"Sailing on the Seven Seas" is a 1991 single by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) released from their album Sugar Tax. Along with 1981's "Souvenir", it is the band's highest-charting UK hit to date, peaking at number 3. It also charted at number 5 in Ireland and number 9 in Germany. The single marked a commercial renaissance for the band in their native UK, becoming their first Top 10 hit since 1984's "Locomotion". It was the first single to be released by OMD without original member Paul Humphreys, who had left to form his own band The Listening Pool.

The song pays homage to two rock groups: firstly to The Velvet Underground, with the song "Sister Ray" being directly referenced (OMD had previously covered "I'm Waiting for the Man" as a B-side to 1980 single "Messages"); and secondly to The Who, with the line "people try to drag us down" being near-identical in melody and lyrical content to the opening line of "My Generation".

Critic Dave Thompson in AllMusic lauded "Sailing on the Seven Seas" as "a glorious musical mélange, an inspired melding of synth pop soar, 2-Tone yore, and glam rock roar, the anthemic chorus to the fore with a fist-in-the-air punch that shouts out for more".Ned Raggett called it the "one definite redeeming number" from parent album Sugar Tax, observing "glam-styled beats underpinning a giddy, playful romp that showed McCluskey still hadn't lost his touch entirely".MTV Europe ranked it the 21st greatest song of 1991.

Humphreys said of the track: "I was surprised that it got so high in the charts, although I think it's a good song." Original drummer Malcolm Holmes, then also estranged from OMD, commented: "I loathe the track – I do. But it charted and it did the business."

...
Wikipedia