CHERISHING CITY TO CITY A timeless classic by GERRY RAFFERTY

It’s early 1978 and the new single by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street,” is blasting out on the airwaves on my small transistor radio.

- JOE MATERA

The hypnotic sax hook, lyrical content, musical arrangement and the voice, it all engulfs me, striking a chord deep within my soul. This is music coming truly from the heart. It sweeps me away from my teenage existence into another world, a world so far away. And I’m hooked, big time. I hit the local record store and purchase the 7-inch single and, later, the 12-inch vinyl album the song is home to, City to City. It becomes one of my favorite albums and over the ensuing years provides the soundtrack to my life. Later on, it inspires my own songwriting and approach to making music.

Looking back now more than 40-plus years later, I view it as one of the quintessential albums of all time, on an equal footing as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.

While Rafferty went on to write and record further exemplary music, which by no means proved less superior, the immense commercial success of City to City, and “Baker Street,” overshadowed everything else he did. It is the one album that will forever be attached to Rafferty’s legacy as his signature work, and also the one that firmly secured his place in music history.