Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street. It’s 40 years old!

Change the mug and it is passable.Anyway the song was memorable but never had a lasting impression with me.Ah... the 70s.To go back for a week.I wouldn't sleep.

 

Agree completely, @BradOlson ! Baker Street was one of those songs that almost made me wreck my car by slamming on the brakes when I first heard it. Immediately ran out & bought the album, and wasn't disappointed by it in any respect.

 

There have long been rumors that RSO might have, ahem, provided certain inducements to ensure this outcome.

I remember watching Gerry performing it on some prime time variety show, and my dad took strong exception to the guitar solo - not just the wailing, but also to the soloist's long hair drooping over the guitar when he bent his head.

So, snotty teen that I was, I annoyed him for weeks by mimicking the solo whenever he entered the room.

 

Another reminder of how different the music charts were in the UK versus the US, especially at that time. Many of the songs on that list were barely played, if at all, in the United States.

 

I have heard the stories that Andy Gibb had a helping hand with his single. I doubt he was the first.


Still, Baker Street feels like a #1 record. It is in my mind, anyway.

 

It’s always the same. Whenever I do UK chart polls on here they never do as well as the US ones. The UK charts were always very eclectic.

 

I can remember hearing this great tune in my college dorm room while getting ready for my morning classes circa 1990. The classic rock station my roommate and I listened to played the song every morning at the same time for like three weeks straight. Although, we didn't mind.

 

This is the US chart for the week Baker Street peaked at #2. Gerry would spend a further 5 weeks in second place behind Andy Gibb.

US Top 20 Singles Week Ending 24th June, 1978

TW LW TITLE Artist (Label) -Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date)

1 1 SHADOW DANCING –•– Andy Gibb (RSO) -11 (2 weeks at #1) (1)
2 3 BAKER STREET –•– Gerry Rafferty (United Artists) -10 (2)
3 4 IT’S A HEARTACHE –•– Bonnie Tyler (RCA) -14 (3)
4 2 YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT –•– John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (RSO) -13 (1)
5 6 TAKE A CHANCE ON ME –•– Abba (Atlantic) -10 (5)
6 9 YOU BELONG TO ME –•– Carly Simon (Elektra) -11 (6)
7 12 USE TA BE MY GIRL –•– The O’Jays (Philadelphia International) -9 (7)
8 10 LOVE IS LIKE OXYGEN –•– Sweet (Capitol) -19 (8)
9 16 STILL THE SAME –•– Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (Capitol) -7 (9)
10 11 DANCE WITH ME –•– Peter Brown with Betty Wright (Drive) -17 (10)

11 13 THE GROOVE LINE –•– Heatwave (Epic) -8 (11)
12 14 TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD –•– Meat Loaf (Epic / Cleveland International) -15 (12)
13 15 BECAUSE THE NIGHT –•– The Patti Smith Group (Arista) -12 (13)
14 5 TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE –•– Johnny Mathis / Deniece Williams (Columbia) -13 (1)
15 7 FEELS SO GOOD –•– Chuck Mangione (A&M) -20 (4)
16 18 EVERY KINDA PEOPLE –•– Robert Palmer (Island) -14 (16)
17 20 BLUER THAN BLUE –•– Michael Johnson (EMI-America) -10 (17)
18 21 YOU’RE THE LOVE –•– Seals and Crofts (Warner Brothers) -11 (18)
19 22 EVEN NOW –•– Barry Manilow (Arista) -8 (19)
20 23 LAST DANCE –•– Donna Summer (Casablanca) -7 (20)

 

Thanks for posting this. Sounds really good.
I haven't heard it in years. Stunning arrangement and production, full of hooks and rather odd for such a huge hit.

 

I was still a few years away from developing an interest in music, but "Baker Street" was a fixture on the radio station that they'd play over the PA at our public pool that summer. It's great pop song with the added bonus of being able to transport me back to those warm, summer days of '78.

 

Most played on radio too

 

Which reminds me, I once owned this Smurfs record.

 

The saxophone bit is pretty much burned in anyone's head my age or thereabouts for sure. But I think the lyrics, and his light-touch delivery, are genuinely moving:

 

Instrumenation question: what's in the mix that makes the descending boomy note throughout the song (almost like a descending slide but doesn't sound like guitar)? Pretty prominent in the solo.

 

This song always reminds me of when I was a kid living in Fargo, ND and seeing women on their lawn chairs putting on their suntan oil and having a small radio by them while they soak up the sun and smoke cigs.

 

The DCC of City To City is a holy grail for me - still searching for a reasonable copy.

 

12" promo single, which I've treasured for years.

 

The summer of 1978. I remember it well. "Baker Street" and "The Groove Line" by Heatwave were my two go-to singles. I still love them to this day.

 

I think it's a glissando on guitar (maybe bass) laid in as a separate track, although another strong possibility is a bowed cello or bass (the Wikipedia personnel listing includes "string arrangements"). Whatever it is, it's got some sort of effect on it - chorus, phase shifting, or maybe it's speed-altered. It's a great touch.

 

Baker Street and Year Of The Cat are two of my favorite songs from the 70's.

 

It did then which is weird...

 

Interesting documentary about the man. It starts out talking about Baker Street.

 

When I think of 1978 it conjures up the Bee Gees, Grease and Boney M (in the UK), but Baker Street is just as important a part of the year as any of those.