The Song Rod Stewart Borrowed — And Turned Into a Timeless Classic
The Song Rod Stewart Borrowed — And Turned Into a Timeless Classic
Rod Stewart was already a major rock star.
His raspy voice had become unmistakable.
But the song that would become one of the most recognizable recordings of his career didn't begin with him.
It began with two brothers.
Gavin and Iain Sutherland.
The Sutherland Brothers had written and recorded Sailing several years earlier.
It was a quiet, atmospheric song.
Nothing like the hard-driving rock performances for which Stewart was famous.
Then Rod heard it.
And something about the song stayed with him.
Stewart was recording his album Atlantic Crossing in the United States when he decided to record his own version.
That decision changed the song's future.
The original had been a modest success.
Rod's version became enormous.
Released in 1975, Sailing climbed to No. 1 in the UK, becoming one of Stewart's signature songs. It also became a major international hit.
But there is something unusual about the recording.
Stewart didn't turn Sailing into a typical rock song.
He kept its sense of space.
The arrangement gradually builds rather than attacking the listener.
And then comes that voice.
Rough.
Weathered.
Almost vulnerable.
It gives the song a completely different emotional meaning.
The word “sailing” sounds simple.
But the song isn't really about sailing.
It is about distance and longing.
The singer is separated from someone important.
He is travelling toward them.
And the sea becomes a metaphor for the enormous distance between two people.
That is why the song has always felt larger than its lyrics.
You can hear the loneliness in the pauses.
You can hear the hope in the melody.
And when Stewart finally reaches the most emotional sections, it feels less like a rock performance and more like someone desperately trying to get home.
That was a fascinating choice for Stewart.
He had built his reputation as a flamboyant rock singer.
He was associated with energy, swagger and a distinctive stage presence.
But Sailing revealed another side.
A quieter Rod Stewart.
A reflective Rod Stewart.
A singer who didn't need to shout to make a song feel enormous.
The recording also benefited from the atmosphere of Atlantic Crossing itself.
The album was deliberately divided into two sides — “Fast” and “Slow.”
Sailing appeared on the slower side.
That placement made sense.
It wasn't designed to be a rock anthem.
It was the emotional centre of the record.
And then something happened that nobody could completely predict.
The song escaped the album.
It became bigger than the record itself.
In Britain, it became a defining hit of Stewart's career.
Years later, it would become particularly associated with images of the sea, travel and homecoming.
And that association became even stronger because of television.
The song was later used extensively by the BBC during coverage of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, helping create an enduring connection between Sailing and British sporting nostalgia.
For many listeners, hearing the opening notes immediately brings back images of boats, oceans and a very particular era of British television.
That's the strange power of nostalgia.
A song can become attached to memories that weren't necessarily part of the original recording.
And Sailing is a perfect example.
Rod Stewart didn't write the song.
He didn't create its original melody.
But his recording became the version that millions of people remembered.
That is an important part of musical history.
Sometimes a singer doesn't invent a song.
They discover what the song can become.
The Sutherland Brothers had written Sailing.
Rod Stewart gave it a different life.
And his voice changed the emotional centre of the song.
The original feels like a folk-rock meditation.
Stewart's version feels almost cinematic.
The sea becomes enormous.
The distance feels greater.
And the desire to reach someone feels almost overwhelming.
That's why the recording still works decades later.
It doesn't depend on a particular fashion.
It doesn't depend on a particular musical trend.
It depends on something much older.
The desire to get home.
To reach someone.
To cross whatever distance separates you.
And perhaps that's why people continue to hear their own stories in it.
For one person, it's about travelling.
For another, it's about family.
For someone else, it's about leaving a difficult period behind.
And for many listeners, it's simply the sound of nostalgia itself.
Rod Stewart once said that the song had become so closely associated with him that people sometimes forgot it wasn't his composition.
That may be the ultimate compliment.
The singer didn't write Sailing.
But he made it his.
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And somewhere between the Sutherland Brothers' original and Stewart's extraordinary interpretation, a quiet song about travelling across the sea became something much bigger:
a song about wanting to come home.
