Randy Newman: Sail Away (180g, indie exclusive, Rhino Reserve series) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

Matthew Lutthans cut this Rhino Reserve edition at The Mastering Lab straight from the original flat analog masters, and Fidelity Record Pressing in Oxnard put it on 180g vinyl. Sail Away sits at No. 268 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and earns its place in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It also holds Newman's own "You Can Leave Your Hat On", years before Joe Cocker and Tom Jones took it to the movies.

This edition

• Rhino Reserve series, indie store exclusive
• Lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab from the original flat analog masters
• 180g vinyl pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, Oxnard, California
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Randy Newman has spent half a century singing in the voices of people you wouldn't trust with your car keys, and Sail Away is where he perfected the trick. The title track is a slave trader's sales pitch, delivered over the loveliest string arrangement in Los Angeles; "Political Science" cheerfully proposes dropping the big one on everybody (Australia gets a pass, on account of the kangaroos); and "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)" lets the Almighty explain Himself, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Newman wrote and arranged every song, and the joke always lands a beat after the melody has already won you over.

Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman produced the LP with a who's who of the Hollywood studio scene: Jim Keltner and Earl Palmer on drums, Wilton Felder on bass, and Ry Cooder adding slide guitar to "Last Night I Had a Dream" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On". It peaked at No. 163 on the Billboard 200 in 1972, which says more about 1972 than about the album. Brian Wilson played it over and over while writing for the Beach Boys, and Newman's songs have since done very nicely in other people's hands, from Joe Cocker's striptease anthem to Harry Nilsson, who had already given him a whole album of covers. Twelve songs, and not a wasted bar among them.

Also at Kops: Randy Newman: Good Old Boys · Little Criminals · more Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

Out October 23, 2026 on Rhino (cat# RES102064), a reissue of the 1972 album.