Gerry Rafferty

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty got his start in the folk-rock group The Humblebums in 1969. ∙ Tired of competing with the onstage routines of his Humblebums partner—and future comedy star Billy Connolly—he left to record his 1971 solo LP, Can I Have My Money Back? ∙ His breakthrough came in 1972 when his band Stealers Wheel had a global hit with “Stuck in the Middle With You”—which later scored a particularly grisly scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. ∙ Steely Dan was so impressed by Rafferty that they considered him as a possible replacement for their departed singer, David Palmer—until Donald Fagen was talked into taking the job himself. ∙ City to City, his 1978 Platinum album, included his biggest hit, “Baker Street,” with an unforgettable sax hook derived from a guitar lick he’d played on the demo. ∙ The title track of his 1979 album, Night Owl, was a No. 5 hit in the UK, becoming only his second song to chart that high. ∙ In 2012, a year after his death, Rafferty’s hometown of Paisley, Scotland, renamed a street in his honor: Gerry Rafferty Drive.