Who wrote the 1975 Rod Stewart song, ‘Sailing’?

Rod Stewart did not write “Sailing”, the song most closely associated with his 1975 hit. It was written by Gavin Sutherland, bassist for the Sutherland Brothers, whose 1972 recording Stewart discovered after his girlfriend recommended the band.

Stewart recorded his version at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama while living in the United States. He said he sang it early in the morning in six or seven takes; the single spent four weeks at number one in the UK and remains his best-performing British chart hit, though it failed to reach the US top 40.