"Baker Street" was included on Rafferty's second solo album,City to City (1978). It was his first album after the resolution of legal problems surrounding the breakup of his old band,Stealers Wheel, in 1975. In the intervening three years, Rafferty had been unable to release any material because of disputes about the band's remaining contractual recording obligations.[3]
Rafferty wrote "Baker Street" while trying to extricate himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. He was regularly travelling between his family home inPaisley, Scotland, and London, where he often stayed at a friend's flat onBaker Street inMarylebone.[4] The resolution of Rafferty's legal and financial frustrations may have accounted for the exhilaration of the song's final verse:[5]
When you wake up it's a new morning The sun is shining, it's a new morning You're going, you're going home.
Rafferty's daughter Martha suggested in 2012 that he could also have taken inspiration from a book he was reading while travelling,Colin Wilson'sThe Outsider (1956), which explores ideas ofalienation and creativity and a longing to be connected.[6]
"Baker Street" was recorded in 1977 atChipping Norton Studios,Oxfordshire, during the sessions forCity to City.[7] It was co-produced by Rafferty and Hugh Murphy.[8] It features a guitar solo played byHugh Burns.[9]
Raphael Ravenscroft (pictured in 2014 with a tenor saxophone) played the alto sax riff, based on a guitar part in Rafferty's demo.
"Baker Street" features a prominent eight-bar saxophoneriff by the session musicianRaphael Ravenscroft, played as a break between verses.Billboard described it as "the most recognizable sax riff in pop music history".[10] It is said to have been responsible for a resurgence in the sales of saxophones and their use in mainstream pop music and television advertising.[11]
Rafferty said Ravenscroft had been his second choice to play the part, afterPete Zorn, who was unavailable.[12] Ravenscroft came to the studio to record asoprano saxophone part, and suggested that he use instead hisalto saxophone.[5] Ravenscroft was reportedly paid £27 for the session.[13] In 2011, Ravenscroft said listening to the song irritated him because he was out of tune.[13]
According to Ravenscroft, Rafferty instructed him to fill several gaps in "Baker Street". He said: "Most of what I played was an old blues riff. If you're asking me: 'Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play?' then no, he didn't."[14] This was disputed by Rafferty, who said he was irritated that people assumed Ravenscroft had written it. He said: "It was my line. I sang it to him."[12]
Rafferty's account was corroborated by Burns, who said the part also appeared on Rafferty's demo, played on guitar. He said Rafferty had also asked him to try playing it, but they agreed it would be better suited to saxophone.[9] Rafferty's demo, with the riff played on guitar, was released on the 2011 reissue ofCity to City.[15][9] In the liner notes, Rafferty's collaboratorRab Noakes wrote: "Let's hope [the demo] will, at last, silence all who keep on asserting that the saxophone player came up with the melody line."[15]
A similar saxophone melody appears on the 1968Steve Marcus track "Half a Heart", credited to the vibraphonistGary Burton.[9] When interviewed byThe Atlantic, Burton suggested Rafferty may havesubconsciously plagiarised it, likening it to the lawsuit over the 1970George Harrison song "My Sweet Lord".[9] However, Burns said the similarity was a coincidence and that Rafferty "was an artist through and through".[9]
The saxophone riff is the subject of anurban legend created in the 1980s by the British writer and broadcasterStuart Maconie.[16] In the spoof "Would You Believe It?" section in the music magazineNME, Maconie falsely claimed that the broadcasterBob Holness had played the saxophone part.[16] The claim was widely repeated.[17][18]
Released as a single in 1978, "Baker Street" reached No. 3 in the UK[19] and No. 2 for six consecutive weeks in the US. It reached number one on theCash Box Top 100 and number two on theBillboard Hot 100[20] where it held itsBillboard position for six weeks, kept out of the number one spot byAndy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing". The song spent four weeks at number one in Canada,[21] reached number one in Australia,[22] and made it into the top 10 in seven European countries in addition to the UK. In October 2010, "Baker Street" was recognised byBMI for surpassing five million performances worldwide.[23]
Another urban myth has claimed that "Baker Street" did overtake "Shadow Dancing" on theBillboard Hot 100 during one of its seven weeks on top in the summer of 1978, withCasey Kasem recording hisAmerican Top 40 countdown placing it at No. 1. However, at a dinner with Gibb's managers, then-Billboard chart director Bill Wardlow was allegedly told that if "Shadow Dancing" did not remain at No. 1, Gibb would be pulled from the lineup of an upcomingBillboard-organized concert. Wardlow then supposedly asked the magazine to leave the song at the top, and Kasem was told to re-record his countdown.[24]
British dance groupUndercover covered the song on their 1992 albumCheck Out the Groove. This version was released in August 1992 byPWL and produced bySteve Mac. It reached No. 2 on theUK Singles Chart and became a top-three hit in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. A music video was produced to promote the single, shot in black-and-white.[59]
A writer forLennox Herald named the song a "stand out" from the Undercover album.[60] Pan-European magazineMusic & Media wrote, "Gerry Rafferty's rainy days anthem is now transferred from the comfortable living room to the heat of clubland. The typical saxophone hook is on acid as well."[61]Mark Frith fromSmash Hits commented, "This one's quite good actually. Transformed from a hoary old late '70s epic into aPWLrave anthem for the '90s, 'Baker Street' has tootling sax, great vocals and is probably the most unusual record turned into a rave tune ever."[62]
The American rock bandFoo Fighters covered the song on their 1998 "My Hero" UKCD single release, on the Australian tour pack (grey cover) release, on the limited-edition European bonus EP and as one of several bonus tracks added to the remastered tenth anniversary release of their second studio album,The Colour and the Shape, reissued in 2007.[93] The saxophone part is played on electric guitar.[94]
^Pennanen, Timo (2006).Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi.ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
