Red Sails in the Sunset (song)
Encyclopedia
"Red Sails in the Sunset" is a popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

.

Published in 1935
1935 in music
-Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

, its music was written by Hugh Williams (pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 for Will Grosz
Wilhelm Grosz
Wilhelm Grosz was an Austrian composer, pianist and conductor.Wilhelm Grosz was born in Vienna. He studied music with Franz Schreker and Guido Adler. In 1921 he was appointed conductor of the Mannheim Opera, but returned to Vienna in 1922, where he worked as a pianist and composer...

) with lyrics by prolific songwriter Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy OBE was an Irish songwriter, predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer", or co-writing with the composers Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz and Nat Simon amongst others.-Biography:Kennedy was born near Omagh...

. The song was inspired by the "red sails" of Kitty of Coleraine, a yacht Kennedy often saw off the northern coast of Ireland and by his adopted town Portstewart
Portstewart
Portstewart is a small town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,803 people in the 2001 Census. It is a seaside resort neighbouring Portrush. Of the two towns, Portstewart is decidedly quieter with more sedate attractions. Its harbour and scenic coastal paths form an...

, a seaside resort in County Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

.

Some of the earliest versions were recorded by Al Bowlly
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly was a Southern-African singer, songwriter, composer and band leader, who became a popular Jazz crooner during the 1930s in the United Kingdom and later, in the United States of America. He recorded more than 1,000 records between 1927 and 1941...

 with Ray Noble
Ray Noble
Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...

 and his Orchestra on September 18, 1935 and Guy Lombardo
Guy Lombardo
Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian-American bandleader and violinist.Forming "The Royal Canadians" in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert, and Victor and other musicians from his hometown, Lombardo led the group to international success, billing themselves as creating "The Sweetest...

, on October 11, 1935. This recording was issued by Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 as catalog number
Catalog numbering systems for single records
This article presents the numbering systems used by various record companies for single records.- Capitol :...

 585.

The song was revived by Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

 in 1951
1951 in music
-Events:*January 29 – Nilla Pizzi wins the first annual Sanremo Music Festival with "Grazie dei fiori".*February – The first complete performance of Charles Ives's Second Symphony is given in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.*March – Alan...

. This recording was released by Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 as catalog number 1468. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on July 13, 1951 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at #24.

Recorded versions

  • Bing Crosby
    Bing Crosby
    Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

     (1935
    1935 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

    )
  • Jack Jackson
    Jack Jackson (British radio)
    Jack Jackson was a British trumpeter and bandleader who became a highly influential radio disc jockey....

     (1935
    1935 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

    )
  • Guy Lombardo
    Guy Lombardo
    Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian-American bandleader and violinist.Forming "The Royal Canadians" in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert, and Victor and other musicians from his hometown, Lombardo led the group to international success, billing themselves as creating "The Sweetest...

     (1935
    1935 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

    )
  • Leslie (Hutch) Hutchinson (Parlophone R 233 September 1935)
  • Anona Winn (Featured with enormous success per sheet music 1935)
  • Henry "Red" Allen 11/8/1935 Vocalion 3097
  • Al Bowlly
    Al Bowlly
    Albert Allick Bowlly was a Southern-African singer, songwriter, composer and band leader, who became a popular Jazz crooner during the 1930s in the United Kingdom and later, in the United States of America. He recorded more than 1,000 records between 1927 and 1941...

      acc. by orchestra directed by Ray Noble
    Ray Noble
    Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...

     1935
  • Vera Lynn
    Vera Lynn
    Dame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops...

     (1935
    1935 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

    )
  • Mantovani
    Mantovani
    Annunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....

     (1935
    1935 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Georges Bizet's Symphony in C is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland*April 8 - Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premiered in Washington, D.C....

    )
  • Tony Martin
    Tony Martin (entertainer)
    Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...

  • (EP ABC-Paramount 90842 / 25cm 10" ABC-Paramount 1501)
  • Louis Armstrong
    Louis Armstrong
    Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

     (1936
    1936 in music
    -Events:*January 4 – Billboard magazine publishes its first music hit parade*March 28 – Inaugurational concert of the São Paulo City Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ernst Mehlich...

    )
  • Albert Ammons
    Albert Ammons
    Albert Ammons was an American pianist. Ammons was a player of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s into the mid 1940s.-Life and career:...

     (1946
    1946 in music
    - Events :*January 6 – A somewhat revised and streamlined revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, the same theatre at which the original production played back in 1927. This production features newly designed sets and costumes, new, more extended...

    )
  • Nat King Cole
    Nat King Cole
    Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

     (1951
    1951 in music
    -Events:*January 29 – Nilla Pizzi wins the first annual Sanremo Music Festival with "Grazie dei fiori".*February – The first complete performance of Charles Ives's Second Symphony is given in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.*March – Alan...

    )
  • Patti Page
    Patti Page
    Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...

     (1955 in "The Patti Page Show")
  • Vaughn Monroe
    Vaughn Monroe
    Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...

