Song · The Beach Boys
“Sail On Sailor” by The Beach Boys
From the album Holland (1973)
“Sail On Sailor” by The Beach Boys appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 2014. It was first released in 1973 on the album Holland. Its best result is #868 on the WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #8,406 indie & aaa song of all time.
The Beach Boys handed "Sail On, Sailor" to Blondie Chaplin, and that makes it an odd bird in their catalog: it's one of the few well-known songs of theirs sung by neither Mike Love nor Brian or Carl Wilson. It came out in 1973 on Holland, written mainly by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson with Ray Kennedy, Tandyn Almer and Jack Rieley, and produced by the band with Carl Wilson.
The single, backed with "Only with You", stalled at 79 on the Billboard chart; a 1975 reissue did better, reaching 49. Brian Wilson has blown hot and cold on it, once calling it the only song of theirs he flat-out dislikes, then picking it for Classics Selected by Brian Wilson because he loves the way it rocks. Biographer Jon Stebbins reckons it may be the only perennial Beach Boys favorite still thriving on classic rock radio.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 868 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
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