50 Best Rock Songs About the Sea

Best Rock Songs Connected to the Ocean

There’s a pull the sea has that feels different from anything inland. It’s wide, heavy, and a little threatening, yet it can knock you quiet in a way nothing else does. Rock songs tied to that mood hit like waves coming in uneven, sometimes calm enough to sit with, other times storming through louder than you expected. They capture that unsettled mix of freedom and weight, the sense that the water carries stories you only half-hear. Some tracks are literal, full of salt spray and shipwrecks, while others only nod at the ocean but still fit because the sound feels soaked in that same restless energy.

Not every song leans into surf imagery or sailor myths. Some slide sideways into the theme, borrowing the sea as a backdrop for heartbreak or escape. You can hear the water in the reverb, in the rolling bass lines, in the crash of drums that mimic tides more than any lyric does. That’s why playlists built around oceans rarely stick to one lane. They might cross through pop, rock, country, and R&B songs, each bending the idea of the sea into something that works for them. What matters is that restless pull, the way the music feels like it could stretch past the horizon if you let it.

And sometimes the strangest choices end up fitting best. A track you never linked to water suddenly makes sense when played against footage of a coastline, or when the lyrics echo like gulls circling above. These are not neat, postcard-ready versions of the sea but jagged ones full of mystery and noise. Here are the best rock songs about the sea for reels, playlists, and late-night loops.

1. 'The Ocean' by Led Zeppelin

2. 'Come Sail Away' by Styx

3. 'I Sat by the Ocean' by Queens of the Stone Age

4. 'Ocean Man' by Ween

5. 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross

6. 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' by Gordon Lightfoot

7. 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)' by Looking Glass

8. 'Southern Cross' by Crosby, Stills & Nash

9. 'Into the Mystic' by Van Morrison

10. 'Walk On the Ocean' by Toad the Wet Sprocket

11. 'Rockaway Beach' by Ramones

12. 'Sail On, Sailor' by The Beach Boys

13. 'Sea and Sand' by The Who

14. 'Ocean' by The Velvet Underground

15. 'Octopus's Garden' by The Beatles

16. 'Beyond the Sea' by Bobby Darin

17. 'A Pirate Looks at Forty' by Jimmy Buffett

18. 'Sloop John B' by The Beach Boys

19. 'A Sailor's Life' by Fairport Convention

20. 'Sail to the Moon' by Radiohead

31. 'Seaside' by The Kooks

32. 'Ocean Breathes Salty' by Modest Mouse

33. 'Sea Calls Me Home' by Julia Holter

34. 'The Last Salmon Man' by Primus

35. 'Sail Away' by The Allman Brothers Band

36. 'Lost at Sea' by Zedd

37. 'The Mermaid' by Great Big Sea

38. 'Wooden Ships' by Crosby, Stills & Nash

39. 'The Sailor Song' by Toy Box

40. 'Drunken Sailor' by The Irish Rovers

41. 'Island in the Sun' by Weezer

42. 'Ocean Eyes' by Billie Eilish

43. 'Coastline' by Hollow Coves

44. 'Sail Away Sweet Sister' by Queen

45. 'I'm Your Captain' by Grand Funk Railroad

46. 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Iron Maiden

47. 'Message in a Bottle' by The Police

48. 'Single Handed Sailor' by Dire Straits

49. 'Oceans' by Pearl Jam

50. 'Ride Captain Ride' by Blues Image