Sailing by Christopher Cross

I do love it, hard to listen to...too emotional

It’s typical of a song I’d consider a guilty pleasure. I’ll sing along if I hear it, but if I think about it it seems like a pretty kitschy song.

It’s meh.

It reminds me of my Mom and her friends in the early 80s living the life.

Yes, that song means a lot to me and brings back many memories (of my family, and time spent sailing with my family).

I posted a few times in another thread that my cat died a few weeks ago, and I don't like listening to music when I'm depressed, because it sets me off. Well, I had to get my hair done the other day, and they were playing music in the salon, as they always do, and "Sailing" came on, and I started bawling my head off because I was depressed anyways and that song always gets me. Not that I have any particular connection to my kitty and that song, but as R3 said, it's too emotional...

I was so embarrassed.

Actually, I guess there's just something about Christopher Cross's voice; Arthur's Song is another bittersweet song that really brings me back and gets me in the gut when I hear it.

I'm with R5.

Oops; meant to quote R1.

I love this song. Totally agree with OP.

THESE are the Christopher Cross songs that send people over the edge, but not "Think of Laura" ?

I remember it was so omnipresent on AM radio on 1980, I was tired of it by the time he won all those Grammy Awards. But listening to it years later made me appreciate it as a beautiful song.

Never liked it.

I love CC and am not ashamed. His singing is very soothing.

Oh man, yes that one TOO R10!!!!!

What is it about CC?? His songs are all hauntingly beautiful.

My sister fucked Cross one night and said he was hung. The largest she had ever seen.

R12 Reptilian

His first album really is terrific and worthy of the praise and awards, in my opinion.

R15 he's gay

I love the *Nsync version, not kidding

impossible to believe the guy has more than a button mushroom, R15. I mean, the music is fine and all that, but come on.

I actually used to go sailing at the time this tune was popular so yeah, lots of great feels and memories. Funny but I never liked anything else he did after this album.

I've always loved this song's lyrics and instrumentation.

I just watched Arthur's Theme; CC totally looks like he was born in the wrong time. He 100% looks like he should be a bearded hipster wearing a newsboy hat in Brooklyn, not a guy sporting a white BeeGees Travolta suit of 1981!

"If you get caught between the moon and New York City... the best that you can do... the best that you can do, is fall in love."

Love that line.

It always makes me think of sipping Bartles & Jaymes Wine Coolers on California beaches, for some reason. Same with "Ride Like the Wind"

Christopher Cross has a very emotional sounding voice. A shame that he didn’t have the look and the bravado to go with it. But an AOTY Grammy and an Oscar means being set for life touring small venues so there’s nothing to pity.

I might tolerate it in a hotel lobby (though not the Muzak version).

So sorry about your cat, R5

Thank you R27.

This and Crazy by Paul Davis are so hauntingly beautiful and evoke the early 80s before MTV

Think of Laura is too schmaltzy even for Cross. I know it's said to be about a friend of his who died but it just felt very forced, like he was trying to create a hit based on elements of his previous songs. Plus his vocal tics in this one are so annoying - Think of LOOOOO-ruh (wul) laaaaaff don't cry...

I literally am crying after listening to I Go Crazy...

Sailing while listening to Sailing?

That sounds like a Geico ad.

There's a name for this subgenre ... "Yacht Rock"

Christopher Cross, Paul Davis, Ambrosia, Michael McDonald, etc.

There's something about sweet male vocals and electric piano from the late 70s to mid 80s.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ this song. When I hear this song, I feel like I’m in California in the 70s wearing wedge daisy dukes and wedge platform shoes, with the cool crisp wind going through my hair.

Hell no I love late 70's - 80s music but this is fucking awful, frau music!

I saw SING over PASSENGERS over Christmas a few years ago simply because of the ad of a snail singing RUN LIKE THE WIND.

A lot of people connected to I Go Crazy back in the day. At the time it held the record for most weeks spent on the Billboard Top 100 charts. You know when people bought singles, in the olden days.

[quote]I remember it was so omnipresent on AM radio on 1980,

God, YES!

My cousin loved it and she'd just passed her driving test, so there was lots of radio and driving around going on - when it was over, she'd switch channels just to hear it again and there it always was.

I remember many songs from that summer. Many here, will too >>

Don’t care that much for the song but it does seem to take me vividly back to a specific time in my life which seemed more hopeful. But, I was young then, and the future was an open, unwritten book. So it is for the songs of youth at any age. Rudy Vallee, anyone?

[quote] But, I was young then, and the future was an open, unwritten book

it was 38 years ago

I liked the B side too.

I will select a song on iHeartRadio and inevitably Sailing or Arthur's Song comes up. In the past, I thought that they were kitschy, but these days they bring in memories of the past. I don't own an album, but I don't press skip when they play. If I hear Neil Diamonds Sweet Caroline, SKIP!

[quote]Hell no I love late 70's - 80s music but this is fucking awful, frau music!

Better than what followed.

