Seemann (Lolita song)

"Seemann (deine Heimat ist das Meer)"
Single by Lolita
B-side	"La Luna (Quando La Luna)" (original A-side)
Released	February 1960
Recorded	15 December 1959 (original version) Austrophon-Schallplatten-Studio (Konzerthaus, Vienna)
Genre	Traditional pop
Length	2:48
Label	Polydor
Songwriter(s)	Werner Scharfenberger, Fini Busch
Producer(s)	Gerhard Mendelson
Lolita German singles chronology
"Treu Will Ich Dir Bleiben" (1959) "Seemann (deine Heimat ist das Meer)" (1960) "Die Sterne der Prärie" (1960)

"Seemann (Deine Heimat ist das Meer)" (English translation "Sailor (Your Home is the Sea)") is a song originally written in German by Werner Scharfenberger (de) and lyricist Fini Busch (de). A 1959 German-language recording by Lolita became an international hit in 1960–61.

The song was covered in a number of languages, most notably by Petula Clark who had her first #1 UK hit with the English-language rendering "Sailor". Clark was also afforded international success with both "Sailor" and the French-language rendering "Marin". A rival version by Anne Shelton was a Top Ten UK hit, concluding her chart career. Other singers for whom "Sailor (Your Home is the Sea)" brought success as rendered in various languages include: Scandinavian singers Thory Bernhards and Towa Carson "Sjöman" (Swedish) and Jan Høiland "Sjömann" (Norwegian); Caterina Valente, who had a Flemish hit with "Zeeman (Je verlangen is de zee)"( Dutch;) a 1981 hit in the Netherlands for Ciska Peters (nl); and Virginia Lee (af) whose "Seeman" (Afrikaans) was a successful local cover in South Africa.

A schlager-style number, "Sailor" with its original German lyric, addresses a seafaring love object with an acceptance of his wanderlust: the English-language version inverts this sentiment turning the song into a plea for the sailor to return. The song is sometimes sung by male vocalists from the point of view of the sailor with the lyrics adjusted accordingly.