Rod Stewart — Sailing

JUL 01 1978 · 12:00

Rod Stewart — Sailing (1978) Era: Late 1970s Pre-MTV Promo Era (1978) - Transitional period between broadcast-television promotional clips and the nascent music video format; produced two years before MTV's launch and canonized as one of its first broadcast artifacts. Exceptionally high. This is one of the first videos ever broadcast on MTV, making it a primary artefact of the music video medium's institutional origin. Its near-singular long-take construction, warm analogue film aesthetic, and the cultural density of the song itself — UK No. 1, BBC documentary theme, Falklands anthem, million-selling single — make it irreplaceable as both a historical document and a study in pre-MTV promotional film grammar. The HD remaster further positions it as a live preservation case study. Context: Rod Stewart recorded 'Sailing' — originally composed by Gavin Sutherland — at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in 1975 for his album Atlantic Crossing, a record that marked his definitive pivot from Faces-era British rock to American soul-influenced adult pop. The single reached No. 1 in the UK for four weeks in autumn 1975, and gained a second chart life in 1976 when used as theme music for the BBC documentary series Sailor about HMS Ark Royal. The 1978 New York Harbor video was shot during Stewart's established American residency period and deliberately invoked the song's maritime and longing themes. Its selection as one of the first videos ever broadcast on MTV on 1 August 1981 granted it an outsized archival significance — effectively bridging the pre-video broadcast era and the nascent cable music video economy. The song was later replayed from Portsmouth Harbour's PA system as British naval forces departed for the Falklands in April 1982, cementing its status as an unintended anthem of collective emotion. Director notes: Two separate promotional videos were produced for 'Sailing.' The first (1975) was filmed at the Port of Dublin and along Moore Street, featuring Stewart and then-partner Britt Ekland, and aired on Top of the Pops on 28 August 1975. The second — almost certainly the version referenced by the 'Official HD Remastered' filename — was filmed at New York Harbor in 1978, features Stewart in a sailor-style outfit, and became one of the first videos broadcast on MTV at its 1 August 1981 launch. No director credit has been located for the 1978 version across IMDB, Music Video Wiki, or dedicated music-video archival blogs, consistent with the general absence of director attribution in late-1970s British and American promo clips.