This isn’t my first time professing my love for so-called yacht rock, and it won’t be the last. I have a complicated relationship with the song by the Nielsen/Pearson Band after which I have subtitled this essay. Sonically, it’s flawless as an example of this kind of soft rock that was first popular for roughly a decade, starting around the mid-’70s. Lyrically, it could be seen either as an overture from a hopeless romantic who professes continued and undying love toward an ambivalent object or, alternately, sung from the perspective of an ex who just refuses to let go. More on that in a second, but there are several tie-ins in my mind between “If You Should Sail”, this convertible, and the area in which I spotted it. Loyola-Leone Beach Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood is rich with nautical flavor, with many sailboats present on nearby Lake Michigan during warm summer days.
Loyola-Leone Beach Park. Sunday, October 17, 2021.
I had just left the nearby Lighthouse Tavern (also nautically themed, naturally) on a Sunday four years ago and was waiting for the bus, when this Ninety-Eight convertible came cruising northbound on North Sheridan Road. One of my favorite things to do at the Lighthouse was to load up the jukebox with many of my favorite hits of yesteryear, and many great discussions would then ensue with friends and other bar patrons. Our ages and backgrounds ranged as widely as the thoughts and associations many of those songs elicited.
In my vast mental music library, I have tended to pick out songs to play that have had limited mainstream exposure since when they were first released or were popular. Tunes that haven’t been referenced as much in popular culture in other contexts usually end up feeling more closely tied to their specific moment in time, versus songs that have been brought back for commercials and the like. “If You Should Sail” is an example of the former, the only Top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the Nielsen/Pearson duo. It peaked at No. 38 in November of 1980.
Some sample lyrics:
You can get behind the wheel
And drive your heart out
Take that Oldsmobile
And stake your claim
Just to find all that runnin’s in vain
And it will remain the same
If you should sail upon a ship
I’m gonna stow away
And if the ocean’s wide
Baby it’ll take a long while
If you should sail out on a trip
Over your shoulder cast an eye
I’ll be there wearing a smile
I have a few thoughts, immediately. The trunk of this Ninety-Eight convertible definitely looks large enough for an adult-sized stowaway. There’d be the safety issue of the car not having an interior trunk release, but I’m sure if a person was desperate enough to stalk someone by hiding in the trunk of their car, they probably would have thought about a plan to get out. Also, the female love object of the protagonist might have been driving an Oldsmobile, but it wouldn’t be a then-eleven-year-old Ninety-Eight. She would have been driving a Cutlass Supreme (or Supreme Brougham) like a gazillion other United States citizens.
Those lyrics are something, though. That guy was in love, or really obsessed. Obsession is not a form of love, and hopefully most people realize it. I can’t imagine anyone, male or female, being turned on by advances like that, but the song just goes down so smoothly that I can’t help but bop my head to it. I’m still really happy when the shuffle algorithm lands on it.
And my, is this car beautiful. The ’69 model year was the penultimate one for the Ninety-Eight convertible, with the Delta 88 continuing through ’75 as the last, full-sized Oldsmobile soft-top. Just under 4,300 open-air Ninety-Eights found buyers that year, with another 3,200 or so sold in 1970 before the final curtain came down. That 4,300 figure represented less than 4% of total ’69 Ninety-Eight production of 116,400. Clearly, new-car buyers of the day were over the convertible by the late ’60s, especially as a choice in a luxury automobile.
There was just one engine in any ’69 Ninety-Eight, and that was a big, 455-cubic inch Olds Rocket V8 with 365 horsepower and 510-lb ft of torque, mated to a three-speed Turbo Hydramatic transmission. I remember this car gliding through the intersection as if buoyant and forging its way through water’s resistance. The Oldsmobile “rocket” imagery synonymous with its brand doesn’t exactly fit this car, but I don’t think it really has to. The point of a big, powerful engine in a huge car like this (224.4″ long, 80″ wide) isn’t to win any races, but to ensure smooth, comfortable, no-nonsense cruising with no doubts in the driver’s mind as to its capability to handle what it needs to, provided he or she can afford the fuel costs.
