“Baker Street” Singer Gerry Rafferty Dead at 63

Scottish singer Gerry Rafferty, who battled alcoholism long after hits "Baker Street" and "Stuck in the Middle With You" made him a star, has died at 63.

Rafferty's agent said only that his client had passed away following a long illness, but did not say how or where.

Rafferty's classic "Baker Street," with its haunting saxophone solo, reached No. 2 on U.S. charts in 1978, and still receives generous airplay. His other hit, "Stuck in the Middle With You," was recorded six years earlier when Rafferty was one of a folk duo called Stealers Wheel. That song was featured in a hilariously macabre scene in the Quentin Tarantino movie "Reservoir Dogs."

"Baker Street's" signature sax solo was played by session man Raphael Ravenscroft, who was paid $50 by a check that bounced.

Rafferty struggled in recent years with alcoholism and had also undergone treatment for liver failure. In 2009, he released the album "Life Goes On."

His older brother Jim carried on a long feud with Rafferty, in which he blasted his famous sibling online in a blog called "effing peasants."

Selected Reading: The Asssociated Press, Telegraph.

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