Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel

"Stuck In The Middle With You" by the Scottish group Stealers Wheel reached number 8 in the UK charts in May 1973. It also got as high as number 6 in the U.S Billboard Hot 100 in the same year and sold over 1 million copies worldwide.
"Stuck In The Middle With You" was originally released on the bands self titled album in October 1972 and was produced by legendary songwriters and producers Leiber and Stoller.

Stealers Wheel were effectively songwriters Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, who then worked with other musicians. Apart from working with Stealers Wheel, Joe Egan hasn't really had any other success. But, of course, Gerry Rafferty went on to have huge success in the late 1970's and early 80's with songs such as "Baker Street". Baker Street reached number 2 in the U.S Charts and number 3 in the UK.
Gerry Rafferty was also well known for being in a Scottish folk band called The Humblebums, which included amongst its members the future comedian Billy Connolly.

Stealers Wheel were by no means a one hit wonder, although none of their other singles, or albums, ever matched the success of "Stuck In The Middle With You'. Although i never bought any of their albums, i did used to own future hit singles "Everything Will Turn Out Fine" (1973) and "Star" (1974). I did have another single called "Late Again", which i still think is a great song, if you ever get the chance to hear it.

One of the things that i like about "Stuck In The Middle With You" and indeed other single releases on the old AandM record label from around this time, is the design on the sleeve.
I have no idea where the idea for the knife and fork design came from and what the thinking was behind it. But, i still think it looks great today.
My theory, for what it's worth, is that vinyl records were sometimes referred to as "platters" and a platter can also be a plate. Hence the knife, fork and plate design? The background even looks a little bit like a tablecloth, something that i've only just noticed!

Looking at the cover, i can see that i wasn't the first person to own this record.
There are two dates written onto the sleeve. One of them, 1st July 1974, was the date that i bought the record. But, there is another date, 9th June 1973, written in the top left hand corner of the sleeve. That date has been crossed out, probably by myself. I suspect that this was the date when the previous owner bought "Stuck In The Middle With You"? The date corresponds to when the single was in the UK charts after all.

Although, i honestly can't remember who i bought this single from, if indeed i did buy it. It may well have been a gift? I am pretty sure though that i got it from the older brother of a school friend of mine.
I know that i still have a few singles that i acquired from this friends brother. So, i suspect that "Stuck In The Middle With You', is another one.
My friends brother had the biggest collection of vinyl records that i'd ever seen at that time. Myself and a few other friends used to regularly go around to their house after school, when the brother was at work and rifle through his record collection. Playing singles, but mainly albums that caught our eye, or that we'd heard about, but had never actually heard.
It was like a mini voyage of discovery and a musical education too.

You have to remember that back in the 1970's and even beyond, it wasn't that easy to hear new music. There were few places where new music could be heard. In the UK there were far fewer tv and radio stations than there are now. It was pretty much the BBC or nothing.
For rock music fans, there were some shows on Radio 1 that catered for that genre of music, or for songs that weren't already a hit, but not many. TV was even more limited, with only The Old Grey Whistle Test really catering for non Pop music fans.
In these days of MTV, Commercial Radio and the Internet, it is very easy to forget that things were once very different for vinyl hungry music fans. Now, some people moan that there is just too much choice. You can please some of the people some of the time, but.....

"Stuck In The Middle With You" has always been a favourite song of mine, from right back when i first heard it in 1972.
Like most people who knew the song, including i suspect Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan themselves, i was very surprised when the song re-emerged in 1992 in Quentin Tarantino's movie Reservoir Dogs.
I've never actually seen the whole of the movie and have never watched THAT scene in which "Stuck In The Middle With You' is included. So, i'm not sure of the impact that it had at that time.

What i do know though, is that being featured in Reservoir Dogs showcased the song to a whole new audience, 30 years after its original release. It's amazing how often that happens, but i think it happened for a very good reason.
As i've mentioned before, many of those songs from the 1970's still sound great today. 'Stuck In The Middle With You' is certainly one that does and i expect people will be listening to it for many more years to come.

Sadly, Gerry Rafferty died on 4th January 2011 from liver failure, mainly as a result of his alcoholism.
At least his songs live on.