You can change your name
Change your address, too
Play that runnin’ game
It’s nothin’ new
Try to hide for all the good it will do
You know it’s true
Nope. That’s called stalking, though it really is too bad Oldsmobile’s buying clientele didn’t sustain a similar level of devotion and tenacity to the brand before it disappeared in 2004. Of course by then, there was nothing in Olds showrooms approaching the kind of ostentatious, over-the-top character as this Ninety-Eight convertible, save for maybe the first Aurora that appeared for ’95. I wonder sometimes how the drivers of the cars I stop to photograph feel about some guy on the sidewalk snapping pictures as they drive by.
As has been previously discussed at Curbside in the comments, I think most drivers behind the wheel of an interesting car would appreciate someone else’s attention to it, and I certainly hope that’s how the owners feel about the cars I choose to feature here. It’s never my intent to seem like a paparazzo or like I’m following someone. “I’ll be there wearing a smile” is the last line in the chorus of “If You Should Sail”, which seems to be a fitting end to both my essay and also how I felt on that warm Cinco de Mayo immediately after spotting this fine Ninety-Eight.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, May 5, 2019.
“If You Should Sail” lyrics by Mark Pearson and Reed Nielsen.
Brochure page as sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
I confess I’m vain enough to enjoy the thumbs up, and “cool car” comments in my Skylark. Puts a smile on my face every time.
Chris, I would smile, too. And you’re probably joking, but I wouldn’t consider that vanity. Part of the enjoyment of the hobby is sharing it with others. Last summer when I was in my friends’ ’92 Camaro, a hopped-up ’78 Malibu pulled up next to us. They also seemed to enjoy that we enjoyed seeing their car.
There are things I don’t like about the world, but the fact that there is often a Yacht Rock channel on SiriusXM is not one of them.
I haven’t listened to the channel, but if I ever rent a car with Sirius XM for a long drive somewhere, I’d definitely be looking for it.
The thing I love about smallish boats is that they react to your presence, well weight, as you board; the boat moved a bit, like it was alive.
There’s even more life-like moving in a boat’s reactions to speed, turns, crossing and bouncing on the wakes of other boats, whether it’s planing or plowing, or just swinging on an anchor on a windy day.
Big old Oldsmobiles moved a bit like boats, front rising on power-ups, leaning in turns (like displacement hull boats), and reacting to the weight of people boarding or disembarking.
The only thing missing from this big white cruiser is a couple of fishing poles towards the stern in pole-holders.
In the 1950s I would help my father work on his old wooden cruiser dry docked on triangular supports. We’d climb a ladder to get on it and as I stepped on the deck it felt dead… no movement at all. I recall feeling sad at this apparent lack of life.
Later in life I sailed J-24s in NYC Harbor. Totally different experience – much more movement. Not at all like a big Oldsmobile; more like a cork in a hurricane.
I enjoyed reading this. That I can recall, I’ve only been sailing once during a family summer camp experience. I had to look up a J-24 sailboat to see what it looked like. When you mentioned the fishing poles being missing from our boat-like feature car, it also occurred to me that the rear fender skirts contribute even more to its nautical imagery.
Yacht Rock stations are in heavy rotation on both Amazon Music and Pandora both at home and in the office. Its just plain good music to work or do chores to. I go hot and cold on the big Oldsmobiles of the late 60’s and early 70’s. My preference for a big convertible in ’69 would have been the Electra 225, which to me exudes more of a yachting vibe, with its long graceful “sweepspear” evoking a boat’s gentle wake as it glides along.
Now that you mention the trademark Buick sweepspear, it does absolutely the shape of a boat’s wake in the water. And not to take anything away from this beautiful, big Olds, but Buick’s brand identity, at least visually, was much stronger from most angles.
Nicely done! There have been generations of the big Oldsmobile when the flavor of the 88 and the 98 was not all that different, but this was not one of those. These were elegant cars. I remember that these were fairly well represented in my area when I was young, and I do recall how rare the convertibles were even then.
You say ” too bad Oldsmobile’s buying clientele didn’t sustain a similar level of devotion and tenacity to the brand before it disappeared” – I would argue that a lot of them did, but that enough of them aged out of new cars by then without younger people filling in to replace them. But you are right – Oldsmobile had exited the business of offering cars even remotely like this.
Yacht rock? It always kind of struck me as the later analogue to pop music of the early 50s before rock came along and displaced it. It was not bad (for the most part) but it was also not all that memorable or interesting either. But when you are in the mood for it, nothing else is quite like it.
