Adventure and the Yacht Rock sound

Adventure by Rupert Holmes and the 'Yacht Rock' Sound

With the approach of Memorial Day, Sirius XM has revived its Yacht Rock channel, returning a soothing brand of 70s and 80s sound to the ears of its listening subscribers.

Among the more prominent artists on the Yacht Rock channel is Rupert Holmes (the stage name of singer-songwriter, producer, and playwright David Goldstein, b. 1947). 

In 1980 Holmes released his sixth album,  Adventure, the lead single of which was 'I Don't Need You'.

'I Don't Need You', which can be listened to here, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at slot 84 in the week of April 4 1981, and peaked at slot 56. It's a great example of Yacht Rock: well-crafted, well-produced, and made in the era well before Auto-Tune and Karl 'Max Martin' Sandberg transformed songwriting and producing into exercises in digital wizardry.

Here's a link to an interesting essay at the 'Picking Up Rocks' blog on the birth and development of the songs that typify Yacht Rock radio, with an in-depth review of Adventure.

The reviewer concludes:

........it is a truly seminal Yacht Rock-West Coast-Adult Contemporary-Soft Rock-Pop classic that deserves it’s due because, let’s get “1980” for a second, it’s just totally bitchin’.

You can't beat that sort of endorsement to kick off Yacht Rock season !