Stuck in the Middle with You
| "Stuck in the Middle with You" | |
|---|---|
| File:Stuck in the Middle with You.png | |
| Single by Stealers Wheel | |
| from the album Stealers Wheel | |
| B-side | "Jose" |
| Released | 1972 |
| Recorded | Apple Studio, London |
| Genre | Folk rock, country rock, soft rock[1] |
| Length | 3:23 |
| Label | A&M |
| Writer(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller |
"Stuck in the Middle with You"[2][3][4] (sometimes known as "Stuck in the Middle"[5]) is a song written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan and originally performed by their band Stealers Wheel. The song was inspired by a real occasion when the record company and producers were conducting business across Rafferty and Egan at a restaurant table.
Overview
"Stuck in the Middle" was released on Stealers Wheel's 1972 self-titled debut album.[6] Gerry Rafferty provided the lead vocals, with Joe Egan singing harmony. The song was conceived initially by the band members as a parody of Bob Dylan's distinctive lyrical style and paranoia. The band was surprised by the single's chart success.[7] The single sold over one million copies, eventually peaking in 1973 at #6 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and #8 in the UK Singles Chart. It was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.[8]
Music video
The video portrays the band performing in a corner of large, empty building. Their performance is intercut with shots of Joe Egan (who is miming to the by then-departed Gerry Rafferty's vocal track) at a banquet table with a number of garishly dressed and made-up supper guests, including an actual clown, who continually squeeze him out whenever he tries to take food from the table. Eventually the other band members appear, driving off the strange characters so that Egan can sit down at last.
In popular culture
The song is used in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 debut film Reservoir Dogs, during the scene in which the character Mr. Blonde (played by Michael Madsen) taunts and tortures bound policeman Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) while singing and dancing to the song.[9] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tarantino recalled
"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!' "[10]
This scene is parodied in The Simpsons episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", where Itchy and Scratchy (replacing Mr. Blonde and Marvin Nash, respectively) re-enact this scene, even with the same song.
Another parody of this scene can be found in Bob's Burgers's second season episode "Moody Foodie". In this episode, a fellow restaurateur of Bob's "tortures" a bound food critic with a "wet willy" for giving bad reviews to the town's restaurants (hence the title of the episode).
A cover of the song by Grace Potter is used as the theme song for the Netflix original series Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
A cover version by former Eternal member, Louise, reached no.4 in the UK in 2001.
A version of the song was performed by blind guitarist Jeff Healey.
American baroque pop band San Fermin performed a version of the song in July 2015 for The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover series.[11]
References
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- ↑ Stealers Wheel sleeve image
- ↑ Amazon.com: Stealers Wheel: Music
- ↑ Gracenote: Album > Stealers Wheel - Stealers Wheel :[1]
- ↑ Chilton, Martin, "Gerry Rafferty and his songs of alienation", Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2011
- ↑ Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era (ISBN 9780670034567): Ken Emerson
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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