"Come Sail Away" is a song by American progressive rock group Styx, written and sung by primary singer and songwriterDennis DeYoung and featured on the band's seventh album The Grand Illusion. Upon its release as the lead single from the album, "Come Sail Away" peaked at #8 in January 1978 on the Billboard Hot 100, and helped The Grand Illusion achieve multi-platinum sales in 1978. It is one of the biggest hits of Styx's career.
Background and writing
Lyrically, the song uses sailing as a metaphor to achieve one's dreams. The lyrics touch on nostalgia of "childhood friends," escapism, and a religious thematic symbolized by "a gathering of angels" singing "a song of hope." The ending lyrics explain a transformation from a sailing ship into a starship, by narrating that "they climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies" which also imply biblical verses from Ezekiel. However, DeYoung revealed on In the Studio with Redbeard, 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". Musically, "Come Sail Away" combines a plaintive, ballad-like opening section with a bombastic, guitar-heavy second half. In the middle of the second half of the album version is a minute-long synthesizer-heavy instrumental break.
Personnel
Dennis DeYoung - lead vocals, piano, synthesizer
Tommy Shaw - lead guitar, backing vocals
James Young - rhythm guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals
Chuck Panozzo - bass
John Panozzo - drums
Reception
In the United States, "Come Sail Away" reached #8 on Billboard and spent two weeks at #9 on Cash Box. The song also peaked at #9 in Canada. On superstation WLS-AM in their home city of Chicago, the song spent two weeks at #3 and was ranked at #26 for the year.
Although, the song hit its chart peak in 1978, Come Sail Away has had tremendous longevity in popular culture. It was arguably as popular in the 1980s as it was when released in the late 1970s.
Films
The song appears on trailers and TV spots for the films , Treasure Planet, The Wild, Moana, and Big Daddy. In the 2018 Netflix release Like Father the song is the choice of the main characters Rachel and Harry for their winning performance in the cruise karaoke championship. In the 2019 film, Stuber, the song is used during an action sequence later on in the film. It is referenced earlier in the film as well.
Television
The song appears as a plot point to the South Park episode "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut". If Cartman hears any portion of the song, he feels a compulsion to sing the rest of it. On ', he does a cover of the song. It scored the end of the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks, in which the leading character finally gets the courage to ask a popular girl to slow dance. Though she agrees, the guitar-heavy second half kicks in before they can start dancing as originally intended. A version of the song performed by Aimee Mann is used in the TV showCommunity in the Season 5 episode, "Geothermal Escapism," for the nautical departure of Donald Glover's Troy Barnes. In the first season, he'd confessed to crying upon hearing the original version of the song. The song also appears in ERs season 7, episode 19, where Doctor Greene sings along. In Generation Kill several of the Marines sing the chorus as they travel. The song is parodied as "Please Say You'll Stay" in the Fish Hooks episode "Labor of Love". The song was in The Goldbergs season 1, episode 2. The song again appears in season 5, episode 4, sung by Erica Goldberg at a Revenge of the Nerds-style musical finale. The song is performed by the New Directions on an episode of the hit television showGlee. The song is performed as part of a Broadway musical in Mozart in the Jungle'''s first episode. Hailey plays the oboe section of the piece along with Cynthia at the cello. In Modern Family’s episode Spring-a-Ding-Fling, a parody of the song is sang by realtor Phil Dunphy played by comedian Ty Burrell. The song is performed by "Dagger" actress, Olivia Holt, in the season one finale of Cloak & Dagger.
