Snakes and Ladders (Gerry Rafferty album)

Snakes and Ladders
Studio album by
Released11 April 1980
StudioChipping Norton Recording Studios (Oxon, England); AIR Studios (Montserrat).
GenreRock
Length48:44
LabelUnited Artists
ProducerGerry Rafferty, Hugh Murphy
Gerry Rafferty chronology
Night Owl
(1979)
Snakes and Ladders
(1980)
Sleepwalking
(1982)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Smash Hits8½/10

Snakes and Ladders is the fourth album by Gerry Rafferty. It was released in 1980, following the success of his previous two albums, City to City and Night Owl. The album charted at No. 15 in the UK but only reached No. 61 in the US, while singles achieved number 54 UK ("Bring It All Home"), and number 67UK / number 54 US ("The Royal Mile"). The album was released on CD in 1998 [EMI 7 46609-2] but deleted soon after that, and it got reissued on CD in August 2012 as a two-CD set with "Sleepwalking."

Some of the songs are available on compilation albums. Four of the songs, "The Garden of England", "I Was a Boy Scout", "Welcome to Hollywood" and "Bring It All Home" were recorded at Beatles producer George Martin's AIR studio in Montserrat. All the songs were original Rafferty compositions, though one – "Johnny's Song" – was a remake of a song which had been previously released by his former band Stealers Wheel, and another – "Didn't I" – was a remake of a song from Rafferty's 1971 album Can I Have My Money Back?.