Jet Airliner
by Steve Miller Band
- 123
- BPM
- F major
- Key
- 7B
- Camelot
- 58
- Danceability
- 8
- Acousticness
Steve Miller recorded "Jet Airliner" in 1975, during the sessions for the album Fly Like an Eagle, and then held it for two years. The song was not his. Paul Pena had written it in 1973 for his album New Train. The album stayed unreleased until 2000 after conflicts between Pena and his label. Miller heard the unreleased album through Ben Sidran, who had produced it and had once played in Miller's band.
The Steve Miller Band finally put the song out in 1977 on the album Book of Dreams. As a single it reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart, and in Canada it spent two weeks at No. 3.
Radio programmers tend to pair it with "Threshold," the all-synthesizer instrumental that comes right before it on Book of Dreams and on the compilation Greatest Hits 1974-78. That compilation came out in 1978 and has sold over 13 million copies. The band behind all of it formed in San Francisco in 1966 and is led by Miller on guitar and lead vocals.
Jet Airliner runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in F major, Camelot 7B, which shares its notes with D minor and mixes cleanly with Bb major and C major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.