THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

524-Stealers Wheel-Stuck in the Middle with You.

1973-Number 8 single.

Best Bit-At 1.02. It’s the Reservoir, Dogs bollo#ks.

Stealers Wheel were a ‘Folk/Rock’ group who were formed in Paisley, Scotland, in 1972, by the schoolboy friends Joe Egan, and Gerry Rafferty. (1947-2011) (see also best songs 61) The first line up included three others who left before performing on the groups self titled debut studio Album, and were replaced by Paul Pilnick, (1941-2021) Tony Williams, and Rod Coombes, who all played on this track, and it’s parent Album. Shortly before the release of that debut Album, Gerry Rafferty quit the group, but after the success of ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ he was persuaded to return. By the time of their second Album release ‘Ferguslie Park,’ in 1973, Stealers Wheel had become a duo of Joe Egan, and Gerry Rafferty, with various backing musicians on guitar, bass, and drums, brought in for recording purposes. The second Album proved to be no where as commercially successful as their debut Album, and with increasing tensions between Egan and Rafferty, they went on a year and a half hiatus. By the time their third and final album ‘Right or Wrong’ was released in 1975, they had completely disbanded. In 2008 previous members of Stealers Wheel not including Egan or Rafferty briefly got together at the request of ‘iTunes,’ and ‘K-tel’ in California, to promote their back catalogue, they also began writing new songs, but this venture was short lived. In total there have been 11 official members of Stealers Wheel at varying points.

The discography of Stealers Wheel includes three studio Albums released between 1972-1975, and five singles released between 1973-1975, there are also three official compilation Albums available. In the UK, three of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ peaking the highest at Number 8, while in America on the Billboard Hot 100, they have charted within the top 40 twice, with ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ peaking at Number 6, and ‘Star’ making Number 29, both in 1973.

‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ was the third and final single released from Stealers Wheel’s self titled debut studio Album from November 1972. The song was co-written by Joe Egan, and Gerry Rafferty, with the production being by the legendary songwriting, and production duo of Jerry Leiber, (1933-2011) and Mike Stoller, (see also best songs 954-804-124 and 86) Leiber and Stoller would go on to produce all three studio Albums for Stealers Wheel. Joe Egan was born on October 18th, 1946, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He had known Gerry Rafferty since their school days, and prior to forming Stealers Wheel, the pair had previously played together in various other groups including ‘The Sensors,’ and ‘The Maverix.’ After the split of Stealers Wheel, Joe Egan released two solo Albums in 1979, and 1991, and then left the music business in the 1990’s.

‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ was written by Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty, as a parody of Bob Dylan’s (see also best songs 792-621-358-103-36 and 7) paranoia, and it was sung in a style by Rafferty in order to imitate Dylan, which did indeed fool many in to thinking it was a Bob Dylan song. The lyrics refer to people in the music industry, the management and executives of record labels, who are the clowns and the jokers. The band had to reluctantly do a promotion in a fancy London restaurant, and the lyrics tell the tale of them trying to get out of the entire thing, which they detested. Throughout his whole career Gerry Rafferty hated that he had to act like a ‘Rock Star,’ when what he really wanted to do was just play his music, and than fade away in to the background, but he knew in order for his music to be heard, he had to play by the celebrity lifestyle rules. Gerry Rafferty had enjoyed alcohol from a young age, and in later years probably used it as a crutch to help him try to shun the fame and celebrity that accompanied his musical achievements. In 2010 he was admitted to hospital where he was put on a life-support machine and treated for multiple organ failure. After being taken off life support, he rallied for a short time, and doctors thought that he might recover. Gerry Rafferty died of liver failure on the 4th January, 2011, at the age of 63.

In 1992 ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ was brought to the attention of a whole new generation when the film producer Quentin Tarantino chose to use the song for scene where the character of Mr Blonde taunts and tortures a policeman in the film ‘Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino has said, ‘That was one of those things where I thought the song would work really well, and during auditions, I told the actors that I wanted them to do the torture scene, and I’m gonna use ‘Stuck in the Middle With You,’ but they could pick anything they wanted, they didn’t have to use that song. And a couple people picked another one, but almost everyone came in with ‘Stuck in the Middle With You,’ and they were saying that they tried to come up with something else, but that’s the one. The first time somebody actually did the torture scene to that song, the guy didn’t even have a great audition, but it was like watching the movie. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is gonna be awesome!” In 2001 the English singer ‘Louise’ released a cover version of ‘Stuck in the Middle With You,’ which reached Number 4 on the UK top 40.

‘Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right. I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair, and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs. Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you.’