Overview

The original version appeared on Thorn's first solo album A Distant Shore

A Distant Shore

A Distant Shore is Tracey Thorn's first solo album, released in 1982. Recorded by Pat Bermingham for just £138, the album reached number two in the UK Indie Chart in 1983...

in 1982. It was re-recorded and released as Thorn's first single on 7" vinyl later that year. The b-side "Goodbye Joe" is a cover version of a song by fellow Cherry Red Records recording artists Monochrome Set.

The re-recorded version of "Plain Sailing" was included on the Cherry Red

Cherry Red

Cherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...

 Pillows & Prayers

Pillows & Prayers

Pillows & Prayers is compilation album released Christmas 1982 featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label at the suggestion of A&R head Mike Alway...

compilation album.

The single sleeve featured the Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris; together with Henri Cartier-Bresson he was a pioneer of photojournalism...

 photograph Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville) and hand-lettering by Thorn herself.
Thorn did not release another solo single until "It's All True

It's All True (song)

"It's All True" is the first single from singer Tracey Thorn's solo album, Out of the Woods, released in February 2007. The Martin Buttrich Vocal Mix of the single was premiered on November 24, 2006, on Everything But the Girl's, Ben Watt's online radio show, Buzzin' Fly. The Album Mix was...

" 25 years later.

In June 2010, Thorn performed "Plain Sailing" live for the first time in nearly 30 years, during an appearance on the NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 programme World Cafe

World Cafe

World Cafe is a two-hour long, nationally syndicated music radio program that originates from WXPN, a non-commercial station licensed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The program began in 1991 and was originally distributed by Public Radio...

.