The Steve Miller Band, no matter the lineup, has always been a top-notch rock outfit. Armored in their blues influences, melody-making skills, and lyrical abilities, they became a stand-out act among their peers during the ’70s and ’80s.
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[RELATED: Meaning Behind the Song: “Abracadabra” by Steve Miller Band]
During their heyday, they crafted groove-able tunes with singable lyrics and weren’t shackled to any one genre in the process. They’ve rocked, they’ve popped, and they’ve new waved throughout their career and found success doing it all. Below are 10 Steve Miller Band songs that only solidify their musical power.
10. “Dance, Dance, Dance”
I don’t know / But I’ve been told / If you keep on dancing / You’ll never grow old, Miller sings on the bluegrass-tinted tune “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
A bit of a deep cut from the band’s hit-studded studio album, Fly Like An Eagle, “Dance, Dance, Dance” is a foot-tapping palate cleanser, five songs into the 1976 record. Clocking in at 2 minutes and 17 seconds, it’s a fun, easy track that is deserving of some Top 10 recognition.
9. “Serenade”
“Serenade” lives in the shadows of the band’s other hits, but it is a signature song just the same. Another lesser-known track on Fly Like An Eagle, the song is, as the title suggests, a spacey rock serenade with Miller as the warbling bard, crooning out otherworldly whoa, whoas.
8. “Swingtown”
From the 1977 album, Book of Dreams, “Swingtown” is an infectious hit, its iconic arrangement driving the song forward.
The song’s well-known riff is said to have inspired Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 hit, “Crazy Train.” Ozzy’s guitarist Randy Rhoads once explained, “We were hanging out, and I showed [Ozzy] the riff to Steve Miller’s ‘Swingtown’. I said, ‘Look what happens when you speed this riff up.’ We messed around, and the next thing I know he took it to a whole other level and end up writing the ‘Crazy Train’ riff.”
7. “Jungle Love”
Jungle love, it’s driving me mad / It’s making me crazy, Miller sings in the hard rocking chorus of “Jungle Love.”
Opening in a synthesized bird song and exploding into a hot, sticky beat-driven anthem, “Jungle Love” is an all-over-the-place good time of a rock tune. It is another track that appears on Book of Dreams, however, it was more of a last-minute addition. The band reportedly recorded the song in 30 minutes during their last day laying down the album in the studio.
6. “Jet Airliner”
Oh, oh, big ol’ jet airliner / Don’t carry me too far away / Oh, oh, big ol’ jet airliner / ‘Cause it’s here that I’ve got to stay, bellows the blues-tinted, funk-fueled “Jet Airliner.”
Appearing on Book of Dreams in 1977, “Jet Airliner” is one of the many hits that has become synonymous with the group, well-loved for its mid-tempo grooves and easily singable lyrics.
5. “Rock’n Me”
“Rock’n Me” is another Steve Miller Band standard from Fly Like An Eagle. The radio-friendly, road-trip-ready hit is catchier than the flu with its repeated keep on-a rock’n me, baby.
4. “Abracadabra”
While it wasn’t groundbreaking rock and roll gold, the 1982 track “Abracadabra” was a hit for the band. The new wave song that rhymed abracadabra with I wanna reach out and grab ya was a bit of a sidestep for the hitmakers, but a success all the same.
Miller once told The Dallas Morning News, the song was inspired by Diana Ross and the Supremes. “One day I was out skiing in Sun Valley, and lo and behold, who did I see on the mountain but Diana Ross,” he explained. “I skied down off the mountain to go have lunch. I had played with Diana Ross and the Supremes on Hullabaloo in the ’60s, and I started thinking about the Supremes and I wrote the lyrics to ‘Abracadabra’ in 15 minutes.”
3. “Take The Money And Run”
The band has a few story songs in their catalog, and the enticing Bonnie-and-Clyde-like hit, “Take The Money And Run,” is one of them. Another song featured on Fly Like An Eagle, “Take The Money And Run” tells the tale of bandits, Billy Joe, and Bobbie Sue, two young lovers with nothin’ better to do, against a backdrop of hot drum licks and persistent strums.
2. “Fly Like An Eagle”
The effortlessly cool and undeniably smooth, “Fly Like An Eagle” is a left turn of sorts for the band. Subdued and spacey, the song is a breakaway from their trademark rock and is instead a voyage into an otherworldly realm.
1. “The Joker”
‘Cause I’m a picker, I’m a grinner / I’m a lover, and I’m a sinner / I play my music in the sun / I’m a joker, I’m a smoker / I’m a midnight toker / I sure don’t want to hurt no one, sings Miller in the iconic chorus of the quintessential Steve Miller Band song.
“The Joker,” featured on their 1973 album of the same name, became an international chart-topper and is still today the band’s greatest hit. For good reason, too. The song is a bluesy psychedelic mingling of charming lyrics and genius sounds.
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
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