Ambrosia

From prog to yacht rock

Ambrosia formed in Los Angeles in 1970, in the South Bay and later San Pedro, when David Pack, Joe Puerta and Burleigh Drummond saw Christopher North perform in San Francisco. They were first called Ambergris Mite; a name clash led them to Ambrosia, which Puerta found in a dictionary and which Pack's bio ties to the nectar of the gods. They played the Hollywood Bowl in 1971 and were featured by Zubin Mehta in an All-American Dream Concert. Drummond told Vintage Rock in 2019 that he saw King Crimson at the Whisky a Go Go in 1969 and that early heavy R&B sets in a local bar shaped their sound.

The debut Ambrosia (February 1975) was produced by Freddie Piro and engineered by Alan Parsons, earning a Grammy nomination for best engineered recording, and Somewhere I've Never Travelled (September 1976) was produced by Parsons; all four founders played on the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination. They moved to Warner Bros. for Life Beyond L.A. (1978), toured on the Warner Road Show with the Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac, and made One Eighty (April 1980), their biggest album, with "Biggest Part of Me" at 3 and "You're the Only Woman (You and I)" at 13. Road Island (May 1982) disappointed and they split that year; the founders reunited in 1989. Pack left in 2000, his last show on November 4 that year.

They appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in a yacht-rock segment on May 2, 2011. Christopher North died on March 30, 2026, aged 75, and David Lewis, a keyboardist, on June 7, 2021. Puerta, who played with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, joked that they needed a new term, like Yacht Prog. Wikipedia counts five top 40 singles between 1975 and 1980.