The Joker (song)

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"The Joker"
"The Joker" cover
Single by Steve Miller Band
from the album The Joker
Genre Rock
Length 4:41
Label Capitol Records
Writer Eddie Curtis, Steve Miller, Ahmet Ertegün
Producer Steve Miller
Steve Miller Band singles chronology
- "The Joker"
(1973)
"Space Intro"
(1973)

"The Joker" is an iconic song by the Steve Miller Band from their 1973 album The Joker. The song is one of two Steve Miller Band songs that feature the neologism "pompatus". The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974.

More than 16 years later, in September 1990, it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart after being used in a Levi's television advertisement, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers.

The song is sometimes misidentified by the title "Space Cowboy" because of the first line of the lyrics, which actually refer to an earlier song by that title from Miller's Brave New World album. The following lines refer to two other earlier songs, "Gangster of Love" from Sailor, and "Enter Maurice" from Recall the Beginning...A Journey from Eden.

At the end of the song, Steve Miller references lines from the 1954 The Clovers song "Lovey Dovey" when he sings "Lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time" and "Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree".

  • In the King of the Hill episode "Patch Boomhauer", where everybody was flashingback to everyone's bachelor party, this song was playing in the background.
  • In Cowboy Bebop, many of the episodes end with the text "See you later, space cowboy.", which is a double reference to the main character and how the story is influenced by music.
  • In Friends episode The One with the Embryos, during a quiz it turns out that Joey used to have an imaginary friend called Maurice, who was a space cowboy.
  • David Letterman once did a Top 10 list of Rejected Batman villains. Included in the list were The Joker's brothers, The Smoker and The Midnight Toker (a reference to the line: I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker...).
"The Joker"
"The Joker" cover
Single by Fatboy Slim
from the album Palookaville
Genre Big Beat
Label Astralwerks, Skint Records
Writer Eddie Curtis, Steve Miller, Ahmet Ertegün
Producer Fatboy Slim, Simon Thornton
Fatboy Slim singles chronology
"Wonderful Night"
(2004)
"The Joker"
(2005)
"Don't Let The Man Get You Down"
(2005)
Alternate cover
"The Joker" with remixes
"The Joker" with remixes

"The Joker" has been covered by:

Preceded by
"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce
Billboard Hot 100 number one single
January 12, 1974
Succeeded by
"Show and Tell" by Al Wilson
Preceded by
"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" by Bombalurina with Timmy Mallett
UK number one single
September 9, 1990
Succeeded by
"Show Me Heaven" by Maria McKee
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