, the band mostly disappeared outside of some concerts with names like George Michael and Eddie Vedder taking the lead role.

That all changed when Queen hired American Idol finalist Adam Lambert to become their new lead singer. The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story is an original documentary on Netflix that tells the story of how the young singer helped bring the band back to the spotlight again.

ReMastered: The Two Killings Of Sam Cooke (2019)

Netflix has an original documentary series called ReMastered which tells the story in each doc about different musical artists. One of the best in the series hit in 2019 with  The Two Killings of Sam Cooke . The story is a hybrid mix of a music documentary and a true crime story as it focuses on the murder of Sam Cooke in 1964 at the age of 33.

Sam Cooke was a soul singer who was also outspoken on civil rights issues. The title refers to how Sam Cooke died twice - once literally and once was the death of his promising musical career, with part of the documentary showing how important his music was in spreading his message of equality. Fans might also remember the name Sam Cooke from the movie One Night in Miami .

If I Leave Here Tomorrow (2018)

When looking through the music documentaries on Netflix, there is one titled  If I Leave Here Tomorrow and it tells the story of the legendary southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It mostly focuses on lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and is put together with interviews and archival footage.

The band formed in 1964 and became major stars in the 1970s thanks to songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Freebird." Sadly, a plane crash in 1977 killed Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, and left the rest of the band members seriously injured. This documentary on Netflix looks at the band up to that point.

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder (2020)

Shawn Mendes has never shied away from sharing his life with his fans, as it gives him the ability to connect with them on a deeper level. In 2020, Netflix released Shawn Mendes: In Wonder,  which chronicles the past few years of his life and his journey to a bigger level of stardom.

The documentary showcases Mendes in a much more raw form, chronicling his struggles with anxiety and depression—even the nights where he feels the most alone. Among it all is his devotion to family, fans, and even his deep romance with fellow artist Camilla Cabello.

Keith Richards: Under The Influence (2015)

The notorious guitarist of the world-renown rock band The Rolling Stones, Netflix's 2015 documentary Keith Richards: Under The Influence offers a glimpse into the life of the aging rocker. Tracking his progress in the studio as he records a solo album while simultaneously recounting how he attained fame, it's a story all Stones fans need to hear.

RELATED:  10 Musicians-Turned-Actors Who Have Been Nominated For An Oscar

Borrowing a few elements from his autobiography Life , Under the Influence examines Richards' philosophies on everything from classic blues singers to the human condition. It's one of the most fascinating music documentaries on Netflix, even for those who may not be familiar with the musician.

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

Many famed artists from generations gone by have helped define music history. One of these artists is American singer, Nina Simone, who not only awed with her vocals but also inspired others with her civil rights activism. The music documentary on Netflix,  What Happened, Miss Simone? features never-seen-before archival footage of the singer, as well as interviews with her daughter and family.

The music documentary is eye-opening, as it chronicles Simon's rise as one of the most profound jazz singers. Fans also get to see Simone's story of becoming an activist determined to take a stance.

Quincy (2018)

Simply titled  Quincy , this 2018 Netflix documentary is an intimate look into the life and career of Quincy Jones. The movie hit big and even won the Grammy for Best Music Film at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Co-directed by Jones' daughter Rashida Jones , the movie tells the immense story of the 27 Grammy award-winning industry giant.

From his early days in childhood to his rise in music, the movie tells it all. Viewers get to see the artist in his prime to his more personal battles with health issues and the industry. There are even heartwarming interviews and stories of Hollywood's and the music industry's finest, depicting him as one of the greatest of all time.

BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky (2020)

Television, movies, and the music industry have been hit hard with a deep love and admiration for K-Pop and South Korean culture. K-Pop bands like BTS and BlackPink have taken over billboard charts and reached global stardom. In 2020, Netflix released the documentary  BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky,  which focuses on the journey of Korea's top girl group BlackPink.

Fans of K-Pop and even newcomers can watch the personal stories of four young girls from different walks of life strive for the same dream. From their exhausting days as trainees to sold-out arenas around the world, BlackPink successfully became the top girl group in K-Pop music history.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)

Originally released in 2004, Some Kind of Monster catalog's the development of Metallica's most reviled album, St. Anger, along with all of the difficulties and infighting that came with it. Considered by members of the band to be Metallica's darkest period , Some Kind of Monster highlights the bleak realities that sometimes come with fame.

