Last year, I finally bought a brand-new car.

New cars come with the Sirius-radio trial for a few months, and I eventually saved a few favorite stations – one of which was old Channel 311, the Yacht Rock channel.

I’d didn’t expect that I would know virtually all of the songs, and it dawned on me that I must be quite a wuss for them to be so familiar! Then I watched the Yacht Rock documentary, which was fantastic and laid out the history of Yacht Rock in no uncertain terms. I agreed with all of them!

But there needs to be one caveat.

To be in the upper tier of Yacht Rock, you must have some connection to Michael McDonald.

Artists who had Michael write, sing, or produce their songs:

Dooblie Brothers, Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins. Christopher Cross, James Ingram, David Cassidy, Van Halen, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Patti LaBelle, Twinkie Clark, Lee Ritenour, The Winans, Aretha Franklin, Toto, Grizzly Bear, Stephen Bishop, Jack Jones, Carly Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Thundercat.

Michael has won five Grammy awards, including Song of the Year (with Kenny Loggins) in 1980 for the yacht rock anthem, What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers. Michael wrote his auto-biography and gave it the same name. I’ve read it, and his story is exactly what you’d expect to happen to a talented guy who came to L.A. in the late-1960s looking for a lucky break.

We’ve heard that song enough though.

Another song that gets overplayed on the Yacht Rock channel is the Kenny Loggins song, Heart to Heart, which is also co-written by Michael. Sirius plays the version from Kenny’s solo album, where he sings all the leads but really strains to sing Michael’s parts. This is the better version:

Today is Michael 73rd birthday too – Happy Birthday Michael!

Then there is Michael’s song stepped all over by Kenny:

Michael McDonald together for a live multi-cam shoot of the hit song, recorded for a fundraiser for the 36th Unity Telethon, supporting low income families and seniors all year long in the Santa Barbara area.

The same people got back together two months ago, and Kenny stayed in his shoes: