Gerry Rafferty, R.I.P.

Gerry Rafferty, former member of the band Stealers Wheel and a solo artist known for the 1978 smash “Baker Street,” died yesterday in England at the age of 63.

Over his career Rafferty sold about 10 million albums.   His 1978 album City to City reached No. 1 in the United States and the single “Baker Street” made the Top 10 in both Britain and the United States.  So did “Stuck In The Middle With You,” which Rafferty and Joe Egan recorded as Stealers Wheel in 1972. That song reached a new generation of listeners when Quentin Tarantino used it in the notorious ear-slicing scene in his 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs.

More than anything else, Rafferty derailed his own solo career with alcoholism and dark psychological problems.  After the success of City to City Rafferty went on to record several more albums, including Night Owl, which reached the Top Five in England and the Top 20 in the United States in 1979.  Other albums followed, some of which garnered good reviews but none approached his earlier success.

Obituary in the London Guardian

MP3: “Stuck In The Middle With You” by Stealers Wheel

MP3: “Star” by Stealers Wheel

MP3: “Johnny’s Song” by Stealers Wheel

MP3: “City To City” by Gerry Rafferty

MP3: “The Royal Mile” by Gerry Rafferty

MP3: “Get It Right Next Time” by Gerry Rafferty

MP3: “Night Owl” by Gerry Rafferty

YouTube: “Baker Street”

Lost Classics? The Pointer Sisters

The Pointer Sisters had an enviable run at the top of the charts in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Their hits included “Neutron Dance” and the most famous cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire.”  The albums that all of these songs appeared on were produced by 1970s über-producer Richard Perry.   One of the most successful music producers ever, Perry was no stranger to the upper reaches of the charts – he produced the hit albums Ringo (1973) for Ringo Starr, No Secrets (1972) for Carly Simon and many others.

Oddly, one Pointer Sisters album with Perry at the helm made no impression at all – in fact, when Priority was released in 1979, it disappeared virtually without a trace.  The sisters were still riding high off the No. 1 smash “Fire” and its album Energy from the previous year when Perry took them into the studio for this followup.