With band co-founders James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich constantly at each other's throats, the world's most recognizable heavy metal band seems to be falling apart at the seams. Fortunately, they would endure these turmoils and come out on the other side with a hard-hitting and insightful piece of heavy metal media.

Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell (2021)

There are countless documentaries and specials about the life of rapper Christopher Wallace, A.K.A. The Notorious B.I.G, though many of them place a major emphasis on his mysterious death. The 2021 documentary Biggie: I Got A Story to Tell not only gives viewers rare footage of the rapper and in-depth interviews, but it's also a celebration of his life and career.

RELATED:  10 Best Hip-Hop Documentaries To Watch After Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell

Among the best music documentaries on Netflix, this one has it all, from Biggie's early years to his journey to becoming the rap icon he was destined to become. Told through interviews and stories from his family and friends, Biggie is showcased as a multi-dimensional artist and person whose life ended tragically at the height of his career.

Homecoming (2019)

Homecoming  is considered to be a concert film, but many see it as an inside look and documentary about Beyoncé's creative process and her impact on a cultural movement. Written and directed by Beyoncé herself, the movie centers around the events leading up to and the day of her performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

The movie received unanimous critical acclaim, with many praising it for its impactful moments, behind-the-scenes shots, and showing what makes Beyoncé the global icon that she is. There's so much more, as the documentary also details how Beyoncé is the first black woman to headline the festival and the impact of this.

Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)

In 2017, Netflix released a cinéma vérité style documentary titled Gaga: Five Foot Two about the hit artist, Lady Gaga. The movie takes place over a year, showcasing the personal life of Gaga, from meeting her fans, working on new music, and even her battle with chronic pain caused by the onset of fibromyalgia.

The timeline of the movie is specific, as it takes place as Gaga is in the process of creating her fifth studio album, "Joanne." There's just about everything to explore here, from her Super Bowl performance and her emotional struggles to her guest role in American Horror Story .

ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads

Posthumously dubbed the "King of the Delta Blues Singers," Robert Johnson is often considered to be one of the most influential guitarists of all time. Known for his uncanny skill, he lived an enigmatic and strange life, and it was rumored that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his amazing abilities as a musician.

Over the decades, speculation and rumor melded into an urban legend, and Johnson's legacy is often treated as something akin to an American folktale. Haunted by either the Devil himself or demons of his own making, Robert Johnson was a fascinating musician whose tale demands attention .

Miss Americana (2020)

Just about everyone has heard of Taylor Swift at this point, and fans of the singer and even those who aren't will be moved and awe-struck by the story told in this, one of the best music documentaries on Netflix. It takes place as Swift begins her 2019 album" Lover."

Being in the limelight for so many years, Swift reveals her inner turmoil and struggles that she kept from the public. The movie uses interviews, camera footage, home videos, and more, as well as her own voice to tell her story of battling body dysmorphia, an eating disorder, and even the scrutiny she faces on the internet.

NEXT:  10 Taylor Swift Songs That Would Make Excellent Movies

The 15 Best Rock Docs on Netflix Instant

By Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

What to stream tonight, from 'It Might Get Loud' to 'Stones in Exile'

‘This Is It’

Michael Jackson was rehearsing for a 50-night stand at London's 02 Arena when he suddenly died in the summer of 2009. Luckily, the shows extensive rehearsals were filmed and turned into this fascinating documentary. It stunned many fans by proving that Jackson was actually in good voice and physical shape just days before his death. The Jackson estate will surely be flooding the market with product for years to come, but it's unlikely that anything will be nearly this engrossing.

This Is It [Netflix]

By Andy Greene

‘We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen’

When guitarist D. Boon died in a van accident in 1985 his group The Minutemen weren't widely known outside of the punk community, but in the past 25 years they've become a touchstone for an entire generation of bands. This 2005 documentary tells the story of their brief career, featuring interviews with surviving members George Hurley and Mike Watt alongside fans Flea, Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore and many more.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen [Netflix]

‘Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same’

For decades this 1976 film was the only non-bootleg source of Led Zeppelin live material available to fans. Today the fantasy sequences seem ridiculous and the band's 2003 live DVD has a more wide-ranging look at the evolution of their live show, but there are still many amazing performances here from their 1973 tour — particularly smoking versions of "Black Dog," "Dazed and Confused" and "The Song Remains The Same."

Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same [Netflix]

‘Roy Orbison: Black & White Night’

In 1987, about a year before Roy Orbison died, a stellar line-up of musicians backed the legend at a concert in Los Angeles. Although the stage is packed with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne, they all wisely stay in the background to keep Orbison in the spotlight. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the film is a stunning chronicle of Orbison's unlikely late-career comeback.

Roy Orbison: Black & White Night [Netflix]

‘The Who: The Vegas Job’

When The Who reformed for tours in 1989 and 1996 the stage was so packed by other bandmembers it barely seemed like The Who. (Even the band dubbed those tours "The Who On Ice.") When they came back together in 1999 they stripped down to a lean five-piece, and this 1999 Las Vegas gig was their first show with that line-up. From the first notes of "I Can't Explain" it's clear that the magic of the old band had survived intact. Less than three years later bassist John Entwistle would die.

The Who: The Vegas Job [Netflix]

‘Madonna: Sticky and Sweet Tour’

In the past decade Madonna has transformed herself into a touring powerhouse, launching tours that rival U2 and The Rolling Stones in both stage production and demand for tickets. Her outing in 2008 was her most elaborate yet, and it featured reworked versions of some of her best songs — including "Vogue, "Like A Prayer" and "Human Nature." The most compelling part, however, comes when she turns off all the bells and whistles to sing a stunning, stripped down version of the Evita classic "You Must Love Me."

Sticky and Sweet [Netflix]

‘It Might Get Loud’

In 2008 filmmaker Davis Guggenheim held the ultimate three-way guitar summit with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. The three men come from different generations and have wildly different approaches to the guitar, which is what makes their jam at the end all the more fascinating. Before that they share their life stories, taking nostalgic trips back to the houses and schools where they perfected their craft. When Jimmy Page picks up his guitar and shows the others how he wrote "Whole Lotta Love" it's a real trip to watch White and Edge grin like schoolboy fans.

It Might Get Loud [Netflix]

‘Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile’

The making of the Rolling Stones 1972 masterpiece Exile In Main St. is one of the most mythical periods of their career. In 2010, to accompany the re-release of the LP, the band released this extensive documentary that explains the real story. They never quite get to the bottom of whether the mansion in France where they recorded it was a Nazi headquarters during World War Two, but new interviews with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Mick Taylor explain almost everything else about the album.

Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile [Netflix]

‘Imagine: John Lennon’

In 1998 journalist Albert Goldman wrote a scathing, mean-spirited book about John Lennon. This documentary, released the same year, was partially created to set the record straight. Offering interviews with Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Julian Lennon and many others, the movie traces Lennon's entire life and shows fascinating historical footage, from the famous Bed-In for Peace to more private moments of John at home in the late 1970s during his five-year hiatus from music.

Imagine: John Lennon [Netflix]

‘Iggy & The Stooges: Live In Detroit’

For decades Iggy Pop swore that he'd never reunite with the men he memorably dubbed the Dum Dum Boys, which is what made his 2003 reunion with The Stooges all the more shocking. That summer they headed to Detroit for this triumphant homecoming concert, with Mick Watt subbing for the late Dave Alexander. While most reunions seem like pointless cash-ins, The Stooges played with a stunning sense of urgency that continues to this day — even though original guitarist Ron Asheton died in 2009.

Iggy & The Stooges: Live in Detroit [Netflix]

‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’

Today Wilco's 2002 LP Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is regarded as their finest work, but when they turned it in to their label nearly a decade ago it was rejected and the group was dropped. This film chronicles this tumultuous time period, and the breakdown in relations between frontman Jeff Tweedy and guitarist Jay Bennett. It remains the definitive rock documentary of the 2000s.

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart [Netflix]

‘The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks’

To many people The Flaming Lips aren't known for much besides their bizarre 1993 alt-rock hit "She Don't Use Jelly," but to their army of fans they are the only band that matters. This 2005 documentary traces their  journey from their early days struggling in Oklahoma City through their alt-rock phase in the early 1990s to the making of their stunning late career masterpieces The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots .

