Greatest Hits (1974–1978)

Infobox Album |
Name = Greatest Hits 1974-78
Type = Compilation album
Artist = Steve Miller Band

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Released = November 1978
Recorded = 1973-1977
Genre = Rock
Length = 47:37
Label = Capitol Records
Producer = Steve Miller
Reviews = *Allmusic rating|4.5|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0cu1z88ajyvn~T1 Review]
Last album = "Book of Dreams"
(1977)
This album = "Greatest Hits 1974-78"
(1978)
Next album = "Circle of Love"
(1981)

"Greatest Hits 1974-1978" is a compilation album by the Steve Miller Band released in November 1978. It has sold 13 million copies and is ranked 33rd on the Recording Industry Association of America list of best selling rock albums of all time. A sign of the album-oriented rock times, all but one track came from their last two albums even though they had 11 studio albums at the time. A prior greatest hits album, 1972's "Anthology", contained songs from the first five albums. The more comprehensive "Young Hearts: Complete Greatest Hits" in 2003 added early hits "Living in the U.S.A", "Shubada du Ma Ma", "My Dark Hour", "Cry Cry Cry" and "Space Intro" and later hits "Abracadabra", "Wide River", "Who Do You Love" and "I Want to Make the World Turn Around" but dropped this album's "True Fine Love" and "Winter Time". On the 1978 album, several songs were edited down from their original album length but restored on the 2003 album.

Track listing

Number in parentheses indicates the order of appearance on the 8-track version.

# (1) "Swingtown" – 3:27 (Steve Miller, Chris McCarty)
# (4) "Jungle Love" – 3:10 (Lonnie Turner, Greg Douglass)
# (5) "Take the Money and Run" – 2:50 (Steve Miller)
# (6) "Rock'n Me" – 3:05 (Steve Miller)
# (12) "Serenade" – 3:10 (Steve Miller, Chris McCarty)
# (2) "True Fine Love" – 2:37 (Steve Miller)
# (3) "The Stake" – 3:56 (David Denny)
# (8) "The Joker" – 3:36 (Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegün, Steve Miller)
# (9) "Fly Like an Eagle" – 3:00 (Steve Miller)
# (10) "Threshold" – 1:05 (Byron Allred, Steve Miller)
# (11) "Jet Airliner" – 4:25 (Paul Pena)
# (7) "Dance, Dance, Dance" – 2:16 (B. Cooper, J. Cooper, Steve Miller)
# (13) "Winter Time" – 3:10 (Steve Miller)
# (14) "Wild Mountain Honey" – 4:50 (Chris McCarty)

Miscellany

* The 1996 film The Pompatus of Love took its name from a lyric in "The Joker"
* Singles reaching #1: "The Joker" on January 12, 1974 and "Rock'n Me" on November 6, 1976
* "Fly Like An Eagle" is the theme song of the US Postal Service and the University of North Texas.
* The seventh season of Everybody Loves Raymond plays "Jungle Love" over the opening credits.
* "Dance, Dance, Dance" features a dobro.