Sailor (band) - WikiHQ

Sailor were a British pop/glam rock group, best known in the 1970s for their hit singles "A Glass of Champagne" and "Girls, Girls, Girls", written by the group's lead singer and 12-string guitar player, Georg Kajanus. According to the band's own website, Sailor stopped performing in May 2014.

In the 1970s

The group's leader, Georg Kajanus, had previously written "Flying Machine" for Cliff Richard in 1971, although it was Richard's first British single that failed to reach the top 30. Sailor developed from Kajanus Pickett, a singer-songwriter duo that had formed when Phil Pickett and Kajanus met in 1970 at E H Morris, a music publisher where Pickett briefly worked. They later recorded the album Hi Ho Silver for Signpost Records. Sailor first came together in 1973 with the addition of musicians Henry Marsh (ex-Gringo) and Grant Serpell (ex-Affinity).

The group's work included Kajanus's invention of a special nickelodeon made of pianos, synthesizers and glockenspiels that allowed the four-piece band to reproduce on stage the acoustic arrangements that they had done in the recording studio.

The group's first UK single was "Traffic Jam" from their first album, Sailor. "A Glass of Champagne", issued late the following year from the Trouble album, reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. The follow-up "Girls, Girls, Girls" also made the Top 10, but of their subsequent singles, only "One Drink Too Many" registered in the UK Top 40. although Pickett and Marsh released more material as Sailor with Gavin and Virginia David in 1980, with an album of Pickett compositions called Dressed for Drowning, produced by James William Guercio at his Caribou studio in Colorado (Epic / Caribou).

Revival

In 1989, Sailor reformed to release a new album after a ten-year silence with two new singles, "The Secretary" and "La Cumbia". The band started touring again in 1993, and performed on many television programmes in Europe. In 1995, Kajanus departed the band again to pursue other projects.

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|1974

|Sailor

Released: August 1974
Label: Epic

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|1975

|Trouble

Released: November 1975
Label: Epic

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|1976

|The Third Step

Released: September 1976
Label: Epic

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|1977

|Checkpoint

Released: August 1977
Label: Epic

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|1978

|Hideaway

Released: September 1978
Label: Magnet (MAGL 5042)

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|1980

|Dressed for Drowning

Released: 1980
Label: Caribou

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|1991

|Sailor

Released: 1991
Label: RCA
Different from 1974 album

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|1992

|Street Lamp

Released: September 1992
Label: RCA

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Compilations

1978 Greatest Hits Vol.1
1990 Girls, Girls, Girls: The Very Best of Sailor
1994 Hits and Highlights
1995 Greatest Hits – Best of the Best
1996 Legacy: Greatest and Latest
1999 Girls, Girls, Girls
2002 Sailor
2005 Best: Down by the Docks
2006 Buried Treasure (double CD)
2007 Buried Treasure (single CD)
2007 The Best of Sailor
2007 A Glass of Champagne: All the Hits
2008 Traffic Jam: Sound and Vision (CD/DVD)

Live albums and DVDs

1998 Live in Berlin
2003 Pirate Copy: Sailor Live in Concert (DVD)
2005 Sailor Live
2005 Sailor Live: One Drink Too Many

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|1974

|"Traffic Jam"

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| rowspan="6" |1975

|"Blue Desert"

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|"Sailor"

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|"Let's Go to Town" (Netherlands-only release)

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|"Abre la Puerta (Open Up the Door)" (Spain-only release)

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|"A Glass of Champagne"

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|"The Old Nickelodeon Sound" (New Zealand-only release)

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| rowspan="2" |1976

|"Girls, Girls, Girls"

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|"Stiletto Heels"

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| rowspan="3" |1977

|"One Drink Too Many"

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|"Down by the Docks"

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|"Romance"

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|"All I Need Is a Girl"

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|"The Runaway"

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|"Give Me Shakespeare"

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|"Stay the Night"

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|1979

|"Stranger in Paris" (Netherlands-only release)

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|1980

|"Don't Send Flowers"

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| rowspan="2" |1981

|"Danger on the Titanic"

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|"Hat Check Girl" (Promo; US-only release)

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|1990

|"The Secretary" (Europe-only release)

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| rowspan="3" |1991

|"Music" (Europe-only release)

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|"La Cumbia"

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|"Knock Knock" (Europe-only release)

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| rowspan="3" |1992

|"Latino Lover" (Europe-only release)

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|"It Takes 2 to Tango" (Germany-only release)

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|"Precious Form" (Germany-only release)

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|1996

|"Karma Chameleon" (Denmark-only release)

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|2001

|"Estepona" (UK-only release)

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Notes

Sailor, the Musical Journey

The premiere of Sailor, the Musical Journey at the Carnegie Hall was in July 2006 in Dunfermline, Scotland. The new musical was written by Bill Blenman and made up entirely of Kajanus compositions.

References

;Other sources

James McCarraher, A Glass of Champagne: The Official "Sailor" Story,

External links

Sailor official website