Baker Street

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

"Baker Street"
Single by Gerry Rafferty
from the album City to City
Released	1978
Genre	Rock
Length	6:01
Label	Capitol
Writer(s)	Gerry Rafferty

"Baker Street" is a song by Gerry Rafferty, first released in 1978. Named after the famous London street of the same name, the song was featured on Rafferty's second solo album City to City. The single reached #3 in the UK and performed even better in the US, where it became a #2 hit, in addition to reaching the top 10 in the Netherlands (#9).

It was Rafferty's first release after the legal issues surrounding the formal separation of the band Stealers Wheel in 1975. Rafferty was unable to release any material for three years after the band's break up, while resolving the disputes about the band's remaining contractual recording obligations.

The saxophone solo

The song's prominent saxophone hook (in the original version) was played by Raphael Ravenscroft, and the guitar solo by Hugh Burns.

The eight-bar alto saxophone solo led to a resurgence described as "the 'Baker Street' phenomenon."^{[citation needed]} There followed a jump in saxophone sales, and a noticeable increase in the use of the instrument in mainstream pop music and TV advertising.^[1]

This solo was originally planned as a guitar solo. Ravenscroft was in the studio to record a brief soprano sax part, and when the guitarist was not available, suggested that he had an alto sax in his car which might substitute for the guitar.^[1][2]

"Baker Street" was the subject of an urban myth, initiated in the 1980's by broadcaster Stuart Maconie who, while writing for the New Musical Express (in a section called 'Would You Believe It?'), claimed that British Actor and television presenter Bob Holness played the saxophone solo.^[3] The story clearly appealed to Holness' sense of humour as he has often played along with the myth.^{[citation needed]} He was recorded confirming the Baker Street story in a 1993 interview on STOIC, Student Television of Imperial College.

Different versions

The original album version (in City to City) is 6:01 minutes long. The single version released in the U.S. is 4:08 minutes long and its tempo accelerated for commercial radio time allotments — an alternate, uncut mix (in Right Down The Line: The Very Best of Gerry Rafferty) contains thirty seconds of end-material not in the original, 1978 version — with reverb emphasised and Rafferty's vocals electronically double-tracked.

Cover versions

A 1992 cover of the song by the dance music band Undercover reached #2 on the UK charts. The Foo Fighters released the song as a B-side to their 1998 single "My Hero", scoring a minor hit on rock radio with their rendition (which reimagined the saxophone solo as a guitar solo). This version also replaced the word booze with the word crack.

Other artists who have covered the song include:

• Corey Doster
• Country artist Waylon Jennings
• Rock artist Rick Springfield
• The Shadows on their 1979 #1 album "String of hits"
• Folk artist Livingston Taylor
• Jars of Clay (in concert)
• Rock band Naturedevil
• Heavy metal band Carnival in Coal
• Leif Benjamin (dance version produced by Sandy Burnett)
• DJ Octopus (dance version)
• Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson
• Chicago pop/rock band Baby Teeth (in concert)
• London Symphony Orchestra (but without the lyrics, in May 1980, at EMI Studio One, Abbey Road, London.) [1]
• Sebadoh co-founder Eric Gaffney (on Uncharted Waters)
• German DJ & producer Michael Mind
• Undercover (on album Discover This Groove)
• Political Rock band State Radio in their January-February 2009 Tour [2], [3], [4]
• Michael Lington
• German techno band Scooter samples the saxophone solo from Baker Street in their song Nessaja, the opening track to the 2009 film Bruno
• Foo Fighters cover version 1997

Appearances in other media

The song is in the introduction to Dave Ramsey's talk radio show, The Dave Ramsey Show, and is in the soundtrack of Good Will Hunting. It also appears in the film A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. It is also the song that Lisa is playing in the end of the The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Sax." It was also briefly used on BBC three's How Not To Live Your Life in 2009. The song was also parodied on The Howard Stern Radio Show as a play on producer Gary Dell'Abbate's nickname, Baba Booey. The name Baba Booey is sung to the melody of the sax solo. Alternative ralk radio personality Art Bell frequently uses Baker Street as a bumper song.

Chart positions

Gerry Rafferty version

Undercover version

Foo Fighters version

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Richard Ingham and John Helliwell, Rock and the saxophone, in The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, 1998.
2. ^ "The Cambridge companion to the saxophone", p. 156
3. ^ "Have I Got News For You". BBC. May 22, 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2009/05/. 

External links

• Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty Songfacts