Baker Street (song)

Origins

Named after Baker Street in London, the song was included on Rafferty's second solo album, City to City, which was Rafferty's first release after the resolution of legal problems surrounding the formal break-up 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.

Rafferty wrote the song during a period when he was trying to extricate himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts; he was regularly travelling between his family home in Paisley and London, where he often stayed at a friend's flat in Baker Street. As Rafferty put it, "everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We'd sit and chat or play guitar there through the night."

The resolution of Rafferty's legal and financial frustrations accounted for the exhilaration of the song's last 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 has said that the book that inspired the song more than any other was Colin Wilson's The Outsider. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and of creativity, born out of a longing to be connected, at this time of travelling between the two cities.

Arrangement

The album City to City, including "Baker Street", was co-produced by Rafferty and Hugh Murphy. In addition to a guitar solo, played by Hugh Burns, the song featured a prominent eight-bar saxophone riff played as a break between verses, by Raphael Ravenscroft.

Rafferty claimed that he wrote the hook with the original intention that it be sung. Ravenscroft remembered things differently, saying that he was presented with a song that contained "several gaps". "In fact, most of what I played was an old blues riff," stated Ravenscroft. "If you're asking me: 'Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play?' then no, he didn't." However, the 2011 reissue of City To City included the demo of Baker Street which included the saxophone part played on electric guitar by Rafferty. A very similar sax line, however, was originally played by saxophonist Steve Marcus for a song called "Half A Heart", credited to vibraphonist Gary Burton, that appeared on Marcus' 1968 album Tomorrow Never Knows.

Ravenscroft, a session musician, was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part and suggested that he record the break using the alto saxophone he had in his car. The part led to what became known as "the 'Baker Street' phenomenon", a resurgence in the sales of saxophones and their use in mainstream pop music and television advertising.

In January 2011, radio presenter Simon Lederman revealed that Ravenscroft thought the solo was out of tune. When asked during a live radio interview on BBC Radio London, "What do you think when you hear [the sax solo] now?" Ravenscroft replied, "I'm irritated because it's out of tune; yeah it's flat; by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best", and admitted he was "gutted" when he heard it played back. He added that he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed. The sax track sounds to be about 11 cents flat from standard tuning.

Urban myths

According to one story, Ravenscroft received no payment for a song that earned Rafferty an income of £80,000 per annum; a cheque for £27 given to Ravenscroft bounced and was framed and hung on his solicitor's wall. However, the bouncing cheque story was denied by Ravenscroft during an interview on BBC Radio 2's Simon Mayo Drivetime show on 9 February 2012.

The saxophone riff was also the subject of another urban legend in the UK, created in the 1980s by British writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie. As one of the spoof facts invented for the regular "Would You Believe It?" section in the NME, Maconie falsely claimed that British radio and television presenter Bob Holness had played the saxophone part on the recording. Later, the claim was widely repeated.

Appearances in other media

The song was cited by guitarist Slash as an influence on his guitar solo in "Sweet Child o' Mine".

The saxophone solo has been cited as one of Susan Boyle's influences on her version of the Rolling Stone track "Wild Horses".

The song is also heard in the closing scene of "Lisa's Sax," the episode of The Simpsons which recounts how Lisa Simpson received her first saxophone. Lisa performs a brief, cruder rendition of the hook before the music segues into Rafferty's recording.

Canadian rock musician AC Newman cited the song as an inspiration for his 2012 album, Shut Down the Streets.

The song is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto V, as part of the Los Santos Rock Radio track list.

The song's saxophone line is featured numerous times in the Rick and Morty episode "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!". (Season 1, Episode 4)

The opening bars of the song serve as the opening theme to the syndicated US radio program of financial author and motivational speaker Dave Ramsey.

The opening bars of the song appear at the start and the end of the TV show New Tricks Season 5 episode 6 (Magic Majestic).

In the Family Guy season 10 episode Grumpy Old Man (2011), Peter plays the song with her saxophone, in so-called "phone sax" with Lois.

The song has been used in a number of films, including: Zodiac, Good Will Hunting, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and The Sopranos.

The song may appear in an episode of ITV television series Thunderbirds Are Go.

The first few notes of the saxophone solo appear ubiquitously as an audio cue on the Star Trek: The Next Generation podcast The Greatest Generation whenever the character of Wesley Crusher is first mentioned.

Chart performance

"Baker Street" reached #3 in the UK and #2 for six consecutive weeks in the US, kept out of the number-one spot by Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing".

Undercover

British dance group Undercover covered the song on their 1992 album Check Out the Groove. This version reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart.

Track listing

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

Foo Fighters

The Foo Fighters covered the song on the extended version of their 1997 album The Colour and the Shape. In the United States, this track was released as the B-side of the single "My Hero". They replace the word 'booze' for 'crack'.

Other versions

The song has also been performed by several other bands and artists including David Lee Roth, Ali Campbell, Waylon Jennings, Maynard Ferguson, Game Theory, Rocket From The Crypt and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was also covered by a Polish saxophonist/composer/ Robert Chojnacki on his 2006 album Saxhophonic, with vocals by Andrzej Lampert.