Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

A line he sang, then handed to the saxophone

On 3 February 1978, United Artists released Baker Street, the single that carried Gerry Rafferty’s album City to City. He had written it while he was stuck. Stealers Wheel, the band he shared with Joe Egan, split in 1975, and contract fights kept Rafferty from releasing new music for about three years. He travelled between his family in Paisley and lawyers in London, and he often stayed at a friend’s flat off Baker Street in Marylebone. The album title names that journey. The last verse sounds like the end of it: a new morning, and the singer going home.

The track was recorded in 1977 at Chipping Norton Studios in Oxfordshire. Rafferty and Hugh Murphy produced it. Rafferty sang and played rhythm guitar. Gary Taylor played bass, Henry Spinetti drums, Tommy Eyre keyboards, and Hugh Burns the guitar solo, with strings arranged by Graham Preskett. The album version runs 6 minutes and 6 seconds. The single edit is 4 minutes and 10 seconds. The B-side was Big Change in the Weather.

The break everyone remembers is eight bars of alto saxophone, played by Raphael Ravenscroft. Rafferty had asked for Pete Zorn first. Zorn was busy. Ravenscroft came in to play soprano and suggested the alto he had with him instead. He was paid a session fee of about £27. Years later he said most of what he played was an old blues phrase, and that Rafferty had not handed him a written line. Rafferty disagreed. He was annoyed that people gave the melody to the saxophone player.