Steve Miller recently brought his complete catalogue to Capitol Records and UMe, and now the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee will celebrate it with a newly-created compilation next month.
Ultimate Hits, available September 15 as standard (1CD/2LP) or deluxe (2CD/4LP) packages, features the many AOR-oriented hits that made Miller’s first compilation, Greatest Hits ’74-’78, one of the highest-selling albums in America, including “The Joker,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like An Eagle” and “Jungle Love,” plus later hits like “Abracadabra” and “I Want to Make the World Turn Around.”
Rarities abound on both sets: the standard version includes unreleased live versions of “Living In The USA” and “Space Cowboy” plus a solo rendition of “Seasons” from Steve Miller Band’s 1969 album Brave New World. The deluxe edition features 40 tracks total, including all those rarities plus unreleased live versions of “Gangster of Love” and “Kow Kow Calculator,” a demo of “Take the Money and Run” and unheard studio versions of “Baby’s Callin’ Me Home” and “In the Midnight Hour”–a total of eight bonus tracks in all. (The live “Space Cowboy” can be heard below.)
Space Cowboy (Live / Audio) by Steve Miller Band on VEVO.
Ultimate Hits was compiled and created with Miller’s full involvement, down to the artwork and full use of archival audio–including a recording of Miller as a boy talking with his godfather, guitar legend Les Paul.
“Selecting material to include in these two collections and revisiting the creation of these recordings I’m reminded of how I learned to make multi-track recordings from Les Paul and play lead guitar from T Bone Walker,” Miller said in a statement. “I’ve been blessed to work with so many wonderful musicians and engineers and friends over the years. Mostly I want to thank you our fans who come out to our shows and listen to our records. I hope you enjoy this as much I did putting this together for you.”
Most links and full track lists for both versions of the sets are available below.
Ultimate Hits (Capitol/UMe, 2017)
Standard edition
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. (TBD)
- Harmony of The Spheres 2
- Steve Miller at age five talking to his Godfather Les Paul
- Take the Money and Run
- Rock’n Me
- The Stake
- Threshold
- Jet Airliner
- The Joker
- Abracadabra
- Jungle Love
- Swingtown
- Dance, Dance, Dance
- Serenade from the Stars
- Space Intro
- Fly Like An Eagle
- Wild Mountain Honey
- Living In The USA (Live) *
- Space Cowboy (Live) *
- Seasons *
- I Want to Make the World Turn Around
- Winter Time
- The Window
Track 1 from Italian X Rays (Capitol, 1984)
Track 2 from Steve Miller Band Box Set (Capitol, 1994)
Tracks 3-4, 12-16 and 22 from Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol, 1976)
Tracks 5-7, 10-11 and 21 from Book of Dreams (Capitol, 1977)
Track 8 from The Joker (Capitol, 1973)
Track 9 from Abracadabra (Capitol, 1982)
Track 20 from Living In The 20th Century (Capitol, 1986)
Deluxe edition
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. (TBD)
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. (TBD)
Disc 1
- Steve Miller at age five talking to his Godfather Les Paul
- Gangster Of Love (Live) *
- The Joker
- Baby’s Callin’ Me Home *
- My Dark Hour
- Little Girl
- Living In The USA (Live) *
- Space Cowboy (Live) *
- Seasons *
- Journey from Eden
- Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma
- Going to Mexico
- Kow Kow Calculator (Live) *
- Come On In My Kitchen (Live)
- Sugar Babe (Live)
- The Lovin’ Cup (Live)
- Dance, Dance, Dance
- Take the Money and Run
- Rock’n Me
- Space Intro
- Fly Like An Eagle
Disc 2
- Wild Mountain Honey
- The Window
- Take the Money and Run (Demo) *
- In the Midnight Hour *
- Jungle Love
- Threshold
- Jet Airliner
- The Stake
- Swingtown
- Serenade from the Stars
- True Fine Love
- Heart Like a Wheel