Better than what followed # 2

No. It reminds me of my brother, whose favorite hobby growing up was beating me up. He found a girl to marry who had the world's worst taste in music, and he ended up listening to shit like this.

R46 BANNED!!!

A lot of its appeal has to do with the swelling orchestra and the fading music in and out.

With Sailing, Think of Laura on General Hospital and Arthur's Theme - he was the sound of the early 80s.

I love me some yacht rock. Sailing is the quintessential song.

I'm surprised Christopher Cross' first album hasn't been reissued in a deluxe set considering how big it was in 1980. And his song have endured.

I had the hots for Christopher Cross based on his voice only, it was just such a beautiful voice, his songs touched me. Then I saw a photo of him, boy did that ruin it for me. Still loved his music but the fantasy was ruined by then.

Yes, it's a beautiful song and I wish popular music could be so good again.

So the entire DL community can sing along with Sailing's lyrics when the clock strikes twelve

r52 well, it's often been said that because Christopher wasn't conventionally handsome that it didn't help with long-term success for him. I always read that "he had a face for radio" quote attributed to him.

It's too bad he hit it big just as MTV was about to get underway.

He wasn't a good performer. Remember The Oscars?

He stayed earthbound in this performance with N’Sync.

Not sure what it is but the guitar picking intro makes me think of “Every Little Thing She Does” by The Police.

That was the era of Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Stephen Bishop, et al. Some good tracks.

And Rupert Holmes

And Boz Skaggs.

and Andrew Gold.

^Thank you for being a friend...

^Never Let Her Slip Away

[quote] When I hear this song, I feel like I’m in California in the 70s wearing wedge daisy dukes and wedge platform shoes, with the cool crisp wind going through my hair.

Are you a guy?

I'm seeing him perform this Wednesday at the Burchmere in DC.

Op is Mr. Shuester and that is his jam.

I was broke and working my way through a masters degree. I hated it then and hearing it now just reminds me of that difficult, depressing time.

It was a happy summer for me. My first time in LA. Cruisin' about. Before the abomination of the 80s set in.

[quote][R52] well, it's often been said that because Christopher wasn't conventionally handsome that it didn't help with long-term success for him. I always read that "he had a face for radio" quote attributed to him.

He also didn't have much of a personality and he fucked up singing live at The Oscars.

If he'd had it in him - he could have gone on, plowing out great songs and had more success, but he was spent.

R66 yes.

He's always blamed look-ism derailing his career in the MTV era, not realizing that his music was strictly VH-1.

Ride Like the Wind is also a good song with Michael McDonald on background vocals

It has that perfect quality to it, like Watching the Wheels by John Lennon.

This is one of my go-to, sad songs.

I love it. I’ll listen to it now. Thanks for the recommendation, op.

R44 I'm not the biggest Madonna fan but Borderline is a great song as is Live to Tell

Love CC. There's a catch in his voice and delivery that I find charming. His songs take me back to a time of youth, confusion, my first bf (where are you P?) excitement and dreams.

I have to confess he's my type too. I found him very sexy.

Arthur’s Theme too.

This is one of those rare songs that every member of my family appreciates. Agreed upon that it is one of the greats, and it evokes a lot of personal memories.

It's a pretty song. I remember a friend back in the 80s who had a rich dad. Dad went to buy a new Cadillac or Lincoln and they played a cassette of Sailing and Toto's Africa on the sound system to demo how lush it sounded. Friend only commented because he thought those songs were so lame.

True Story: Christopher Cross was once so famous, he was satirized on a network television show.

Now, where did I leave my onion belt?

They played tgis in Private Parts. Felt so 80s. Loved it.

This

Christopher Cross will be joining Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins at the Hollywood Bowl this year.

Yacht Rock out!

With "Never Be the Same" - Chris Cross showed that he had the golden touch.

Surprising he didn't churn out many more albums of similar-sounding songs.

He probably could have had a successful club remix album in the 90s

Liked it. Always loved the lyric, "sailing takes me away from where I'm going..."

Please ....take me out of my life and let me live someone else's....j'en ai marre (I've had it..)

[quote] He's always blamed look-ism derailing his career in the MTV era, not realizing that his music was strictly VH-1.

Air Supply was the line between one and the other.

[quote]He probably could have had a successful club remix album in the 90s

There were a couple in the very early 2000s to promote one of his greatest hits collections.

Also:

This genre is mindless, formulaic pablum. But I really am sorry for r5's loss of her cat:(

Never liked it.

I probably listen to this song more than any other in my playlist

I loved that song. When I hear it now it shoots me back to the summer of 1980, a happy time for me. Now I'm old, and it makes me feel very nostalgic, almost painfully so, for what was a carefree time when I was young and healthy and my parents were still alive.

Hugs, R5!

[quote] He wasn't a good performer. Remember The Oscars?

Poor thing sounds like his nerves got the best of him.

I've always loved this song. Between the sound, the nostalgia, it doesn't get any better than this.

I think we’re the same, R5. Yes I love this song too.

