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Miracles (Jefferson Starship song)

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"Miracles"
Cover of the Spanish single (FB-10367)
Single by Jefferson Starship
from the album Red Octopus
ReleasedMarch 1975 (1975-03)
RecordedFebruary 1975[1]
GenreRock, soft rock
Length6:52 (Album version)
3:25 (Single version)
4:59 (Alternate edit #1)
4:09 (Alternate edit #2)
LabelGrunt/RCA Records
Songwriter(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 its 1975 album Red Octopus.[2]

"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 or its previous incarnation Jefferson Airplane.[3]

Background and writing

The song was inspired in part by the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba,[4][5][6] whose followers believe him to have been a miracle worker.[4] It was also inspired in part by a woman Balin was in love with at the time.[4] 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.[4] However, author Robert Yehling has written that Balin wrote the song in 30 minutes[5] or wrote the lyrics in 45 minutes.[6] 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.'"[4]

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.[7] 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."[7]

Critical reception

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 ...."[4]

Upon the single's release, Billboard magazine listed "Miracles" among its Top Single Picks, indicating that the review panel predicted it to reach the top 30 of the Hot 100. The magazine commented, "With a top 10 LP under their belts, the rejuvenated Starship (with Marty Balin back as a full fledged member) come up with the kind of easy rocker that highlighted the early Airplane days. Vocal interchanges between Balin and Grace Slick the high point of the record."[8] Cash Box said it is "a fine, well-orchestrated love ballad in the Airplane tradition" and "some of their most appealing, well-produced material in years."[9]

Reviewing a Balin solo concert in 1981, New York Times critic Stephen Holden referred to "Miracles" as Balin's "little masterpiece of pop pillow talk".[10]

Dave Marsh and James Bernard listed "Miracles" among the "Best Songs to Pass the Censor" in The New Book of Rock Lists.[11] In the same book, they also described "I had a taste of the real world / When I went down on you, girl" as the "Most Off-Color Line in the LP Version of a Number One Hit"[12] (although "Miracles" did not, in fact, hit #1).

In 1998, Balin received a plaque from Broadcast Music Incorporated, a performing rights organization which monitors music performances on radio and elsewhere, recognizing that "Miracles" had achieved 2 million performances.[13]

William Ruhlmann, writing in All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock, commented, "[T]here can be little doubt that it was Balin's irresistible ballad 'Miracles,' the biggest hit single in the Jefferson Whatever catalog, that propelled Red Octopus to the top of the charts .... This must have been sweet vindication for Balin, who founded Jefferson Airplane but then drifted away from the group as it veered away from his musical vision. Now, the collective was incorporating his taste without quite integrating it -- 'Miracles,' with its strings and sax solo by nonband member Irv Cox, was hardly a characteristic Airplane/Starship track."[14]

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, published in 2004, stated that "with Marty Balin's 'Miracles,' Octopus′s massive hit, the band began shifting toward schmaltz. Balin now sounded like a lounge singer ...."[2]

Philip Dodd, in The Book of Rock: From the 1950s to Today, described "Miracles" as "magnificent".[15]

Soundtracks

The song has been featured in the films The Family Stone (2005), Crank (2006), and the TV series Supernatural (Season 6, Episode 19, 2011).

Personnel

Additional personnel

Chart performance

Cover versions

References

  1. ^ "Miracles" 45-RPM single label
  2. ^ a b Brackett, Nathan (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Fireside. p. 427. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2010). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (9th ed.). New York: Billboard Books. pp. 332–33. ISBN 978-0-8230-8554-5. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Tamarkin, Jeff (2003). Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane. New York: Atria. p. 279. ISBN 0-671-03403-0. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  5. ^ a b Yehling, Robert (2006). Shades of Green: New & Selected Poems and Essays. Tampa: Koboca. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-9744997-6-5. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  6. ^ a b Yehling, Robert (2006). Writes of Life: Using Your Personal Experiences in Everything You Write. Tampa: Koboca. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-9744997-7-2. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  7. ^ a b Tamarkin, Jeff (2003). Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane. New York: Atria. p. 280. ISBN 0-671-03403-0. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  8. ^ "Top Single Picks". Billboard. 1975-08-16. p. 78. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  9. ^ "CashBox Singles Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. August 16, 1975. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  10. ^ Holden, Stephen (1981-10-11). "Rock: Marty Balin Sings". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  11. ^ Marsh, Dave; Bernard, James (1994). The New Book of Rock Lists. New York: Fireside. p. 507. ISBN 0-671-78700-4. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  12. ^ Marsh, Dave; Bernard, James (1994). The New Book of Rock Lists. New York: Fireside. p. 104. ISBN 0-671-78700-4. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  13. ^ "Playing for 'Miracles'". Billboard. 1998-03-28. p. 32. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  14. ^ Woodstra, Chris; Bush, John; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, eds. (2007). All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock. New York: Backbeat Books. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-87930-917-6. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  15. ^ Dodd, Philip (2005). The Book of Rock: From the 1950s to Today. Da Capo Press. p. 2136. ISBN 1-56025-729-6. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  16. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  17. ^ "Starship – Miracles". Top 40 Singles.
  18. ^ "Jefferson Starship Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  19. ^ "Jefferson Starship Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  21. ^ "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1975". Cashbox Magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
  22. ^ "Marty Balin, Marty Balin Greatest Hits". Archived from the original on November 26, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
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