Gerry Rafferty

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty got his start in the folk-rock group The Humblebums in 1969.

∙ Tired of competing with the onstage routines of his Humblebums partner—and future comedy star Billy Connolly—he left to record his 1971 solo LP, Can I Have My Money Back? ∙ His breakthrough came in 1972 when his band Stealers Wheel had a global hit with “Stuck in the Middle With You”—which later scored a particularly grisly scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

∙ Steely Dan was so impressed by Rafferty that they considered him as a possible replacement for their departed singer, David Palmer—until Donald Fagen was talked into taking the job himself.