      (1957
    1952 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Jo Stafford marries bandleader/arranger Paul Weston.*March 21 - First reported Rock and roll riot breaks out at Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio...

    )
  • Tab Hunter
    Tab Hunter
    Tab Hunter is an American actor, singer, former teen idol and author who has starred in over forty major films.-Background:...

     (1957
    1957 in music
    -Events:*January 5 – Renato Carosone and his band start their American tour in Cuba.*January 6 – Elvis Presley makes his final appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show.*January 16 – The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, UK....

    )
  • Paul Anka
    Paul Anka
    Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...

     (1958
    1958 in music
    -Events:*February - 45,000 peoplein one week watch performances of "rokabirī" music by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival....

    )
  • Emile Ford
    Emile Ford
    Emile Ford is a musician and singer, who was popular in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Life and career:...

     (1960
    1960 in music
    -Events:*January 14 – Elvis Presley is promoted to Sergeant in the U.S. Army*February 6 – Songwriter Jesse Belvin dies in an automobile accident in Los Angeles...

    )
  • The Platters
    The Platters
    The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...

     (1960
    1960 in music
    -Events:*January 14 – Elvis Presley is promoted to Sergeant in the U.S. Army*February 6 – Songwriter Jesse Belvin dies in an automobile accident in Los Angeles...

    )
  • The Jarmels
    The Jarmels
    The Jarmels are a doo wop/rhythm and blues group officially formed in 1959 in Richmond, Virginia. They were composed of Nathaniel Ruff , Paul Burnett , Ray Smith , Earl Christian , and Tom Eldridge .They met while attending Armstrong High School and while some sang at nearby Mount Olivet Baptist...

     (1961
    1961 in music
    -Events:*January 15 – Motown Records signs The Supremes.*January 20 – Francis Poulenc's Gloria receives its premiėre in Boston, USA.*February 12 – The Miracles' "Shop Around" becomes Motown's first million-selling single....

    )
  • The Beatles
    The Beatles
    The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

     (Star Club! Hamburg circa 1962)
  • Dinah Washington
    Dinah Washington
    Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...

     (1962
    1962 in music
    -Events:*January 1 – The Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes both audition at Decca Records, a company which has the option of signing one group only...

    )
  • The Three Sounds
    The Three Sounds
    The Three Sounds were an American jazz trio that formed in 1956 and disbanded in 1973. The trio played and recorded with Lester Young, Lou Donaldson, Nat Adderley, Johnny Griffin, Anita O'Day, Bucky Pizzarelli, Stanley Turrentine and Sonny Stitt among others.The band formed in Benton Harbor,...

     (1962
    1962 in music
    -Events:*January 1 – The Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes both audition at Decca Records, a company which has the option of signing one group only...

    )
  • Earl Grant
    Earl Grant
    Earl Grant was an American easy listening pianist, Hammond organist, and vocalist popular in the 1950s and 1960s.-Career:...

     (1962
    1962 in music
    -Events:*January 1 – The Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes both audition at Decca Records, a company which has the option of signing one group only...

    )
  • Fats Domino
    Fats Domino
    Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

     (1963
    1963 in music
    -Events:*January 1 – The Beatles start a 5-day tour in Scotland to support the release of their new single, "Love Me Do".*January 4 – At Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, Dalida receives a Juke Box Global Oscar for the year's most-played artist on juke boxes....

    )
  • Connie Francis
    Connie Francis
    Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

  • Jimmy McGriff
    Jimmy McGriff
    James Harrell McGriff was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who developed a distinctive style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ.-Early years and influences:...

     (1971)
  • Johnny Lee
    Johnny Lee
    Johnny Lee is an American country music singer. His 1980 single, "Lookin' for Love" not only spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard country singles chart in the second half of 1980 but also went to the Top 5 on the Pop charts, and Top 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary survey...

     (No. 22 country hit in 1976
    1976 in country music
    This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1976.-No dates:*The CB radio craze was sweeping country music, as no less than three No. 1 songs are about citizens-band radios. C. W. McCall's "Convoy" — about a band of truck drivers who fight back against redneck...

    )
  • Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers
    Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers
    Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers are a Teddy Boy band from South Wales...

     (1979
    1979 in music
    See also:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1979.-January–February:*January 1...

    )
  • Big Joe Turner
    Big Joe Turner
    Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...

     (1983)
  • Dave Brubeck
    Dave Brubeck
    David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...

      (1999
    1999 in music
    -Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....

    )
  • Jimmy Velvit
    Jimmy Velvit
    Jimmy Velvit is an American rock and roll singer, who began his career in the 1960s. His real name is James Mullins, originally from Coalgate, Oklahoma, later from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for recording a white rhythm and blues version, in 1961, of Robert & Johnny's 1958 hit "We Belong...

     (2001
    2001 in music
    See also:* 2001 in music Record labels established in 2001-Events:*January 1**Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House of Blues**Hum disbands.*January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band....

    )

The title of the song provides the inspiration for the Red Sails Festival held annually in Portstewart, Northern Ireland. Kennedy wrote the song while staying in Portstewart.
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