Dennis DeYoung says, after years of failed attempts by others, the kids on Glee nailed it with their rousing recent rendition of Styx’s “Come Sail Away.”
“I must admit that having searched YouTube over the years listening to all sorts of folks singing ‘Come Sail Away,’ I have been reminded of this simple fact: this song is not easy to sing,” DeYoung now admits. “‘Til now, I have not heard anyone sing this song with the correct combination of hope, passion and melancholy necessary to pull it off.”
Glee has also previously featured Styx’s No. 3 hit “Mr. Roboto.” Likewise composed by Dennis DeYoung, that song was taken from the 1983 concept album Kilroy Was Here. “Come Sail Away,” meanwhile, was originally a No. 8 hit off Styx’s 1977 album The Grand Illusion.
“This tune can get corny pretty darn quick in the wrong hands,” Dennis DeYoung says of “Come Sail Away.” “I know from experience having written and sung it for the past 35 years how challenging it can be to not only execute the vocal jumps but keep some of the words I used in pitch. I can sing ‘Lady,’ ‘Babe,’ ‘Suite Madame Blue’ and almost any other song in my sleep but this puppy needs training and TLC.”
DeYoung made another pass at “Come Sail Away” just last year, as part of The Music of Styx: Live in Los Angeles That project was recorded during a concert at the El Rey Theatre in March 2014, and then released a few months later via Frontiers.