The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks [Netflix]

‘When You’re Strange: The Doors’

Many people felt that Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors was based more upon myth than fact, so filmmaker Tom DiCillo was determined to tell it straight in his 2009 documentary about the band. Narrated by Johnny Depp, the film contains only archival film from the era — and not a single interview with the present-day band. As a result, the viewer is transported back to the 1960s as they were, not what decades of fables turned them into.

When You're Strange: The Doors [Netflix]

‘Soul Power’

In October of 1974 Muhammad Ali famously fought George Foreman at the legendary Rumble In The Jungle match. Less remembered is the concert that accompanied the bout, featuring James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners, Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars. In 2008 the footage was turned into this stellar documentary that captures some of the greatest performers in R&B history at the peak of their powers.

Soul Power [Netflix]

‘Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?)’

The underappreciated singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson (perhaps best known for two songs he didn't write, "Without You" and "Everybody's Talkin,'") gets his due in this moving, lovingly crafted documentary. The film finds both humor and pathos in Nilsson's mix of quirky talent and self-destructive tendencies – he refused to play live, partied perilously hard and blew out his voice while trying to impress his close friend and collaborator John Lennon in the studio.

Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) [Netflix]

Rihanna Again Teases New Album 'R9': 'It's Gonna Be Amazing'

• the wait continues...
• By Daniel Kreps

Kathleen Hanna Recalls Falling in Love With a Beastie Boy in 'Rebel Girl' Book Excerpt

• By Kory Grow

Post Malone Teams With Brad Paisley, Dwight Yoakam for Country Pivot at Stagecoach

• Stagecoach 2024
• By Larisha Paul

Miranda Lambert Surprises Stagecoach 2024 With Reba McEntire, Debuts New Song 'Wranglers'

• Fancy Cameo
• By Joseph Hudak

Salma Hayek Joins Madonna for ‘Vogue’ in Mexico City

• By Althea Legaspi

Most Popular

Anne hathaway says 'gross' chemistry test in the 2000s required her to make out with 10 guys: that's the 'worst way to do it' and 'now we know better', louvre considers moving mona lisa to underground chamber to end 'public disappointment', 'the lord of the rings' trilogy returning to theaters, remastered and extended, sources gave an update on hugh jackman's 'love life' after fans raised concerns about his well-being, you might also like, taylor swift debuts with 2.61 million units for ‘the tortured poets department,’ the best number for any album in nine years, fit responds to protest on campus as unrest at colleges continues, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘challengers’ is a ‘pure fantasy for me,’ says screenwriter justin kuritzkes, detroit sets nfl draft attendance record at 2024 event.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

Sydney Sweeney Sings “Unwritten” Into Glen Powell’s Butt in Iconic...

Holly Madison Calls Bob Guccione A "Horrible Person" For Publishing...

'9-1-1's Oliver Stark Says Season 7 Fan Response Is "A Beautiful Reminder"...

'Deal Or No Deal Island' Star Rob Mariano Says There's "No Masterminds" In...

Jennifer Lopez Sets The Record Straight On 'The View' After Alyssa Farah...

Bill Maher Compares Nickelodeon To Neverland Ranch After Watching 'Quiet...

Woody Allen in Exile: 'Coup De Chance' Finally Arrives On Streaming, Where...

Donald Trump Once Invited 'The View's Joy Behar To Be On 'The Apprentice'...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

‘Steely Dan: Aja (Classic Albums)’ Examines The Creation Of Essential Yacht Rock Tome

Where to stream:.

• Classic Albums: Steely Dan - Aja

Steely Dan are one of those bands you either love or hate. To some, they represent the highest peaks of songwriting and studio craft, with lyrical vignettes about lost souls and strange characters floating above impeccable instrumentation featuring complex chord structures and nods to jazz. To others, they’re bloated ’70s yacht rock at its worst, a musical diet soft-drink with no flavor or bite. Speaking personally, I am unable to hear them without a flood of memories of growing up in 1970s New York saturating my brain. I don’t own any albums and don’t know much beyond the hits, but yeah, I dig ‘em. 

Released in the fall of 1977, Steely Dan’s sixth album Aja was the full flowering of their use of session musicians and studio wizardry. Painstakingly recorded over the course of a year, its pristine production was glossy and slick but funky enough to be sampled by hip hop artists a decade later. The album found them reaching deeper than ever before into their love of jazz and R&B but was still pop enough to be a hit and remains a mainstay of classic rock radio. Its creation was the subject of a 1999 episode of the British music documentary series Classic Albums , which is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime .    

