I am Sailing – Rod Stewart (1975) – (Sutherland Brothers song) – Action extended remix

“Sailing” is a song composed by Gavin Sutherland of the Sutherland Brothers in 1972, best known as a 1975 international hit for Rod Stewart. Gavin Sutherland would comment: “Most people take the song to be about a young guy telling his girl that he’s crossing the Atlantic to be with her. In fact the song’s got nothing to do with romance or ships; it’s an account of mankind’s spiritual odyssey through life on his way to freedom and fulfillment with the Supreme Being.”

Written on the beach by Blythe Bridge, “Sailing” was recorded by the Sutherland Brothers – a duo consisting of Gavin and Iain Sutherland – in a June 1972 session (a really bad version compared to Rod Stewart).

“Sailing” was recorded by Rod Stewart for his first album recorded in North America rather than Great Britain: Atlantic Crossing, which album was recorded April – June 1975 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with Tom Dowd producing. The first single from the album, “Sailing” afforded Stewart an international hit notably in the UK where “Sailing” was #1 for four weeks in September 1975: augmented by a return to the UK chart in 1976 and – to a lesser extent – 1987, “Sailing” remains the Rod Stewart single to have the greatest success in its UK release. However “Sailing” failed to afford Stewart a major hit in his newly adopted US homeland.