Come Sail Away

"Come Sail Away"
Song
B-side	"Put Me On"

"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 in 1978.

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 of the album version is a minute-long synthesizer instrumental.

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

• Bermuda Triangle Band: Bermudas II (1984), The Missing Tapes (2007)
• Eric Cartman: B-side of single "Chocolate Salty Balls"; subsequently released on Chef Aid: The South Park Album (1998)

• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah (2004)

• Covered by Youtube user Card Games FTW (2009)

External links

• Song Review at Allmusic