The Joker (song)

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

“The Joker”
Single by Fatboy Slim from the album Palookaville
Released	2005
Recorded	2004
Genre	Big Beat
Label	Astralwerks, Skint Records
Writer(s)	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" remixes single

"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".

[edit] "The Joker" in popular culture

• In the "That '70s Musical" episode of That '70s Show, "The Joker" is one of the songs sung by the cast.
• In the "The Way We Was" episode of The Simpsons, Homer sings along to the song while driving.
• The Pompatus of Love is a 1996 film based on the same notable lyrics in this song.
• 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 a joke by stand-up comedian Frank Caliendo.
• 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...).
• It was mentioned in a Scrubs episode regarding Dr. Cox's verbal abuse of his patients, with 'joker' being misinterpreted as 'jamoker' by Dr. Kelso, probably because he had cupcake in his mouth when he said that
• The character Maurice Minnifield from Northern Exposure is likely a reference to this song as he is an astronaut and a cowboy type.

[edit] Cover versions

"The Joker" has been covered by:

• k.d. lang on her album Drag on which all the songs have the theme of smoking or cigarettes.
• The rap duo Twiztid on the album Cryptic Collection 3.
• In a mashup song performed by Jason Mraz and included Everything I Own, performed by Chrissie Hynde. Is part of the soundtrack for Happy Feet.
• It was also covered live by The Smashing Pumpkins, and the recording can be found on the Mashed Potatoes box set.
• In 1998, Todd Snider covered the song on his Viva Satellite album.
• Fatboy Slim reworked the song on his 2004 album Palookaville. This version featured Bootsy Collins on lead vocals.
• It is sampled on Shaggy's song "Angel".
• Kurt Elling performed live in Czech. Republic 2006.
• Tim McGraw during the Soul2Soul 2007 tour with Faith Hill.
• Keith Urban during his Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing 2007 tour with The Wreckers -- August 18th, 2007.
• Spearhead on the compilation CD Hempilation 2.
• Fettes Brot titeled as "The Grosser" (English translation "The big guy").
• 311 performed it live in New Orleans on 311 Day (March 11) 2008.
• They Might Be Giants have played it live on occasion, and included a cover of it on their podcast.
• The String Cheese Incident covered it at a show in Melkweg on 2004-03-27, and added "Don't wanna see Billy run" (Bill Nershi of SCI)

[edit] External links

• The Straight Dope: In Steve Miller's "The Joker," what is "the pompatus of love"?