50 Best Rock Songs About the Ocean
Best Rock Songs That Capture the Ocean
There’s a certain way the ocean sound creeps into your head, even when you’re miles inland. It can feel calm, endless, or like it’s swallowing everything whole. Rock bands have been chasing that pull for decades, sometimes leaning on crashing guitars to mimic the waves, other times letting lyrics hint at salt air without saying it outright. Some tracks are literally tied to the sea while others only carry that drifting mood, but either way they find a place in this kind of playlist. Think of it like how pop, rock, country, and R&B songs all circle the same theme from different angles, never in the same way twice.
It’s not always postcard beaches or sunsets either. Sometimes the ocean feels hostile, something that can drown out every voice in the room. A riff can hit like a storm rolling in, or a chorus can lift up like the tide pulling everything forward at once. That’s why even songs that never mention water still end up connected here. They catch the same rhythm, the same pull, the same sense of being both free and stuck at the edge of something bigger than you.
Playlists shaped around the ocean carry that contradiction. They’re messy, moody, and loud in the right places, with quiet patches that feel like a long stare at the horizon. A track might make you think of surf culture, or a breakup framed against crashing waves, or even a tour bus parked somewhere near a pier. Some of these songs never mention the sea directly but still lock into its energy. Here are the best rock songs that carry the ocean.
Top 10 Ocean Rock Songs
1. 'The Ocean' by Led Zeppelin
2. 'Ocean Man' by Ween
3. 'Come Sail Away' by Styx
4. 'Surfin’ U.S.A.' by The Beach Boys
5. '(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding
6. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot
7. 'Southern Cross' by Crosby, Stills & Nash
8. 'I Sat by the Ocean' by Queens of the Stone Age
9. 'Sail On, Sailor' by The Beach Boys
10. 'Into the Mystic' by Van Morrison
Popular Rock Songs about the Sea #11 to 20
11. 'Rockaway Beach' by Ramones
12. 'Octopus’s Garden' by The Beatles
13. 'Walk On the Ocean' by Toad the Wet Sprocket
14. 'Sea and Sand' by The Who
15. 'Sloop John B' by The Beach Boys
16. 'California Girls' by The Beach Boys
17. 'Yellow Submarine' by The Beatles
18. 'Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)' by Looking Glass
19. 'Down by the Sea' by The ELO
20. 'Where Is My Mind?' by Pixies
Favorite Rock Songs About Coastline and Waters #21 to 30
21. 'Into the Ocean' by Blue October
22. 'Surfin’ Bird' by The Trashmen
23. 'Sea of Love' by The Honeydrippers
24. 'Seaside' by The Kooks
25. 'Under the Boardwalk' by The Drifters
26. 'Island in the Sun' by Weezer
27. 'An Ocean in Between the Waves' by The War on Drugs
28. 'Sail to the Sea' by The Kinks
29. 'Ocean Breathes Salty' by Modest Mouse
30. 'Sailin' Shoes' by Little Feat
Well-known Rock Songs with Ocean as a Theme #31 to 40
31. 'Nautical Disaster' by The Tragically Hip
32. 'A Salty Dog' by Procol Harum
33. 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Iron Maiden
34. 'Orinoco Flow' by Enya
35. 'Sail' by AWOLNATION
36. 'The Mariner's Revenge Song' by The Decemberists
37. 'Sail Away Sweet Sister' by Queen
38. 'A Pirate Looks at Forty' by Jimmy Buffett
39. 'Fisherman's Blues' by The Waterboys
40. 'The Riverboat Song' by Ocean Colour Scene
More Rock Songs about the Ocean and Sea #41 to 50
41. 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross
42. 'Beyond the Sea' by Bobby Darin
43. 'Coastline' by Hollow Coves
44. 'Ocean' by Sebadoh
45. 'The Ocean Must Be Free' by The Ocean
46. 'Whale Song' by Pearl Jam
47. 'The Mermaid' by Great Big Sea
48. 'The Dark and the Rolling Sea' by Enya
49. 'Oceans' by Pearl Jam
50. 'I Am the Sea' by The Who
© 2025 Carson McQueen
