Sail Away (Randy Newman album)

Updated on Sep 19, 2024

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Released May 1972 Sail Away(1972) Good Old Boys(1974) Release date May 1972 Genres Soft rock, Piano rock		Length 30:07 Artist Randy Newman Label Reprise Records

Studio Amigo Studios, Western Studios, Poppi Studios, Los Angeles Producers Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman Similar Randy Newman albums, Soft rock albums

321 1972 randy newman sail away 01 05

Sail Away is an album by Randy Newman, released in May 1972. It was produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman and issued on Reprise Records. While all of its songs were written and composed by Newman, several had already been recorded by other artists.

In 2003, it was ranked number 321 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Music and lyrics

As with all of Newman's early albums, several of its songs had been previously recorded by other artists. In this case, "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear" had been a UK hit for Alan Price in 1967, and "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" had been recorded by Billy J. Kramer as a single in 1969 and by Harry Nilsson on his 1970 album Nilsson Sings Newman. Newman himself had also previously recorded "Last Night I Had A Dream" as a single, issued in September 1968. The version heard on Sail Away is a re-recording with a notably different arrangement.

"He Gives Us All His Love" was also initially written and recorded by Newman in a sparser and slower arrangement for the 1971 film Cold Turkey. The film issued no soundtrack, and the first commercially available recordings of this song were issued by Sundance (March 1971) and Ed Ames (October 1971).

The song "Lonely at the Top" was written specifically with Frank Sinatra in mind, although he never recorded it.

Release history

The album was reissued by Rhino Records on May 5, 2002, with several previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Legacy

Brian Wilson has said that this album profoundly affected him at the time of its release, briefly keeping him from sliding further into depression and mental illness. In particular, Wilson noted that he listened to Sail Away "over and over" while physically writing down the lyrics which became the Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale) suite from the 1973 Beach Boys album Holland.

"Burn On" is heard over the opening credits of the 1989 movie Major League.