Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street (1978)

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.