"Sailing" is a song composed by Gavin Sutherland of the Sutherland Brothers in 1972, best known as a 1975 international hit for Rod Stewart. Sutherland Brothers original recording "Sailing" was written and recorded by the Sutherland Brothers – a duo consisting of Gavin and Iain Sutherland – in a June 1972 session. The brothers provided their own backing with Gavin on bass drum and Iain on harmonium. They intended the song to have a "Celtic feel to it", and overdubbed their vocals. Gavin Sutherland said of the song, "Most people take the song to be about a young guy telling his girl that he's crossing the Atlantic to be with her." and with a grin, continued "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." Issued as a single, the song reached No. 54 in July 1972, and the single's sales were reportedly 40,000 units. The Sutherland Brothers had recorded "Sailing" subsequent to completing the tracks intended for their upcoming album release Lifeboat, and that album was issued in November 1972 without the inclusion of "Sailing": included on the US edition of the Lifeboat album, "Sailing" by the Sutherland Brothers would make its UK album debut on the 1976 Sutherland Brothers' compilation album entitled Sailing. Rod Stewart version Overview "Sailing" was recorded by Rod Stewart for his first album recorded in North America rather than Great Britain: Atlantic Crossing, which was recorded April – June 1975 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with Tom Dowd producing. The first single from the album, "Sailing" was an international hit, notably in the UK, where it was number 1 for four weeks in September 1975. It returned to the UK chart in 1976 and, with less success, in 1987. "Sailing" remains Stewart's biggest single hit in the UK. However, "Sailing" was not a hit in Stewart's newly adopted US homeland. Background According to Iain Sutherland the connection between the Sutherland Brothers and Rod Stewart which led to Stewart's recording of "Sailing" began when Stewart's live-in girlfriend Dee Harrington saw the Sutherland Brothers on the 20 June 1972 broadcast of the BBC2 music program The Old Grey Whistle Test: Harrington recommended the Sutherland Brothers as a musical act that would interest Stewart, and Stewart did indeed become a Sutherland Brothers fan after