“Sailing” by Christopher Cross

"Sailing" was cut in 1979 for Christopher Cross's debut album, Christopher Cross, and he wrote it, sang lead and backing vocals and played both acoustic and electric guitar. Michael Omartian produced and played piano, Rob Meurer added synthesizer and electric piano, and the three of them share the arranging credit, with Victor Feldman on percussion, Andy Salmon on bass and Tommy Taylor on drums. It was taped on 3M's digital system, which put it among the earliest digital recordings ever to reach the charts.

Cross later said it was never meant to be a single, yet it became the album's second in 1980 and glided all the way to number one on the Hot 100. At the Grammys it swept Record, Song and Arrangement of the Year and helped carry him to Best New Artist. The Yacht Rock web series later made it the textbook case of the style.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.