Few songs really sound like the subject in their title, but every beat of “Sailing” by Christopher Cross is like a gentle boat ride for the heart. It’s impossible to feel tense and stressed listening to this song; it simply banishes negativity away with easy guitars, soft voices, and of course those achingly delicate chimes.
The airwaves were first graced with this balm for the soul in 1979 as the second single from Cross’s debut album Christopher Cross. What a way to introduce himself to the music scene, with the album becoming certified Gold, not to mention “Sailing” pretty much guaranteeing Cross would be the star of the next Grammys. He also tread new ground in terms of recording techniques, doing something revolutionary that’s today standard, thanks to his smooth sailing.
Everything about “Sailing” by Christopher Cross is wholesome and inspiring
VH1 summed up the feel of this song by calling it the most “softsational soft rock” of all time. You ever hear a word that’s not real but you just know, yes, that’s it? That’s definitely the case with the genre of yacht rock that “Sailing” laid the foundations for.
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With the power the sounds and words of this song has to heal people’s world-weary hearts, it’s no surprise the inspiration comes from a sweet, even poignant place too. In his youth, Cross had a friend named Al Glasscock, who acted as a surrogate older brother to him. When the woes of teenagerhood got to be too much, Al would take him out sailing.
The cruel tides of time saw Cross and Al lose touch eventually, but when sailing these rejuvenating waves, these ships were destined to find one another again. Their reunion happened on The Howard Stern Show in April 1995, 28 years after the fact.
Jump ahead 45 years since the song’s debut, and it still holds a meditative power over every listener with an effective ease that can calm any stormy sea.
Cross started a new trend along the way
The numbers show what a hit this song was. Not only did it rocket to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 30, 1980, where it stayed for another week, it also won Grammys for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Arrangement of the Year. For his work in being the brain and voice behind this highly-decorated track, Cross won the Grammy for Best New Artist.
Today, for better or for worse, technology is a big part of music production. But not everything is a horror story of autotune and impersonal non-instruments. Cross and “Sailing” dipped into some new recording territory. For its release, “Sailing” used the 3M Digital Recording System. This makes it one of the very first digitally recorded songs to chart. Definitely a great track for the history books.
