Steve Miller Band

Steve Miller left his first band behind, moved to San Francisco and put together the Steve Miller Blues Band. Once Harvey Kornspan negotiated a Capitol contract in 1967, the blues part of the name was gone, and the Steve Miller Band set about turning the city's psychedelic haze into something with a firmer backbone. Miller has led from the front on guitar and lead vocals ever since, with a revolving cast behind him that has included Boz Scaggs, Tim Davis, Lonnie Turner, Ben Sidran and drummer Gary Mallaber.

The early records, Children of the Future, Sailor with its itchy "Living In The U.S.A.", Brave New World, Your Saving Grace and Number 5, are spacey blues rock with the amps humming. Then, in 1973, The Joker. The title track is lazy, sly and irresistible, a slow-rolling groove with Miller sounding like the coolest guy at the barbecue, and it opened the door to his golden run.

Fly Like an Eagle in 1976 gave him "Take the Money and Run", "Rock'n Me" and the spacey title track, and Book of Dreams in 1977 brought "Jet Airliner", "Jungle Love" and "Swingtown". Those mid- to late-'70s singles are classic rock radio's bread and butter, and Abracadabra in 1982 showed there was life in the old tricks yet. Miller was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2016.

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