GERRY RAFFERTY - RIGHT DOWN THE LINE - BIOGRAPHY - SPECIAL EDITION

BIOGRAPHY: Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty (16 April 1947 -- 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer and songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line", and "Stuck in the Middle" with the band Stealers Wheel. In his early years, Gerry Rafferty earned money busking on the London Underground. After working with Billy Connolly in a band called The Humblebums, he recorded a first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back. In 1972, Rafferty and his old school friend Joe Egan formed Stealers Wheel, a group which was beset by legal wranglings, but did have a huge hit "Stuck in the Middle With You" (made famous for a new generation in the movie Reservoir Dogs) and the smaller top 40 hit "Star" ten months later. The duo disbanded in 1975. In 1966 Gerry and Joe had released a single, "Benjamin Day" / "There's Nobody Here" (Columbia 8068), as members of The Fifth Column. In 1978, Gerry Rafferty cut a solo album, City to City, which included the song with which he remains most identified, "Baker Street". The single reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in the US The album sold over 5.5 million copies, toppling the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in the US on 8 July 1978. Even today, "Baker Street", which features a "glistening" saxophone solo by Raphael Ravenscroft, remains a mainstay of soft-rock radio airplay. Also from City to City, "Home and Dry" managed a #28 spot in the US Top 40 in early 1979. One of the more obscure tracks from that time is "Big Change in the ...