Surprised Kanye West or Jay-Z haven't lifted the chorus for some lame song of their "own"

He also had a pretty good song with "Swept Away," from the Growing Pains Hawaii episodes.

One of my favorite songs. It’s magical to listen to when driving along the beach

It never fails to make me cry. Even his more uptempo track RIDE LIKE THE WIND (which I also love) gets me misty.

He had a tremendously vulnerable voice, kinda like Neil Young, but more commerical-radio-friendly. I was only 5 when he was popular, but my mother loved him. She'd play his debut album (which I cant remember then name of but it had the flamingo on the cover) when she was working in the kitchen. It was the calm before the storm of the divorce a couple years later and my turbulent adolescence. I downloaded it some years ago in a pique of nostalgia, I should cue it up again....

I love this SCTV skit about Michael McDonald's backing vocals. It's Jimmy Kimmel's favourite SCTV skit.

Never liked his bland music, sorry.

If there turns out to be a real Hell, I expect to eternally hear Christopher Cross and Air Supply playing on continuous loop.

It's like a castrated Shamu singing, "Whaaaaaaaaling. Takes me awaaaaaaayyyy."

No.

R106 deserves R107

I agree with the criticism of the music, but some of the songs are guilty pleasures. This one, and Cool Change by the Little River Band--remember them? are right up there. Both singers (Glen Shorrock, I think for the latter) had unique voices that didn't sound like anyone else on radio to me.

Love this song

Jimmy Buffett used to rip the SHIT out of C.C. during his concerts back in the Eighties.

Maybe he still does?

R111 Jimmy Buffett?! Even his name is a punchline.

This isn't my sort of thing either, but it's been nice going through a thread with so many thoughtful responses. Sometimes I'm all 'bitch, please', with the Pointless Bitchery.

At the time Cross was happening, I was surrounded by boats and houseboats, an SF kid who was digging all the great stuff coming out of NY then-Ellens Foley and Shipley, Desmond Child & Rouge, Genya Ravan..not sure why it had such a hold on me.

[Italic]Christopher Cross[/Italic] is a great album. It deserved winning the 1980 Grammy for Album of the Year—especially given a better choice would have been an LP not even nominated: [Italic]Give Me the Night[/Italic], by George Benson.

R87- thanks for posting Never Be the Same. Such an underrated gem that got overshadowed by Sailing and Ride Like the Wind (the latter of which always irritated me). I’m not entirely surprised his time in the sun was confined to the late 70s / early 80s because music really changed around the time MTV launched. He was peak soft rock, AM gold, yacht rock. He wasn’t going to sustain commercial relevance once MJ, Cyndi, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Madonna, Prince et al came to the fore. He might as well have been their frumpy dad.

I don't know why, but I always think of it in tandem with Pilot of the Airwaves. I must have heard them back-to-back a lot or something.

[quote]If there turns out to be a real Hell, I expect to eternally hear Christopher Cross and Air Supply

And Madonna.

“Say You’ll Be Mine”

“I Really Don’t Know Anymore”

“Spinning”

“Never Be the Same”

“Poor Shirley”

“Ride Like the Wind”

“The Light Is On”

“Sailing”

“Minstrel Gigolo”

I've always loved Swept Away. Beautiful song. I remember them using it in the TV show Growing Pains. The 1 where they went to Hawaii.

This song will probably get a remake sometime soon.

It was totally overshadowed by this one. This is the one that gets me. "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Stills, & Nash

When you see the southern cross for the first time You understand now why you came this way Because the truth you might be running from is so small But it's as big as a promise the promise of a coming day.

Robin Thicke covered Ride Like the Wind, but unfortunately Will Ferrell was talking over the whole track in his "Anchorman" character. I've never been able to find a version that's just Thicke singing the song.

I love Southern Cross. 1 of my favorite songs by them. I never hear it on the radio even on the classic rock stations etc.

Sailing looks good on camera and from the shore, but the queasiness and seasickness kills the experience.

An utterly banal song.

Sailing for real is the worst

Avant remade it. It’s better than the original, imo. It’s beautiful.

I agree r135. An hour to get to the boat, minimum, then another hour of schlepping and prep, then after the (boring) sailing part, there's another two hours of cleaning and stowing everything, and tying up. Rather stay home.

Great talent. Music was very commercial but still-nice. I always assumed he was gay because of the high pitched voice, emotional lyrics, and all of the flamingos...I was shocked a few years ago to first find out he was still living (I had assumed he had succumbed to AIDS like so many artists did in the he 1980s), but also that he was heterosexual, living in nearby Austin, TX, and encouraging his teenaged daughter to become a singer/songwriter herself.

He lives in Austin and is extremely low-key.

Much of his signature sound and success came from the excellent production by the brilliant Michael O'Martian.

Sailing remix

I always assumed he got caught between the moon and NYC.

He certainly was fat enough!

Never gets old

Played one too many times in 1980. Reminds me of driving to work in Hartford, CT. Not something I need to remember.