Gerry Rafferty 'Baker Street' Singer Dies At 63

The Scot was born in Paisley, near Glasgow, played with Billy Connolly's folk outfit the Humblebums, and co-founded the soft-rock group Stealer's Wheel, before enjoying a successful solo career. Baker Street, released in 1978, was still netting him £80,000 a year more than 30 years later.

Rafferty endured battles with the music industry – once taking three years to disentangle contracts – and a problem with alcohol. When he was a child his mother would drag him round the streets of Glasgow, rather than risk his suffering violence at the hands of his Irish-born father, who would often come home drunk.