Adding to the riddle of Steely Dan is the fact that they’re not really a band. Centered around songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagan, the same lineup played on their first three albums but starting with 1974’s Pretzel Logic , they increasingly relied on studio musicians. “We toured for a while to support the first couple of albums but didn’t really like it so we stopped in 1974,” explains Becker, who also played bass and guitar with the band before his death in 2017. “By the time we released Aja , the other members of the band were gone except for (guitarist) Denny Dias and we had replaced them with session musicians and some of our favorite soloists.”

Becker and Fagan met at Bard College, a couple hours north of New York City. “When they’re in the same room at the same time it’s like one person with two brains,” says Dias. “They can usually finish each other’s sentences.” With Dias, they relocated to Los Angeles but brought their East Coast sensibilities with them. “I don’t know that we were nostalgic in a general sort of way for New York so much as we were nostalgic as writers for this milieu that we left behind,” says Becker. “We weren’t finished writing songs with New York characters in them yet.” 

Though Steely Dan were marketed as a rock band, Becker and Fagan drew inspiration drew from a deeper well. “Both Walter and I have a background that includes songwriting from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s and ‘50s,” says Fagan, who is also the band’s lead singer. After the first generation of rock n’ roll faded away he turned to jazz and as a fan of movie and television soundtracks he enjoyed “real jazz and fake jazz and fake, fake jazz.” Both English majors, Becker and Fagan felt liberated by the lyrical breakthroughs of Bob Dylan, who Becker says. “opened the door to a larger world of possibilities and realized that by superimposing more interesting or more literate or more obscure or more extravagant lyrics on rock and roll beats you would end up with something intriguing.” 

By the time they recorded Aja , Becker and Fagan were using both the recording studio and session musicians as instruments unto themselves in order to bring their songs to life. “I was always amazed that they pretty much heard in their heads what it was going to be like completed,” says longtime engineer Roger Nichols. As session drummer Rick Marotta notes, “It wasn’t like they played musical chairs with the guys in the band. They played musical bands. The whole band would go and a whole incredible other band would come in.” 

As with other  Classic Albums episodes, we see Becker and Fagan listening back to the master recordings, isolating certain tracks, and unlocking their mystery. With nerdy chagrin, they delight in sorting through the numerous overdubs, a faux string section here, a garbage pail lid there, and sample the alternate guitar solos that didn’t make the cut before Jay Graydon nailed his on the hit single “Peg.” Though they might spend weeks trying to nail a particular song, session guitarist Dean Parks says the ultimate goal was not perfection but to create “something that you want to listen to over and over again. So we would work then past the perfection point until it became natural, until it sounded almost improvised in a way.” 

Released in September 1977, Aja would go on to sell over 2 million copies and is Steely Dan’s most commercially successful album. Producer Gary Katz says, “I think Aja probably was a turning point where the music really became another level of sophistication of writing and performing for Donald and Walter.” The episode ends with Becker, Fagan and some of the musicians who played on the album running through instrumental versions of “Peg” and “Josie,” illustrating their irrefutable musicality and enduring appeal.   

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter: @BHSmithNYC.

Where to stream Classic Albums: Steely Dan - Aja

• music documentaries
• Prime Video

'Deal Or No Deal Island' Star Rob Mariano Says There's "No Masterminds" In The Night Owls Alliance: "They're Just Birds"

'9-1-1's Oliver Stark Says Season 7 Fan Response Is "A Beautiful Reminder" Of The Show's Cultural Impact

Is 'One Chicago' Back Tonight? When Will 'Chicago Med,' 'Chicago Fire,' And 'Chicago P.D.' Return To NBC With New Episodes?

Is 'Grey's Anatomy' New Tonight? Here's When The Next Episode of 'Grey's Anatomy' Is On ABC And Hulu 

Whoopi Goldberg Confronts Her 'View' Co-Hosts After Nearly All Of Them Fail To Carry Out Guest J. Lo's Request: "How Come Y'all Weren't Dancing?" 

Sydney Sweeney Sings “Unwritten” Into Glen Powell’s Butt in Iconic ‘Anyone But You’ Credits Scene