Baker Street, Gerry Rafferty, 1977, one take karaoke

"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 over contractual obligations. 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. The resolution of Rafferty's legal and financial frustrations may have inspired the final verse: 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. "Baker Street" was recorded in 1977 at Chipping Norton Studios, Oxfordshire, during the sessions for City to City. It was co-produced by Rafferty and Hugh Murphy. It features a guitar solo played by Hugh Burns. Saxophone riff 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 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". 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. Rafferty said Ravenscroft had been his second choice, after Pete Zorn, who was unavailable. Ravenscroft came to the studio to record a soprano saxophone part, and suggested that he use instead his alto saxophone. Ravenscroft was reportedly paid £27 for the session. In 2011, Ravenscroft said listening to the song irritated him because he was out of tune. 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." 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." Rafferty's account was corroborated by Burns, who said the part also appeared on Rafferty's demo, played on guitar. Burns said Rafferty had also asked him to try playing it, but they agreed it would be better suited to saxophone. Rafferty's demo, with the riff played on guitar, was released on the 2011 reissue of City to City. 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." A similar saxophone melody appears on the 1968 Steve Marcus track "Half a Heart", credited to the vibraphonist Gary Burton. When interviewed by The Atlantic, Burton suggested Rafferty may have subconsciously plagiarised it, likening it to the lawsuit over the 1970 George Harrison song "My Sweet Lord". However, Burns said the similarity was a coincidence and that Rafferty "was an artist through and through". The saxophone riff is the subject of an urban legend created in the 1980s by the British writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie. In the spoof "Thrills' Believe it or Not" section of the music magazine NME, Maconie falsely claimed that the broadcaster Bob Holness had played the saxophone part. The claim was widely repeated.