Mary Skeffington

On January 5, 2011, the day after Gerry Rafferty died, when his agent Paul Charles spoke to the BBC by telephone from Los Angeles, he threw some light on what he called "such an evocative song." Skeffington was Rafferty's mother's maiden name. According to Rafferty's Daily Telegraph obituary, he was born in Paisley, Scotland on April 16, 1947, and had a miserable childhood, "His mother would hide from his father to avoid being beaten when he came home drunk."

This beautiful arpeggiated folk melody has also been covered by Allan Clarke and Olivia Newton-John.