Sailing By
Sailing By is a short light music piece by Ronald Binge, written in 1963. It is played on BBC Radio 4 before the late Shipping Forecast, every night around 00:45. The tune is a slow waltz with a simple, repeating ABCAB structure and a distinctive rising and falling woodwind arpeggio. It serves as a signal for sailors tuning in and as a brief buffer when the forecast starts at 00:48.
In the 1990s, the tune was used for Seascapes on Ireland’s RTÉ Radio 1, ending in 2009 but later brought back. Many British listeners regard Sailing By as a soothing bedtime companion. The Britpop musician Jarvis Cocker chose it for his Desert Island Discs, saying he used it to help sleep.
There have been several recordings. A 1965 version was released by John Scott and His Orchestra, and in 1973 the BBC released a single by the John Fox Orchestra. The BBC’s own version, performed by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra, became the standard BBC recording. The “Perry Gardner Orchestra” credit is a pseudonym; Alan Perry and William Gardner are actually Ernest Tomlinson and Peter Hope.
The tune was briefly dropped from weekday schedules in 1993 and reinstated in 1995 after listener demand. The BBC’s stereo version was shown for a few weeks in the late 1980s but soon returned to mono.
Sailing By appears on commercial collections, including EMI’s The Great British Experience and a Naxos set of British light music performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.
On New Year’s Day 2025, the BBC Radio 4 Soul Music series aired an episode about Sailing By, featuring memories from Binge’s son Chris.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:03 (CET).