Around the same time, except for Egan, the rest of the lineup was let go, and for the remainder of their existence, Stealers Wheel was essentially the duo of Rafferty and Egan, backed by various session players.
Thanks to the album’s popularity with both critics and fans, Rafferty was persuaded to return to the group. They’d been replaced by Luther Grosvenor (of Spooky Tooth) and DeLisle Harper for live shows. Ironically, by the time the album was released, both Gerry Rafferty and Tony Williams had left the band. The tune was an affectionate nod to the renowned songwriter’s style, and some listeners actually thought it was Dylan himself performing the song. Rafferty and Egan’s excellent tunes, with their sharp lyrics and appealing mix of pop, rock, and folk, were showcased on tracks like “Outside Looking In” and “Another Meaning” but the song that caught everyone’s fancy was the Bob Dylan-esque ditty, “Stuck in the Middle with You,” which rose all the way to number six on the US charts. Stealers Wheel was produced by legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The band was signed by A&M Records, and when they entered the studio to record their self-titled debut in 1972, their lineup also featured guitarist Paul Pilnick, bass player Tony Williams, and drummer Rod Coombes. After the group broke up, Rafferty issued a solo album, Can I Have My Money Back? That 1971 release, which featured vocals by Egan, was unsuccessful, but the duo went on to form the core of Stealers Wheel. Rafferty had been a member of a band called the Humblebums, which also featured Billy Connolly, who later found fame as a stand-up comic. Stealers Wheel was founded in 1972 by Rafferty and Egan, who’d originally met as teenagers in their native Scotland. Certainly, when co-writers Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan came up with the tune, they had no idea it would gain a very different sort of visibility nineteen years later. Then in 1992, the song was thrown back into the spotlight when it was featured in a memorable (and grisly) scene in Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut, the crime drama Reservoir Dogs. When it was originally released in 1973, the catchy pop tune ear-wormed its way into the top ten on both the US and the UK charts. That was the case with “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel. Sometimes a song has a second life, albeit in an unexpected way.
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