WCSX Classic Cuts : Miracles
WCSX Classic Cuts
Jefferson Starship: “Miracles”
The Hook: Isn’t it great when your bandmates tell you that song you just recorded ain’t cuttin’ it, and then you go on to humiliate them by giving them the band’s biggest hit ever with it.
Year: 1975
Album: Red Octopus
Writer: Marty Balin
Stats: “Miracles” peaked at number-three on Billboard’s Hot 100, becoming the biggest single for either Jefferson Starship or its predecessor, Jefferson Airplane.
The Background: After his guest appearance on “Caroline” gave Paul Kantner and Grace Slick’s Jefferson Starship their first radio hit, former Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin officially rejoins his old bandmates and is asked to write a song for their next album.
Tie-In: Marty Balin celebrates his 76th birthday today (Tuesday).
Jefferson Starship singer Marty Balin on how he wrote and recorded “Miracles” in spite of Paul Kantner and Grace Slick’s aversion to the style of the song. OC:…the top. :31
“I grew up on R&B, and that was anathema to Paul and Grace. To say the word ‘baby’ was like – so, naturally, I put the word ‘baby’ in the song a thousand times. So I went and I recorded the basic track and I remember walking out of the studio and everybody went ‘I don’t know about that one, that’s pretty strange. You better work on that. That’s not going to make it.’ And I was really worried about that till I thought, ‘Well, maybe they’re all wrong, maybe that’s a good song. What do they know? They’re not into soul and R&B anyway.’ We finished it and then I got Paul and Grace and I gave them a bunch of things to do on it and I had them sing ‘baby’ a million times. And then we put it out and boom, took ‘em back to the top.”
