Album of the Day

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty had been part of The Humblebums in the late 1960s, and the somewhat more successful Stealers Wheel (“Stuck In The Middle With You”) a couple of years later, but it was this 1978 solo album that finally gave him pop immortality. CITY TO CITY features the song most associated with the multi-talented performer, “Baker Street,” a tale of discomfort with the music industry's star-making machinery that paradoxically became a No.2 U.S. single (helped along by an iconic sax solo). With another hit in “Right Down the Line,” the collection went to No.1 on the U.S. chart, eventually going platinum. Any good best-of will include those two highlights - but maybe not “Whatever's Written In My Heart,” “Mattie's Rag” or “Home And Dry”; this album shines from start to finish with outstanding pop craftsmanship. Surely Gerry Rafferty's finest hour, CITY TO CITY is well worth another visit.