“Take the Money and Run” by Steve Miller Band

"Take the Money and Run" came off Fly Like an Eagle, the Steve Miller Band's 1976 album, and it's a crime caper you can hum. The story follows a pair of young bandits, Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue: he robs a house in El Paso and shoots the owner, she makes off with the loot, and a detective stays hot on their trail.

Miller, who produced it, wrote it as a road trip, drawing on childhood drives with his family when he'd sing along to the radio, and he built it for the clean stereo spread of FM, stacking layers until the sound opened up like the highway. It's all loping groove, easy and lethal, and it rolled to number 11 on the Hot 100 and number 8 in Canada in July 1976.

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