''Greatest Hits 1974–78'' is a compilation album by the

Steve Miller Band The Steve Miller Band is an American rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles ...

released in November 1978, presenting the band's hits from 1973–1978.

Content

The album features the title track from 1973's ''

The Joker The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, the character first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' on ...

'' plus 13 tracks taken from ''

Fly Like an Eagle ''Fly Like an Eagle'' is the ninth studio album by American rock band Steve Miller Band, released on May 14, 1976, by Capitol Records in the United States, Canada and Japan and Mercury Records in Europe. The album was a commercial success, spawnin ...

'' (1976) and ''

Book of Dreams ''Book of Dreams'' is the tenth studio album by Steve Miller Band. The album was released in May 1977 on Capitol Records in the United States, Canada and Japan and by Mercury Records in Europe. Three singles were released from the album in 1977 ...

'' (1977). As a sign of the

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US rad ...

times, all but one track came from their last two albums even though they had eleven studio albums at the time. The shorter 7-inch single versions of "

Jet Airliner A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have twinjet, two or quadjet, four jet engines; trijet, three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Air ...

", "

Swingtown ''Swingtown'' is an American drama television series created by Mike Kelley as a summer replacement series for CBS aired from June 5 to September 5, 2008. The show is a historical relationship drama about the impact of sexual and social liber ...

", "

", and "

" are featured on this compilation.

Track listing

A later U.S. reissue cassette version of the album manufactured by Capitol Records omits four of the above tracks: "Serenade" and "The Stake" on side A, and "Threshold" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" from Side B; the order of the tracks remains the same. All selections published by Sailor Music, except "The Joker" by Sailor Music/Unichappel Music, Inc. and "Jet Airliner" by Sailor Music/No Thought Music.

Personnel

* Steve Miller – synthesizer, guitar, keyboards, vocals, producer, compilation producer *

David Denny David Thomas Denny (March 17, 1832, Part II: Chapter 3, p. 203. – November 25, 1903.) was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, United States. Though he ultimately und ...

– guitar, rhythm guitar *

Greg Douglass Greg Douglass (born 1949 in Oakland, California, United States) is an American rock guitarist. Career Douglass started his musical career in the late 1960s with his band The Virtues, which later turned into the acid-rock group Country Weather. ...

– guitar,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

John McFee John McFee (born September 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and long-time member of The Doobie Brothers. Biography Some of McFee's early and non-Doobie Brothers work includes pl ...

–

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

Bob Glaub Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...

– bass guitar * Gerald Johnson – bass guitar * Lonnie Turner – bass guitar * Byron Allred – synthesizer, piano, keyboards * Joachim Jymm Young –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

* Dickie Thompson –

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

Norton Buffalo Phillip Jackson (September 28, 1951 – October 30, 2009), best known as Norton Buffalo, was an American singer-songwriter, country music, country and blues harmonica player, record producer, bandleader and recording artist who was a versatile ...

– harmonica on tracks 7 and 13 * John King – drums *

Gary Mallaber Gary Mallaber (born October 11, 1946, in Buffalo) is an American musician from Los Angeles, mostly known as a drummer, but plays percussion, vibraphone, and keyboards. In addition, he is a songwriter, arranger, composer, producer, engineer, a ...

– percussion, drums Production * Roberta Ballard – production manager * Mike Fusaro – engineer * Jim Gaines – engineer, mixing * Gene Hicks – assistant engineer, mixing assistant * Steve Hoffman – remastering * Win Kutz – mixing assistant * Marcia McGovern – pre-production * John Palladino – executive producer * Jay Ranellucci – engineer, mixing Artwork and design * Kelley and

Mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

– Cover illustration & design * Sam Shepard – cover lettering * David Stahl – photography * John Van Hamersveld – design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certification

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greatest Hits 1974-78 1978 greatest hits albums Steve Miller Band compilation albums Capitol Records compilation albums