"The Joker" | ||||
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Cover of the 1973 single
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Single by Steve Miller Band | ||||
from the album The Joker | ||||
B-side | see track listings | |||
Released | October 1973 | |||
Format | 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, CD | |||
Genre | Rock, blues rock, southern rock | |||
Length | 4:26 (Album version) 3:35 (7" version) |
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Label | Capitol | |||
Writer(s) | Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegün, Steve Miller | |||
Producer(s) | Steve Miller | |||
Steve Miller Band singles chronology | ||||
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"The Joker" | ||||
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Single by k.d. lang | ||||
from the album Drag | ||||
Released | 1997 | |||
Length | 4:44 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Writer(s) | Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegün, Steve Miller | |||
Producer(s) | k.d. lang, Craig Street | |||
k.d. lang singles chronology | ||||
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"The Joker" | ||||||||
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Single by Fatboy Slim | ||||||||
from the album Palookaville | ||||||||
Released | February 28, 2005 | |||||||
Recorded | 2004 | |||||||
Genre | Big beat | |||||||
Label | Astralwerks, Skint | |||||||
Writer(s) | Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegün, Steve Miller | |||||||
Producer(s) | Fatboy Slim, Simon Thornton | |||||||
Fatboy Slim singles chronology | ||||||||
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"The Joker" is a song by the Steve Miller Band from their 1973 album The Joker. It is one of two Steve Miller Band songs that feature the nonce word "pompatus". The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974.
More than 16 years later, in September 1990, it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks after being used in "Great Deal", a Hugh Johnson-directed television advertisement for Levi's, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers. This reissue of "The Joker" also topped the Irish Singles Chart, the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart, the Dutch Nationale Top 100 and the Dutch Top 40.
The first line of the lyrics is a reference to the song "Space Cowboy" from Miller's Brave New World album. Following lines refer to two other songs: "Gangster of Love" from Sailor and "Enter Maurice" from Recall the Beginning...A Journey from Eden.
During the song, Steve Miller references The Clovers' 1954 song "Lovey Dovey" when he sings "You're the cutest thing that I ever did see/ Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree / Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time".
The song is noted for its wolf whistle played on a slide guitar after the "lovey dovey" parts and the "some people call me Maurice" part.