In fact, the song's got nothing to do with romance or ships; it's an account of mankind's spiritual odyssey through life on his way to freedom and fulfillment with the Supreme Being.

The first single from the album, "Sailing" was an international hit, notably in the UK, where it was number one for four weeks in September 1975.

[6] Stewart would recall the recording of "Sailing" being a challenge: he was awoken in his hotel room by a 10 am phone call from Dowd at Muscles Shoals, in which Dowd said "Get down here in half an hour; we've mixed the track and need the vocal"; Stewart (quote): "I was like: 'You're joking, recording at 10:30 in the morning.

"[7] Despite his enthusiasm for the Sutherland Brothers, Stewart said that he "argued vehemently" against the release of "Sailing" as the lead single from Atlantic Crossing,[7] instead advocating his own composition "Three Time Loser".

Stewart's "Sailing" had a UK chart revival in 1976 as a result of the track being utilized as the theme song for Sailor, a documentary series on HMS Ark Royal which BBC1 aired for ten weeks from 5 August 1976.

[10] Overall "Sailing" did afford Stewart a major international success reaching No.1 in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway; No.

The first music video for "Sailing" was filmed in the Port of Dublin and also featured footage shot on the major Dublin thoroughfare Moore Street: featuring Stewart and his partner Britt Ekland, the video aired on the Top of the Pops broadcast of 28 August 1975.

Another music video for "Sailing" was shot in New York Harbor in 1978, and would become one of the first to be aired on MTV when it launched on 1 August 1981.

"Sailing" would debut as a Rod Stewart concert number during his European tour of November 1976 – January 1977 with the song usually serving as each show's purported finale to be followed with "Stay With Me" as encore: Stewart's 1 November 1976 performance at the Trondheim Spektrum in Norway launched the tour which after dates in Scandinavia, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands played nine cities in Great Britain including six nights (21 -24 December 1976/ 14–15 January 1977) at the Olympia London.

He performed "Sailing" at the 20 June 1986 Prince's Trust All-Star Rock Concert – with Elton John on piano and Eric Clapton on guitar – and at the 1 July 2007 Concert for Diana memorial gala for Diana, Princess of Wales: both events were held at Wembley Stadium.

In December 1990 "Sailing" was remade as a protest song against the repatriation of Vietnamese boat people who had fled to Hong Kong: Steve Hackett, who organized this multi-artist recording, intended to raise funds to assist those living in refugee camps, would recall: I remember...sitting there with Brian May and we were overdubbing the song on Christmas Eve.

But even as we sat there Christmas Eve doing the overdubs, they showed [the participating artists] working on TV from when they filmed us earlier.

[38] This version of "Sailing" was issued on 19 February 1990 with the artist credit Rock Against Repatriation, spending a single week on the UK chart ranking at #89 for the week ending 3 March 1990, and – despite Hackett's statement that "I must have done over twenty TV shows here in North America" in support of the single and its cause – a US release went unnoticed.

[44] The melody is also used by German football club Hertha BSC Berlin for their chant Nur Nach Hause (Just homewards), written by Berlin-based Entertainer and Hertha-Fan Frank Zander.