“Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty)

Today’s classic song by a Gary, Gerry, or Jerry of the day is “Baker Street,” by Gerry Rafferty. This song, with its distinctive alto sax riff, was recorded for Rafferty’s second solo album, City to City, and released as a single in February of 1978. It hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and stayed there for six consecutive weeks) and #1 on the Cash Box Top 100.

Gerry Rafferty was part of the Scottish group Stealer’s Wheel, which had a top ten hit in 1973 with “Stuck in the Middle With You.” When that band dissolved in 1975, a series of legal issues kept Mr. Rafferty from recording for a few years. It was during that off period, when he was constantly traveling from his home in Glasgow to meet with lawyers in London (where he often stayed in a friend’s flat who lived on Baker Street), that he wrote all the tunes for City to City, including “Baker Street.” When the legal issues were settled, Rafferty went into the studio and recorded the album, which rose all the way to #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

When recording “Baker Street,” Mr. Rafferty called on session musician Raphael Ravenscroft to play the sax solo in the break between verses. It originally was conceived as a light little soprano sax part, but Ravenscroft thought an alto sax might be better. Fortunately, he had a spare alto in his car and subsequently recorded what is one of the most recognizable saxophone solos in music history. (Its distinctive timbre is a result of the sax being tuned slightly flat, which added to its bluesy sound.)

There is some debate as to who came up with that sax line, Mr. Rafferty or Mr. Ravenscroft. Rafferty claimed that he composed that little melodic line, with the original (since abandoned) intention that he put lyrics to it. Ravenscroft’s memory is different; he said the song as presented to him had “several gaps” that he filled with “an old blues riff.” Did Rafferty compose the line? According to Ravenscroft, “If you’re asking me: ‘Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play?’ then no, he didn’t.”

In any case, that sax riff made the song what it was. It’s hard to imagine “Baker Street” without that riff. This begs a bigger question, however: is the sax line a part of the song or just part of the arrangement?

The average civilian will tell you it’s part of the song, perhaps the most identifiable part of the song (the melody in the verses and choruses is actually fairly one-note and boring). If you ask a person on the street to sing “Baker Street,” chances are they’ll hum the sax line, not the actual melody.

However, I like to make a clear distinction between song and arrangement. Now, back the Tin Pan Alley days, before recordings were common, songwriters like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and the Gershwins released their songs as sheet music. Singers and bands would interpret and arrange the songs as suited them, and there was no confusion as to what the song was and what the arrangement was. The song was the same across all different arrangements.

The advent of popular recordings, however, especially in the rock era, blurred the line between song and arrangement (or production). Some songwriters, such as Burt Bacharach, composed with the completed arrangement in mind. Some artists composed their songs in the studio, arranging the music as they composed it. This made it more difficult to tell where the song ended and where the arrangement began.

Take, for example, Burt Bacharach’s classic tune, “Walk On By.” Witness the “don’t stop” in the chorus. Is this part of the song or just part of how Burt arranged it? It’s sung by the background singers, not the lead vocalist, so maybe it’s part of the arrangement. But it’s so integral to the song as we know it (recorded by Dionne Warwick) that maybe it’s part of the song. Can you sing “Walk On By” without the “don’t stops?” While most singers can’t, thus influencing future arrangements, Isaac Hayes could and did leave out that part on his cover of the tune on 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul album. So Mr. Hayes, himself a formidable composer, didn’t think the “don’t stops” were part of the song. Others obviously disagreed.

This brings us back to “Baker Street.” Is the sax solo part of the composition? Well, Raphael Ravenscroft didn’t get any songwriting credit or royalties, so maybe not. On the other hand, if I were doing a cover of the song I’d find a way to work that line into it, if not on sax then on piano or guitar. Without that little riff, “Baker Street” isn’t “Baker Street.” Whether it’s part of the song or the arrangement, it’s essential.

Gerry Rafferty had another hit from City to City with “Right Down the Line,” which went to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. He had a few more minor hits in 1979 (“Days Gone Down” and “Get It Right Next Time”) but no big ones after that. He continued to perform and record up until his death in 2011 of liver failure. (He was a life-long alcoholic.) He was just 63 years old.