City to City

Barry Hammond engineered, Declan O'Doherty mixed, and John Patrick Byrne painted the cover. Rafferty sings and plays acoustic guitar and piano, with Tommy Eyre on keys, Gary Taylor on bass, Henry Spinetti on drums, Jerry Donahue, Hugh Burns, Nigel Jenkins, Micky Moody and Andy Fairweather-Low on guitars, B. J. Cole on steel, Raphael Ravenscroft on saxophones and Paul Jones on harmonica; backing vocalists include Barbara Dickson and Rab Noakes. The Australian bush band the Bushwackers played the intro to "The Ark" and were reportedly paid nothing. United Artists wanted "City to City" as lead single; Rafferty preferred "Baker Street". It reached number 1 in the US and Canada, 3 in Australia and Germany and 6 in the UK, platinum in the US. AllMusic's Doug Stone gave 4.5 of 5. The sax part of "Baker Street" is disputed: Ravenscroft says he was given no written part and Rafferty said he sang the line.