Gerry Rafferty

Humblebums, Stealers Wheel and City to City

Gerald Rafferty was born on April 16, 1947 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, grew up in Ferguslie Park and attended St Mirin's Academy, leaving in 1963. He played in Fifth Column in 1966, which made one unsuccessful Columbia single, and in 1969 joined the Humblebums with Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey; after Harvey left, Rafferty and Connolly made two more albums as a duo for Transatlantic. His first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back?, came in 1971 with the producer Hugh Murphy. In 1972 he formed Stealers Wheel with Joe Egan, produced by Leiber and Stoller, whose "Stuck in the Middle with You" was a hit in 1973. The band broke up in 1975 and legal problems blocked releases for about three years.

City to City (January 20, 1978, United Artists) was his first solo release in six years and the first of any kind since 1975. It was produced by Murphy and Rafferty, recorded in 1977 at Chipping Norton Recording Studios with additional recording at Berwick Street and Marquee studios and mixed at Advision. "Baker Street" reached 3 in the UK and 2 in the US and won the 1979 Ivor Novello award for best song musically and lyrically; the album went to number 1 on the Billboard 200 on July 8, 1978, displacing Saturday Night Fever. Night Owl (1979), Snakes and Ladders (1980) and Sleepwalking (1982) followed, and in 1983 he announced a break from music for his family. He co-produced the Proclaimers' "Letter from America" in 1987, and made North and South (1988), On a Wing and a Prayer (1992, with Egan), Over My Head (1994), Another World (2000) and Life Goes On (2009). BMI gave him a 2010 award for over 5 million plays of "Baker Street", and he refused advertising use of it.

Rafferty died on January 4, 2011 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, aged 63, with a requiem mass on January 21 at St Mirin's Cathedral in Paisley. The City to City collector's edition came out in September 2011, Gerry Rafferty Drive was named in Paisley in November 2012, and Rest in Blue, completed from demos by his daughter Martha Rafferty, came out on Parlophone on September 3, 2021. The BBC Four documentary Gerry Rafferty: Right Down the Line, narrated by David Tennant, was reviewed in February 2012, and Barbara Dickson made a tribute album in September 2013.