- Abracadabra
- I Want to Make the World Turn Around
- Italian X Rays
- Don’t Cha Know
- Cry Cry Cry
- Stranger Blues
- Behind the Barn
Disc 1, Track 1 from Steve Miller Band Box Set (Capitol, 1994)
Disc 1, Tracks 3, 11 and 14 from The Joker (Capitol, 1973)
Disc 1, Track 5 from Brave New World (Capitol, 1969)
Disc 1, Track 6 from Your Saving Grace (Capitol, 1969)
Disc 1, Track 10 from Recall The Beginning…A Journey From Eden (Capitol, 1972)
Disc 1, Track 12 from Number 5 (Capitol, 1970)
Disc 1, Tracks 15-16 from The Joker Live In Concert (Sailor, 2015)
Disc 1, Tracks 17-21 and Disc 2, Tracks 1-2 and 10 from Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol, 1976)
Disc 2, Tracks 5-9 and 11 from Book of Dreams (Capitol, 1977)
Disc 2, Track 12 from Circle of Love (Capitol, 1981)
Disc 2, Track 13 from Abracadabra (Capitol, 1982)
Disc 2, Tracks 14 and 19 from Living In The 20th Century (Capitol, 1986)
Disc 2, Track 15 from Italian X Rays (Capitol, 1984)
Disc 2, Track 16 from Bingo! (Loud & Proud/Roadrunner, 2010)
Disc 2, Tracks 17-18 from Wide River (Sailor, 1993)
Steve Miller Band has too many essential tracks to fit on one CD. This collection has too many live tracks for my tastes.
Darn, no Quicksilver Girl?
I noticed that “Winter Time” is only on the single CD, and “True Fine Love” just on the 2-CD set. Were these tracks from “Book of Dreams” purposefully swapped out to encourage completists to both them both?
Er, make that “buy them both”. Sorry.
Live tracks replacing original versions instead of augmenting them. Major pet peeve of mine. No thanks.
Plus, I have the Box Set, which I’m pretty content with.
Is it just on my computer, but I find it very annoying that the Space Cowboy track plays on it own and can NOT be shut off. Not nice.
Also not included on either version is his later hit, “Wide River”, although he did include two other more obscure tracks from that album.
I had the same thought about Winter Time and True Fine Love. Seems like a marketing ploy.
And “Harmony of the Spheres 2” is only on the standard. That confirms the marketing strategy!
On the positive side, it’s being reported elsewhere that this is just the opening salvo of a reissue series which will feature expanded re-releases of Miller’s entire catalogue.
I’m sure I read in a guitar magazine years ago then when he went into the studio to record ‘Take The Money And Run’, and ‘Rock N Me’ that he swapped the music of both songs? eg,’ Take The Money And Run’ ended up with the music originally intended for ‘Rock N Me’ and visa versa. I wonder if there are any demos that show this?
YES! The DTS 5.1 surround anniversary release of Fly Like An Eagle which can be found on ebay from time to time has the mixed/swapped track as a bonus (non-surround, I believe, it’s “just” stereo).
I’ve been waiting many years for the release of Book of Dreams in surround to go with Fly Like An Eagle since the songs were recorded at the same time, as the music on Book of Dreams seems perfect for some nice surround treatment, and I’ve listened to the album since vinyl days in the 70s as a child. all the way to owning the DCC gold CD. Maybe the expanded editions to be released will offer surround, although I doubt it. There doesn’t seem to be much excitement for surround versions in high resolution, even though most also come with the regular stereo versions in high-resolution also which anyone who likes the music should appreciate.
Forgot to clarify: there are 2 versions of Fly Like An Eagle that have been released in surround. The version with the mix of Rock ‘N Me and Take the Money and Run is on the 2-disc 35th(?) anniversary edition that also comes with a live DVD concert. The other was released earlier as part of DTS Music’s surround editions of albums in the early years after the introduction of DTS surround in theater sound and home video. They have different surround mixes for anyone curious.