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Baker Street (song)

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For other uses, see Baker Street (disambiguation).
"Baker Street"
Solid centre variant of the 1978 UK single
Single by Gerry Rafferty
from the album City to City
B-side"Big Change in the Weather"
Released3 February 1978
Recorded1977
StudioChipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire, UK
Genre
Length6:06 (album version)
4:10 (single version)
5:56 (US 12-inch promo single version)
6:29 (1989 “Right Down The Line” compilation remix version)
LabelUnited Artists
Songwriter(s)Gerry Rafferty
Producer(s)Hugh Murphy, Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty singles chronology
"City to City"
(1977) 		"Baker Street"
(1978) 		"Right Down the Line"
(1978)
Music video
"Baker Street" on YouTube
Audio sample

"Baker Street" is a single by the British singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, released in February 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically[2] and reached the top three in the UK, US and elsewhere. The song is known for its saxophone riff, written by Rafferty and performed by Raphael Ravenscroft.

Writing

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"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 in Paisley, Scotland, and London, where he often stayed at a friend's flat on Baker Street in Marylebone.[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's The Outsider (1956), which explores ideas of alienation and creativity and a longing to be connected.[6]

"Baker Street" was recorded in 1977 at Chipping Norton Studios, Oxfordshire, during the sessions for City to City.[7] It was co-produced by Rafferty and Hugh Murphy.[8] It features a guitar solo played by Hugh Burns.[9]

Saxophone riff

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Raphael Ravenscroft (pictured in 2014) played the saxophone riff, based on a guitar part in Rafferty's demo.

"Baker Street" features a prominent eight-bar saxophone riff by the session musician Raphael 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, after Pete Zorn, who was unavailable.[12] Ravenscroft came to the studio to record a soprano saxophone part, and suggested that he use instead his alto 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 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 of City to City.[15][9] In the liner notes, Rafferty's collaborator Rab 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 1968 Steve Marcus track "Half a Heart", credited to the vibraphonist Gary Burton.[9] When interviewed by The Atlantic, Burton denied he had composed "Half a Heart" and expressed surprise that he had received a writing credit. After listening to "Baker Street", he suggested Rafferty may have subconsciously plagiarised "Half a Heart", likening it to the lawsuit over the 1970s George Harrison song "My Sweet Lord".[9] However, Burns said the similarity was a coincidence and that Rafferty "was an artist through and though".[9]

The saxophone riff is the subject of an urban legend created in the 1980s by the British writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie.[16] In the spoof "Would You Believe It?" section in the music magazine NME, Maconie falsely claimed that the broadcaster Bob Holness had played the saxophone part.[16] The claim was widely repeated.[17][18]

Chart performance

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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 in Cash Box and number two on the Billboard Hot 100[20] where it held its Billboard position for six weeks, kept out of the number one spot by Andy 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 by BMI for surpassing five million performances worldwide.[23]

Another urban myth has claimed that "Baker Street" did overtake "Shadow Dancing" on the Billboard Hot 100 during one of its seven weeks on top in the summer of 1978, with Casey Kasem recording his American Top 40 countdown placing it at #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 #1, Gibb would be pulled from the lineup of an upcoming Billboard-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]

Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[50] Platinum 600,000‡
United States (RIAA)[51] Gold 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Legacy

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"Baker Street" was cited by guitarist Slash in 1987 as an influence on his guitar solo in "Sweet Child o' Mine".[52]

Financial expert and radio personality Dave Ramsey has used "Baker Street" as bumper music for his eponymous radio show (now called The Ramsey Show) since the show's debut in 1992.[53]

"Baker Street" is heard in the Happy Endings episode "Cocktails and Dreams" (S02E16). Penny's dream involves a fingerpicked-guitar version of the saxophone riff.

In the closing scene of "Lisa's Sax" (season nine, episode four of The Simpsons), Lisa Simpson performs a brief rendition of the "Baker Street" hook on a saxophone before the music segues into Rafferty's recording.[54]

The Canadian rock musician A.C. Newman cited the song as an inspiration for his album Shut Down the Streets (2012).[55]

The song is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto V as part of Los Santos Rock Radio.[56]

Personnel

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Undercover version

[edit]
"Baker Street"
Single by Undercover
from the album Check Out the Groove
Released3 August 1992
GenreRave
Length4:04
LabelPWL
Songwriter(s)Gerry Rafferty
Producer(s)Steve Mac
Undercover singles chronology
"Baker Street"
(1992) 		"Never Let Her Slip Away"
(1992)
Music video
"Baker Street" on YouTube

British dance group Undercover covered the song on their 1992 album Check Out the Groove. This version was released in August 1992 by PWL and produced by Steve Mac. It reached No. 2 on the UK 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]

Critical reception

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A writer for Lennox Herald named the song a "stand out" from the Undercover album.[60] Pan-European magazine Music & 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 from Smash Hits commented, "This one's quite good actually. Transformed from a hoary old late '70s epic into a PWL rave 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]

Track listing

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  1. "Baker Street" (edit) – 4:04
  2. "Baker Street" (extended mix) – 5:10
  3. "Sha-Bang" (extended mix) – 5:49

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Germany (BVMI)[85] Gold 250,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Foo Fighters version

[edit]
"Baker Street"
Song by Foo Fighters
Released19 January 1998
Recorded1997
Length5:39
Label
Songwriter(s)Gerry Rafferty
Producer(s)Simon Askew

The American rock band Foo Fighters covered the song on their 1998 "My Hero" UK CD 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.[86] The saxophone part is played on electric guitar.[87]

References

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  1. ^ Molanphy, Chris (31 July 2021). "What a Fool Believes Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
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