| "Come Sail Away" | |||||
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| Single by Styx from the album The Grand Illusion |
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| B-side | Put Me On | ||||
| Released | 1977 | ||||
| Format | vinyl record 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 1977 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive rock, Arena rock | ||||
| Length | 3:10 (single) 6:07 (album) |
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| Label | A&M | ||||
| Writer | Dennis DeYoung | ||||
| Producer | Styx | ||||
| Styx singles chronology | |||||
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"Come Sail Away" is a song by Styx from their album The Grand Illusion. One of the band's biggest hits, it was released in 1977 (see 1977 in music), rising to number 8 on the Pop Singles chart and helping The Grand Illusion reach multi-platinum sales. Musically, "Come Sail Away" combines a plaintive, ballad-like opening section (including piano and synthesizer interludes) with a bombastic, guitar-heavy second half. In the middle of the second half is a psychedelic minute-long synthesizer instrumental. The lyrics use the metaphor of a voyage of discovery and make reference to angels and spaceships. The song is typical of the music the band played in the 1970s — pop meets progressive rock.
Styx member Dennis DeYoung revealed on In the Studio with Redbeard (which devoted an entire episode to the making of The Grand Illusion), that he was depressed when he wrote the track after Styx's first two A&M offerings, Equinox and Crystal Ball, sold fewer units than expected after the success of the single "Lady". The track would be the regular closing track during the band's live set before the encore. DeYoung now closes nearly all of his live concert performances with a rendition of "Come Sail Away". As he approaches the end of each verse, he stops singing and cues the audience to finish the verse for him, which they do heartily. The audience can be heard very clearly singing along with DeYoung and his band during the chorus of "Come Sail Away" on DeYoung's comeback live album, The Music of Styx--Live with Symphony Orchestra.
Covers
- Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah (2004).
- Bermuda Triangle Band - Bermudas II (1984), The Missing Tapes (2007).
In Popular Culture
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- "Come Sail Away" is referenced repeatedly in South Park. A running joke in the series is that every time Cartman hears the beginning of the song he feels compelled to finish it (which he can do in 27 seconds flat under pressure). Cartman sings a full-length version of the song on Chef Aid: The South Park Album, with a notable part near the end where he gets overexcited and descends into rhythmic gibberish. His over-the-top rendition helped make the song an icon of prog-rock kitsch in the late 90s.
- The song is used as the theme of the upcoming 3rd season on Deadliest Catch.
- The song was featured in a school-dance scene at the end of the 1999 pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks, which is set in 1980.
- Phil Hendrie ended the 16-year run of The Phil Hendrie Show with one of his characters singing the song.
- In the 7th season ER episode "Sailing Away", Mark Greene is seen playing this song at a high volume in his workshop.
- In a fourth season episode of the NBC show Ed, the character Phil uses the song as part of his tribute to the recently-deceased bowler, Mr. Fish.
- In the 20th episode of season three of Family Guy, entitled "Road to Europe," Peter and Lois are watching a show on TV called The Kiss Forum when Dennis DeYoung (a member of Styx and the writer of "Come Sail Away") calls into the show insulting Kiss; the host replies, "How 'bout I crank a little 'Detroit Rock City' and play 'Come Sail Away' and we can see how they stack up side by side?"
- In July of 2004 the comedy improv group Improv Everywhere performed a synchronized swimming routine in a New York City fountain set to "Come Sail Away".
