City to City
Encyclopedia
City to City is an album by Scottish singer-songwriter
Gerry Rafferty
. It was Rafferty's first solo release in six years - and first release of any kind since 1975 - due to his tenure in the band Stealer's Wheel and subsequent legal proceedings which prevented Rafferty from releasing any new solo recordings for the next three years. The album was strongly received, peaking at #1 in the US and going Platinum, as well as reaching #6 in the UK and achieving Gold status. "Baker Street
", "Right Down the Line" and "Home and Dry
" were successfully released as singles. "Baker Street" is widely perceived as Rafferty's signature song and by October 2010 had reached 5 million plays on British radio.
.
and at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100
in the United States. The song greatly aided its parent album in reaching the top of the Billboard 200 Album Chart for one week in the summer of 1978. The b-side of "Baker Street" featured "Big Change in the Weather", a rare song that, until the album's reissue in 2011, had yet to appear on any other Rafferty recording.
chart and spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart in the U.S., making this the only Rafferty song to ever reach #1 on any US chart.
chart, marking a third consecutive Top 40 hit for Rafferty on that chart. The b-side featured the fifth track from City to City, "Mattie's Rag".
Single
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty
Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
. It was Rafferty's first solo release in six years - and first release of any kind since 1975 - due to his tenure in the band Stealer's Wheel and subsequent legal proceedings which prevented Rafferty from releasing any new solo recordings for the next three years. The album was strongly received, peaking at #1 in the US and going Platinum, as well as reaching #6 in the UK and achieving Gold status. "Baker Street
Baker Street (song)
"Baker Street" is a ballad written and first recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in 1978, it reached #1 in Canada, #2 in the US, #3 in the UK, #1 in Australia and #9 in the Netherlands...
", "Right Down the Line" and "Home and Dry
Home and Dry
"Home and dry" is a song by British music group Pet Shop Boys released as the first UK single and the second US single from their album Release. It reached the top 15 on the UK Singles Chart at #14 and peaked at #44 on the US Hot Dance Club Play....
" were successfully released as singles. "Baker Street" is widely perceived as Rafferty's signature song and by October 2010 had reached 5 million plays on British radio.
Track listing
All songs written by Gerry RaffertyGerry Rafferty
Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
.
- "The Ark" – 5:36
- "Baker StreetBaker Street (song)"Baker Street" is a ballad written and first recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in 1978, it reached #1 in Canada, #2 in the US, #3 in the UK, #1 in Australia and #9 in the Netherlands...
" – 6:01 - "Right Down the Line" – 4:20
- "City to City" – 4:51
- "Stealin' Time" – 5:39
- "Mattie's Rag" – 3:28
- "Whatever's Written in Your Heart" – 6:30
- "Home and Dry" – 4:52
- "Island" – 5:04
- "Waiting for the Day" – 5:26
Baker Street
United Artists wanted to use "City to City" as the lead single from the album, but Rafferty felt that "Baker Street" would be a better choice and eventually the latter song became the first single in most countries (see "City to City" single release below). Released on February 3 1978, "Baker Street" became hugely popular, peaking at #3 in the UK Singles ChartUK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
and at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in the United States. The song greatly aided its parent album in reaching the top of the Billboard 200 Album Chart for one week in the summer of 1978. The b-side of "Baker Street" featured "Big Change in the Weather", a rare song that, until the album's reissue in 2011, had yet to appear on any other Rafferty recording.
Right Down the Line
"Right Down the Line" reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart and spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart in the U.S., making this the only Rafferty song to ever reach #1 on any US chart.
Home and Dry
"Home and Dry" was the third single from the album in the United States, but did not have a UK release. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, marking a third consecutive Top 40 hit for Rafferty on that chart. The b-side featured the fifth track from City to City, "Mattie's Rag".