Aging out of a demographic… this seems to have too often been the story for some GM makes by the ’80s, especially Oldsmobile and Buick. I also like your comparison of soft rock / yacht rock being sort of the spiritual successor to vocal pop of the late ’50s.
I remember when I had first moved to southwest Florida, I had found a radio station that specialized in (for lack of a more specific description) easy listening, that had a combination of both yacht rock, to “beautiful music”, to standards – and I don’t remember there seeming anything particularly odd about any given setlist.
The term LAND YACHT was extremely appropriate for OTT luxury cars of this era. They were huge, smooth riding and luxurious! For GM, Alfred Sloanes hierarchy even applied to top of line models. If you couldn’t have a Cadillac, you could get much of Cadillac luxury in a 98 or Electra. Had a 66 Dynamic 88 convert which strongly resembled 66 98s. By 69, styling between 88s and 98s was much different! Remember OLDS using YOUNG Mobile in ads, and later This is NOT your father’s Oldsmobile! Will always believe that OLD in an increasingly youth oriented market helped kill OLDSMOBILE. Back in the day, dealers often had a red convert in showrooms to attract buyers who would usually buy a sedan. NOW It’s a totally different situation! 🤮
The ’66 Dynamic 88 was a beautiful car. And I do remember seeing those “Youngmobile Thinking For” (whatever model year they started using it for – was it ’69?) A precursor, perhaps, to Olds’ ad campaign of roughly twenty years later: “The New Generation… Of Olds!”
This Buick below is the ultimate land yacht:
“Yacht rock”?? I swear, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it. Not sure I’m ready to actually listen to it, but I try to keep an open mind. 🙂
““Yacht rock”?? I swear, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it.”
Me too.
I googled it and here’s what Wikipedia says: ” commonly associated with soft rock, one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.” .
OK … I’m sort of familiar with soft rock, and maybe I missed the association or alternate name of that kind of music in those busy days.
I can now check off from my to-do list: Learn something new every day!
Just, wow. Very nautical, indeed, down to the color scheme.
Great article, Joseph. And I have a connection – I was briefly a member of the Nielsen-Pearson band in 1978-79, and played on their first Capitol album. I’ve known Mark (Pearson) and Reed (Nielsen) for 45 years. Mark is retired, and Reed went on to a successful career as a Country writer, penning hits for Eddie Rabbit, Juice Newton and Vince Gill (‘Little Liza Jane’). Thanks for the reminder of how talented these two guys were. Good memories.
Mark, it made my day when I read your comment on my lunch break. How wonderful to have an actual, one-time member of the band even see this article and weigh in. Thank you so much.
Joseph, you can imagine my surprise and delight when ‘Nielsen-Pearson Band’ popped up in your post. I can say that it made MY day as well. And, in another instance of serendipity, I’m also an Olds man. My dad had a ’55 sedan, a ’64 Dynamic hardtop, and a ’69 Toronado. I don’t have one in the garage currently, but 20 years ago I had the pleasure of being the caretaker of a restored ’55 Olds 88 hardtop for a few years. We auctioned it after 9/11, and later, I heard it went to Chicago, and from there to New Zealand, where it’s spent the last 18 years. The old gal’s still getting around! Here’s a pic for reference:
WOW! a nice big 6-passenger convertible. An era long gone. Nissan tried with the Murano convertible but the thing looked like a fish bowl. An aftermarket tried with the current Chrysler 300 a few years ago but it was only a 5-passenger version and didn’t have that long look to it. I was hoping someone would take a 2020 Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition and cut the roof off in the true spirit of the 1960’s Continental. Can you imagine the 2020 Continental as a soft top? Or better yet, a full hardtop convertible. Very classy!
I do remember the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet – I have actually been waiting for someone to write about one here, though it’s possible that someone did and I missed it.
I like the current Chrysler 300, though to your point, yes – I think it’s too thick and blocky to exude the same kind of long and low thing a convertible like that would need to look right. I did like the final Continental, but my mind’s eyes are squinting right now to imagine a convertible version…
I’ve always liked these big convertibles, but my favorites come from 2 of the low priced 3.
A ’72 LTD convertible and a ’68 Impala convertible will always have a parking space in my fantasy garage.
