“Sail Away Ladies” is one of the most popular fiddle tunes of all time, and belongs to a family of tunes that also includes “Sally Ann”, “Great Big Taters in Sandy Land” or “Dineo”. Its popularity is also due to the lyrics that goes with the tune, with a refrain that repeat the phrase “Sail away ladies, sail away” or ” Don’t she rock day-dee-o”. Almost every fiddler and string band has the tune in his repertoire and it is very popular among folk singers also.
British skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan recorded it also under the name “Don’t you rock me Daddy-O”, making it a skiffle favorite in England in 1957.
A few years later it appeared on the set-list of the band The Quarrymen, out of Liverpool , who metamorphosed into the Beatles
For more detailed informations on the tune, see Fiddler’s Companion
(c) Uncle Dave Macon and his Fruit-Jar Drinkers (1927)
New York (Brunswick studio): May 7, 1927
Vocalion 5155 (mx. E-4936)
Listen here:
1 year earlier John L. “Uncle Bunt” Stephens had recorded an instrumental version of this tune with a slightly different title "Sail Away Lady"
(c) Uncle Bunt Stephens (as "Sail Away Lady")
Recorded March 29, 1926 in New York
Released on Columbia 15071-D
Uncle Bunt Stephens' version was also contained on Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music", originally released in 1952 as a quasi-legal set of three double-LPs and reissued several times since (with varying cover art), "The Anthology of American Folk Music" could well be the most influential document of the '50s folk revival.
Uncle Bunt Stephens "Sail Away Lady" is here:
Yet another year earlier Fiddlin' John Carson sang "Sally Ann", which had the exact same tune as "Sail Away Ladies" and "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O".
(c) Fiddlin John Carson 1925 (as "Sally Ann")
Recorded June 24, 1925
Released on Okeh 40419
Listen here:
And the oldest version in this song-cluster I could find:
(o) The Hill Billies (1925) (as "Sally Ann")
Vocal: Al Hopkins
Recorded January 15, 1925 in New York
Released on Okeh 40336
Listen here:
On October 22, 1926 the Hill Billies recorded a "new" version of the song.
Released on Brunswick 105 (group-name Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters)
Also released on Vocalion 5019 (group-name Hill Billies)
Listen here:
More coverversions
(c) Wagoners (1956) (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) Odetta (1957) (as "Sail Away Ladies, Sail Away")
Listen here:
(c) Vipers Skifle Group (1957) (as "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O")
Their second single, "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O", produced by Martin, reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1957. Although the songwriting credits were given to Whyton, the song is a variant of the folk standard "Sail Away Ladies", as recorded by Uncle Dave Macon in 1927.
Released on Parlophone R 4261
Listen here:
The Vipers came into direct competition with Lonnie Donegan on the rival Pye label, who imitated Whyton's arrangements but had the bigger hits, both with "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" and with its follow-up "Cumberland Gap".
(c) Lonnie Donegan (1957) (as "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O")
# 4 HIT UK
Released on Pye Nixa N 15080
Listen here:
Back before he became Britain's first successful independent record producer -- if not its quirkiest and most controversial -- Joe Meek engineered or produced countless sessions in the 1950s for established British labels like Peggy Seeger, Guy Carawan, and Isla Cameron's "Sail Away Lady".
(c) Peggy Seeger with Isla Cameron and Guy Carawan (1957) ("Sail Away Lady")
Released on the album "Origins of Skiffle"
Listen here:
(c) Joan Baez 1959 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Recorded by: Stephen Fassett in Boston, May 1959
Released on Veritas XTV-62202/3
Listen here:
(c) Guy Carawan 1959 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) Kingston Trio (1960) (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Recorded May 26, 1959 (Guard, Shane, Reynolds)
Oddly enough, the first track recorded at the sessions for the album "Here We Go Again", never found a home on that album.
"Sail Away Ladies" was released on EP
Listen here:
(c) New Lost City Ramblers 1963 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) Rooftop Singers 1964 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
The Rooftop Singers recorded a vocal version and an instrumental version.
The instrumental version was titled "Twelve String" and was on the B-side of the vocal version
Here's the instrumental version (on the B-side of the 45)
(c) Holy Modal Rounders 1965 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) John Fahey 1966 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Instrumental
(c) Harry Belafonte 1967 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) Leo Kottke 1969 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here (at 24 min and 28 sec in the Youtube below)
(c) Gerry Goffin 1973 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Released on the album "It Ain't Exactly Entertainment"
Listen here:
(c) Roger McGuinn 1999 (as "Sail Away Lady")
Recorded for his Folk-Den project
Listen here: http://ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/music/Sail.mp3
(c) Roger McGuinn (& Odetta) 2001 (as "Sail Away Lady")
In 2001 McGuinn recorded a version for the album "Treasures from the Folk Den"
Accompanied by Odetta on vocals.
Listen here:
(c) Eric Bibb 2002 ("Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
Or to a sample (song #12) here:
(c) Mike Seeger 2003 (as "Sail Away Ladies")
Listen here:
(c) Van Dyke Parks & Mondrian String Quartet (2006) ("Sail Away Lady")
In 1999 and 2001, producer Hal Willner, best known for his creative mixing and matching of talents on tributes to the likes of Thelonious Monk, Kurt Weill, and cartoon music composer Carl Stalling, curated three multi-artist concerts to pay tribute to Harry Smith's Anthologyof American Folk Music
The CD "The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisted" is a distillation of highlights from those shows, which were held in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and London.
It was released in 2006:
Listen here:
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