- Writers: Steve Miller and Paul Pena
- Producer: Steve Miller
- Recorded: Late 1976 and early 1977 at CBS Studios in San Francisco
- Released: May 1977
- Players:
Steve Miller — guitar, vocals
Lonnie Turner — bass, vocals
Gary Mallaber — drums
Byron Allred — keyboards, vocals
Greg Douglass — guitar, vocals
David Denny — guitar
Norton Buffalo — vocals - Album: Book Of Dreams (Capitol, 1977)
- Also On:
Greatest Hits 1974-1978 (Capitol, 1978)
Live! (Capitol, 1983)
Steve Miller Band (Capitol, 1994)
Young Hearts: Complete Greatest Hits (Capitol, 2003) - “Jet Airliner” was the Steve Miller Band‘s third consecutive Top 10 hit in a seven-month stretch. It peaked at Number Eight on the Billboard Hot 100.
- When writer Paul Pena showed Miller the song, its lyrics were about Pena’s former manager, Albert Grossman, and Miller thought they were “very bitter.” Miller retooled the lyrics into a song about traveling and leaving loved ones behind — a subject inspired by his heavy touring in the mid-’70s.
- Pena’s version of the song was recorded for his early ’70s album New Train, but didn’t make the album due to conflicts with his then-label, Bearsville.
- For the Book Of Dreams album, Miller expanded his band from the trio that recorded 1976’s Fly Like An Eagle to a sextet with three guitarists, which in concert allowed the group to replicate the layered guitar parts of the recording.
- Book Of Dreams was even more successful than Fly Like An Eagle, hitting Number Two on the Billboard 200 and selling well over three million copies.
- The success of the two albums allowed Miller to move his concerts from theaters to arenas, where he used lasers to create a more stunning visual effect.
- In the summer of 1978, Miller and his band began playing stadium shows, often co-billed with other ’70s acts like Peter Frampton and Fleetwood Mac.
- After the Book Of Dreams tour, Miller decided it was time for a break and rested at a 500-acre spread he purchased in Grants Pass, Oregon.
FAST FORWARD:
- Pena’s version of “Jet Airliner” was finally released in 2001.
- After years of successful tours, Miller became disenchanted with the concert industry and took a few years off from the road, with the exception of a benefit show every now and then.
- Miller has been notoriously stingy about licensing his songs to hip-hop artists. In 1980, he sued the Geto Boys for an unauthorized sampling of “The Joker,” but in 2001 he made an exception for Run-D.M.C. The rap pioneers and guest Everlast collaborated on a version of Miller’s 1976 hit “Take The Money And Run” for the album Crown Royal.