Top 10 Steve Miller Band Songs

Photo: By Capitol Records (eBay item photo front photo back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In 1976, Steve Miller released the most successful album of his career. The LP entitled Fly Like An Eagle spawned hit after hit, making Steve Miller a household name. The follow-up LP Book of Dreams, recorded during the same Fly Like An Eagle sessions, continued Miller’s success. Many fans who first discovered Steve Miller via songs like “Take the Money and Run” and “Jet Airliner” had no idea that Steve Miller’s previous work had been bathed in British blues-style guitar solos and American Southern Blues vocal ideas.
When listening to those iconic albums with knowledge of the real Steve Miller, one can hear the authentic blues-based roots that fueled the heartbeat of these Steve Miller Band songs. Steve Miller has continued recording brilliant blues pop albums since those successful 1970s records. Except for the hit single “Abracadabra” in 1984, Steve Miller has never repeated the commercial success he had in the late 1970s. But that doesn’t mean he has stopped recording outstanding records. This list looks at some of the best Steve Miller Band songs, regardless of commercial success or not.

# 10 – Wide River – 1993

The single “Wide River” is one of the last great original Steve Miller-penned songs to be officially released. After the release of the Wide River album, Steve Miller did not release another album until 2010’s Bingo, which contained no original Steve Miller Band Songs. “Wide River’s” great strumming guitar groove wrapped beautifully around that smooth Steve Miller vocal, a hallmark of many of his great songs recorded throughout his career.

# 9 – My Dark Hour

For many people, this might be the hidden gem on this list. Steve Miller and Paul McCartney jamming heavily together on one raucous rock and roll blues track. The song “My Dark Hour” closes out Steve Miller’s 1969 Brave New World album, which featured the hit “Space Cowboy.”

# 8 – I Want To Make the World Turn Around

This is one of the most unique-sounding Steve Miller Band songs of his career. Never before had Steve Miller featured a saxophone and the use of ninth chords in his writing and recording. It was a great song of pure substance, well received on FM radio. The song was released on his 1986 Living in the 20th Century album.

# 7 – Rock’n Me

Can there ever be a more perfect rock and roll pop song than “Rock’n Me”? Killer guitar opening riff that segue-ways into one memorable strumming guitar line. Simply perfect. Released on one of the greatest rock and roll records ever recorded. It was the second track on side two of the Fly Like an Eagle LP. Right after “Take the Money and Run.” One amazing one-two punch!

# 6 – Jungle Love

“Jungle Love” was the second single released from the Book of Dreams LP. This was one of those Steve Miller songs that became a huge fan favorite. It was not the most successful single on the record, but it was well-received and still a big hit. This was just one of those “smack you in your face” songs that hit you hard. It has great guitar and vocals with ridiculous lyrics. That’s Rock and Roll!

# 5 – Jet Airliner

The classic Steve Miller Band Song “Jet Airliner” was the first single from the Book of Dreams LP. We want to say that Book of Dreams was the highly anticipated follow up to the Fly Like an Eagle album. However, the wait was not long enough to drive the anticipation. Before you knew it, the album was out. It’s incredible how quickly artists released albums in the 1970s. “Jet Airliner” was just another one of those perfect pop-rock songs that, ultimately, make it pretty much impossible to define why.

# 4 – Living in the U.S.A

Continuing with our Top 10 Steve Miller Band songs list, we turn to the wonderful Steve Miller song “Living In The U.S.A.” This great song was released in 1968 on the Sailor LP, the Steve Miller Band’s second LP. Although the song was popular in the late 1960s, it truly experienced a resurgence on FM rock radio in the late 1970s, driven by the success of the Fly Like an Eagle album.

# 3 – The Joker

When this song was released in 1974, I had never heard of Steve Miller. I was only in seventh grade at the time. However, the song was a massive hit on AM radio. It was played all the time on the radio. Everybody sang it all the time, and the lyrics became part of pop culture. Funny how the other song that was played constantly on AM radio, along with “The Joker,” was Ray Stevens’ “The Streak.” Those were the days!

# 2 – Fly Like an Eagle

The opening track to the Steve Miller Band’s best album, Fly Like An Eagle, remains one of his greatest moments on record. “Fly Like an Eagle” featured a unique sound. It perfectly complements the more in-your-face pop-rock songs featured on the album. The album’s space intro set up the iconic guitar lines that introduced the sound of a Steve Miller Band album to many for the first time.

# 1 – Take the Money and Run

We close out our top 10 Steve Miller Band songs list with the iconic rock song “Take the Money and Run.” Although Steve Miller had been recording and releasing albums for almost ten years before the release of Fly Like An Eagle, it was the release of the single “Take the Money and Run” that catapulted Steve Miller into becoming an international rock and roll star on a scale he probably never had imagined possible. And rightfully so, because “Take The Money and Run” was a brilliant pop masterpiece. As enticing as the pop grooves of the song were for the general public, there was also a great deal of depth to the song.
Elements of the blues and virtuoso playing gave the song great definition. Steve Miller’s penchant for sweet-sounding hooks, bridled alongside his blues pedigree, resulted in a sound that became legendary and unbelievably commercially successful. More than any other Steve Miller Band song, “Take the Money and Run” represented that utterly unique formula with which we all fell in love.