Raphael Ravenscroft

Raphael Ravenscroft is a saxophone player whose performing credits include work with ABBA, America, Kim Carnes, Marvin Gaye, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Bonnie Tyler and, most famously, Gerry Rafferty, performing the iconic saxophone solo on "Baker Street". The solo has been mistakenly attributed to broadcaster and TV presenter Bob Holness, the result of a joke by DJ Stuart Maconie. The sax piece played by Ravenscroft is the major hook of the song, however this hook is not without its share of controversy. A similar sax line was originally played in a Larry Coryell composition on Steve Marcus' "Tomorrow Never Knows" album, which was released 10 years before "Baker Street". The original song is called "Half A Heart" and Steve Marcus, who was a well known and respected saxophone player played a similar line in it. In 1976, the Larry Coryell "Basics" album was released and "Half A Heart" was recorded with the same hook, only this time using guitar. In 1983, Raphael released the track "Maxine" which gained good airplay, but performed poorly on the chart. His track "A Whole Lot of Something Going On" was sampled by the hip-hop artist Beanie Sigel on his track "Feel It In The Air".

Ravenscroft is also the author of several books on saxophone technique including a successful instruction book, "The Complete Saxophone Player" 1990. Until 2004 he was a tutor of music at York College.

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