Raphael Ravenscroft

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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. The exact sax line was originally played in a Larry Coryell composed piece performed on Steve Marcus' "Tomorrow Never Knows" album, released in 1968, 10 years before this song was released. The original song is called "Half A Heart" and Steve Marcus, who was a well known and respected saxophone player played the same line in it. Again, 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.