As to the term “Yacht Rock” – I can honestly say I’ve never heard that term, but as soon as I read it, Christopher Cross’ song “Sailing” immediately came into my mind’s ear. And now it is stuck there. Thanks Joseph… 😉
Rick, I just looked up examples of a ’72 LTD convertible, and in the right color(s), it’s a really attractive car that I confess I haven’t really thought of that much. Only 4,234 produced, according to my Encyclopedia Of American Cars from the editors of Consumer Guide.
Hey Joseph, nice article. I have had a few people take pictures of my car at a car show, but never noticed anyone doing it on the street. I had my car in a car show a couple of years ago, and a guy came by recording a video of it. I spoke with him a short while and I gave him a brief history of the car. I thought he was a judge. A friend let me know a couple of weeks later that my car was on YouTube. Time went by and earlier this year (2023), I was searching YouTube by typing “1978 Thunderbird” in. Low and behold there was a different video of my car. It was at a repair shop parked outside while getting some work done a few weeks before that same car show. When I heard the voice on the video, I recognized it as the same guy that did the video at the car show. It was quite a nice surprise to search YouTube and see my own car appear there when I had not recorded it.
Thank you, Bill. In your example, it sounds like the guy you spoke with who photographed your car really appreciated both the car and the time you took to talk with him about it. It’s cool, to your point, that there’s now YouTube evidence of your car to be enjoyed into the future.
I thought Chrysler was the preferred choice if you’re “about to set sail”? Oops… wrong genre!
Oddly, I don’t remember seeing as many of the full size 1969 Oldsmobiles as their other GM counterparts. I do rather like the pictured 98, though I’d have probably picked mine in gold, or some other late 60’s chic color. Surpassing 500 lb-ft torque (even gross) is quite impressive. Rocket on, big Oldsmobile!
I love the B-52s. Even saw them in concert back in (I think) the fall of ’93 and got Kate Pierson’s autograph.
I like your “what if?” idea of this example being in a period-specific color versus white, which so many modern cars have now. Maybe this owner, if given the choice between a ’69 Olds Ninety-Eight convertible in white or another, more ’60s color, would still have chosen this low-key white as it would have fit more with his personality.
I’d heard of yacht rock from a previous CC post. I don’t know that we ever called it that down here, but I liked the softer music coming out of the States compared to all the other bands trying to out-hard-rock each other in the seventies and getting more and more discordant. But I have no memory of this song. But that was more when I got into classical and folk music. Yeah, I’m that kid that was different.
While I can sure appreciate the wow factor of seeing a big white seventies convertible in today’s traffic, my eyes get hung up on that roller-coaster of a waistline. We go up in a nice sharp curve where the quarter-window of the coupe would have been,then across into this flat section, across, acrosss, and then we go down again where the roofline would have touched down to the trunk. Though I know that’s how it was designed, it gives the impression of a Sawzall-ed coupe rather than a designed-as convertible. Not GM’s finest hour.
And no, I don’t have a scale one.
I liked that you “zigged” musically when everyone else had “zagged”. I’d say I identify with that, except for that for most of my life, I’ve liked all kinds of music. And I can’t unsee the “Sawzall-ed” beltline on this convertible. To be fair, though, I’m sure that effect is similar on many other convertibles.
I got my NJ drivers license in a 1969 oldsmobile 98 LS
Love those old style lanyards growing up we had a 67 Olds 98 luxury sedan and a 66 Bonneville so I just love those old man they got
As the proud owner of a mint green 69 Ninety Eight convertible which has been in our family since new, I enjoyed reading this article while listening to this song.
Brief history, my uncle, a prominent physician, treated himself for his 70th birthday to this beautiful luxury convertible.
He could have had a Cadillac, Lincoln, Imperial or whatever but he was especially fond of Oldsmobiles.
He drove around playing his Benny Goodman Stereo 8 Tracks with his MD plates and his physician bags in the trunk and to this day, the trunk still smells like a doctor’s office.
Everyone admired that green machine from day one.
The car is family history and will continue to be passed down to the next generation.
Thank you for doing this article.
Vito, thanks for sharing this. So glad you have your uncle’s Ninety-Eight
It sounds like a beautiful car, and with great memories attached to it. He chose the Olds!