We celebrate musicians here with covers of their songs. ‘Cause it’s fun!
Gerry Rafferty wrote and performed some really great ’70s and ’80s smooth rock hits both on his own and as part of the band Stealers Wheel, whose hit “Stuck in the Middle” you may remember from Quentin Tarantino’s first movie.
If you haven’t seen it, you’ll never hear this song the same way again after you do.
“Stuck in the Middle” is certainly one of the Greatest of All Tunes. The music feels like a carnival, like adrenaline, like something is going to happen in any minute as the song careens forward at a breakneck pace. Rafferty’s voice on the lead single is that of a storyteller—and the story is about a meeting between the narrator and a record company, “I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right,” he starts, singing of the suspicion artists in the late 1960s and early ‘70s had of any member of the establishment—particularly music execs. Production was by the superduo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who were responsible for so many of pop music’s Greatest Of All Tunes.
But so is “Baker Street,” the mellow anthem that’s been covered to death–and represented Rafferty’s comeback, after having blown up his successful partnership as part of Stealer’s Wheel due to his alcoholism. A disease that eventually claimed his live on January 4, 2011.
Rafferty wrote a whole lot of other songs, too, so you’ll find a TON of cover versions after the break.
THE GREATEST OF ALL TUNES (G.O.A.T.) is a series of posts, producing my 100 favorite songs of all time. The master list is here, and I update it about every two weeks or when I have another 10 songs or so.
Let’s play some covers, starting with the two GOATs…
Stuck in the Middle
Baker Street
Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway
Mary Skeffington
Right Down the Line
Stuck in the Middle With You
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