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Miracles (Jefferson Starship song)

"Miracles"
Jefferson Starship - Miracles single cover (Spain).jpg
Cover of the Spanish single (FB-10367)
Single by Jefferson Starship
from the album Red Octopus
Released March 1975 (1975-03)
Recorded 13 February 1975
Genre Rock, soft rock
Length 6:52 (album version)
3:25 (single version)
Label Grunt
Writer(s) Marty Balin
Producer(s) Jefferson Starship and Larry Cox
Jefferson Starship singles chronology
"Ride the Tiger"
(1974)
"Miracles"
(1975)
"Play on Love"
(1976)

"Miracles" is a song written by Marty Balin and originally recorded by Jefferson Starship, appearing on their 1975 album Red Octopus.

"Miracles" peaked at number 3 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting single the band ever recorded under the name Jefferson Starship, and also charting higher than any single the band had recorded in its previous incarnation as Jefferson Airplane. (However, the band went on to have three number 1 hits under its later incarnation as Starship.)

The song was inspired in part by the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, whose followers believe him to have been a miracle worker. It was also inspired in part by a woman Balin was in love with at the time. According to Jeff Tamarkin's book Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, Balin labored over the song "for some time" and "slowly but deliberately crafted" it. However, author Robert Yehling has written that Balin wrote the song in 30 minutes or wrote the lyrics in 45 minutes. According to Balin, when he presented the song to the rest of the band members, "Everybody went, 'I don't know about that, that's pretty weird, man.' I was really worried; nobody liked it. But I told myself, after about five days, Maybe they're wrong."

In order to secure more radio airplay for the song, the full-length album version of "Miracles" (6 minutes, 52 seconds long) was cut by more than half its length for the single, which was released at a length of 3 minutes, 25 seconds. This edit was done not only for length, but to remove the sexual reference in the line "I had a taste of the real world when I went down on you, girl."

Commenting on the band's recording of "Miracles", Jeff Tamarkin wrote: "[Larry] Cox nailed the production -- there isn't a wasted, out of place note. Strings glisten, the keyboard sound is contemporary and Grace [Slick] and Paul [Kantner]'s harmonies are relatively traditional. [David] Freiberg came up with the memorable signature organ riff that opens the song and Craig [Chaquico] with a fresh supply of delicious guitar sounds. Marty is at his most open, crooning his words of love like he hasn't in years -- without a hint of irony or awkwardness he uses the word 'baby' at least 25 times ...."


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