City to City
The title track had releases in Belgium (1977) and Holland (1978). The b-side featured an extended version of "Mattie's Rag".The Ark
"The Ark" was released as a single in Holland and Germany in 1978. The Dutch single featured "Waiting for the Day" as the b-side, while the German single used "Whatever's Written In Your Heart". Both b-sides were from the album, used as the tenth and seventh tracks respectively.Whatever's Written in Your Heart
"Whatever's Written In Your Heart" was only released on a-side as a promotional single in the United Kingdom in 1978. "Waiting for the Day" was used as the b-side.Personnel
- Gerry RaffertyGerry RaffertyGerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, acoustic guitar 1 4 5, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
1 7, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
10 - Gary Taylor – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10, backing vocals 4 - Henry SpinettiHenry SpinettiHenry Spinetti is a Welsh-born session drummer whose playing has featured on a large number of prominent rock and pop albums. He is the younger brother of the actor, Victor Spinetti.-Career:...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 - Hugh Burns – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
2 3 4 5 8 9 10 - Tommy EyreTommy EyreTommy Eyre was a session keyboardist from Sheffield, England, who appeared on records by Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Alex Harvey, Greg Lake, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, B.B. King, John Mayall, Tracy Chapman and Wham!...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
1 3 6 7 8, electric pianoElectric pianoAn electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
5 9 10, grand piano 5, Moog synthesizerMoog synthesizerMoog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
2 5 7 8, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
3 9 10, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
2 4, brassBrass instrumentA brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
arrangements 10 - Graham Preskett – fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
s 1 4 6 10, string arrangements 2 6 8, string machine 5 6, brass arrangements 6, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
1
Additional personnel
- Jerry DonahueJerry DonahueJerry Donahue is an American guitarist and producer primarily known for his work in the British folk rock scene as a member of Fotheringay and Fairport Convention as well as being a member of the rock guitar trio The Hellecasters.-Biography:Donahue was born in New York, the son of big band...
– guitar 1 - Glen LeFleur – tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
1 5, percussion 2 3 10, drums 9 - Barbara DicksonBarbara DicksonBarbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...
– backing vocals 1 7 - Nigel Jenkins – guitar 2 8
- Raphael RavenscroftRaphael RavenscroftRaphael Ravenscroft is a Scottish saxophonist and author on saxophone play. He now resides in Exeter, Devon, England.He is best known for his work with Gerry Rafferty, performing the saxophone solo on "Baker Street". Ravenscroft was paid £27 for the session, with a cheque that bounced...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
2 9 - Brian Cole – steel guitarSteel guitarSteel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
3 4 5 9, dobroDobroDobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
6 - Roger Brown – backing vocals 4
- Vivian McAuliff – backing vocals 4
- John McBurnie – backing vocals 4
- Rab NoakesRab NoakesRab Noakes is a Scottish singer-songwriter.-Biography:He has performed with Lindisfarne, who recorded his songs "Turn a Deaf Ear" on their first album, Nicely Out of Tune, and "Together Forever" on their second, Fog on the Tyne...
– backing vocals 4 - Paul JonesPaul Jones (singer)Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.-Career:As P. P...
– harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
4 - Hugh Murphy – tambourine 4
- Micky MoodyMicky MoodyMichael Joseph "Micky" Moody is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden he founded the Moody Marsden Band, and later, The Snakes...
– acoustic guitar 5 - Willy Ray – accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
6 9 - Joanna Carlin – backing vocals 7
- Andy Fairweather-LowAndy Fairweather-LowAndrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. He was a founding member of 1960s British pop band, Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.-Early career:Fairweather Low first found fame as a...
– rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
10
Charts
Album| Year | Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| 1978 | UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
6 |
Single
| Year | Song | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | "Baker Street" | Billboard Easy Listening | 4 |
| 1978 | "Baker Street" | Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
2 |
| 1978 | "Baker Street" | UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
3 |
| 1978 | "Right Down the Line" | Billboard Easy Listening | 1 |
| 1978 | "Right Down the Line" | Billboard Hot 100 | 12 |
| 1978 | "Home and Dry" | Billboard Hot 100 | 28 |
Certifications
| Organization | Level | Date |
|---|---|---|
| RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... – U.S. |
Gold | |
| BPI British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... – UK |
Gold | |
| RIAA – U.S. | Platinum | |