Video hit Steve Miller Band

Steve Miller Band - The Joker (live from Chicago, 2009)

The Joker is a song by the Steve Miller Band from their 1973 album The Joker. It is one of two Steve Miller Band songs that feature the neologism "pompatus".

The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974.

More than 16 years later, in September 1990, it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks after being used in "Great Deal", a Hugh Johnson-directed television advertisement for Levi's, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers. This reissue of "The Joker" also topped the Irish Singles Chart, the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart, the Dutch Nationale Top 100 and the Dutch Top 40.

The first line of the lyrics is a reference to the song "Space Cowboy" from Miller's Brave New World album. Following lines refer to two other songs: "Gangster of Love" from Sailor and "Enter Maurice" from Recall the Beginning...A Journey from Eden.

During the song, Steve Miller references the The Clovers' 1954 song "Lovey Dovey" when he sings "You're the cutest thing that I ever did see/ Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree / Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time".

The song is noted for its wolf whistle played on a slide guitar after the "lovey dovey" parts and the "some people call me Maurice" part.

The line "some people call me Maurice / 'Cause I speak of the pompatus of love" was written after Miller heard the song "The Letter" by The Medallions. In "The Letter", writer Vernon Green made up the word puppetutes, meaning a secret erotic female paper-doll fantasy figure; however, Miller misheard the word and wrote pompitous instead.

In popular culture

The song appears in the twelfth episode of the second season of The Simpsons.

The song is mentioned at length in chapter 30 of the German novel Nachhinein by Lisa Kränzler.

The song is referenced in the 2011 Fountains of Wayne song "Radio Bar".

In the MMORPG DC Universe Online, the Joker (when played as a Legends character) will occasionally reference the song by saying, "Nobody calls me the space cowboy, or the gangster of love for that matter!"

Johnny Depp, playing the part of vampire Barnabas Collins, refers to The Joker in the 2012 film Dark Shadows. After telling his distant relative, Carolyn Stoddard, "I'm rather fond of the music of the day," Barnabas poetically recites the lines:

I am a picker.

I am a grinner.

I am a lover.

And I am a sinner.

I play my music in the sun.

He gestures with his right hand during the recitation, and he reaches out with it on the last line. His fingertips sizzle and smoke when they enter the sunlight.

The lyrics:

Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah

Some call me the gangster of love

Some people call me Maurice

'Cause I speak of the pompitous of love

People talk about me, baby

Say I'm doin' you wrong, doin' you wrong

Well, don't you worry baby, don't worry

'Cause I'm right here, right here, right here, right here at home

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner

I'm a lover and I'm a sinner

I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker, I'm a smoker

I'm a midnight toker

I get my lovin' on the run

You're the cutest thing that I ever did see

I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree

Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time

Oee baby, I'll sure show you a good time

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner

I'm a lover and I'm a sinner

I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker, I'm a smoker

I'm a midnight toker

I sure don't want to hurt no one

People keep talking about me, baby

They say I'm doin' you wrong

Well, don't you worry, don't worry

No, don't worry, mama, 'cause I'm right here at home

You're the cutest thing I ever did see

Really love your peaches, want to shake your tree

Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time

Come on baby now, I'll show you a good time