“The Pusher” by Steppenwolf

Hoyt Axton wrote "The Pusher" back in 1963, but Steppenwolf gave it fangs, cutting it with producer Gabriel Mekler for their self-titled 1968 album. It's a heavy blues sermon that splits the drug trade in two: the guy selling grass is one thing, and the heroin pusher, who couldn't care less what happens to the people he sells to, is something far uglier.

Organist Goldy McJohn, who played on the original recording, said the long version on Early Steppenwolf, played by the Sparrows, the band that came before Steppenwolf, was born one night when John Kay and Jerry Edmonton's flight ran late and the rest started without them. They honed it at the Arc in Sausalito on New Year's Eve 1966. Then Easy Rider laid Steppenwolf's recording over the drug-running scenes that open the film in 1969, and that's what made the song famous.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.