Jefferson Starship's "Miracles"

Back on September 27th, Marty Balin died. He was founder of Jefferson Airplane, and later co-founder of Jefferson Starship. 

His contributions to music history have been covered extensively elsewhere. But his most popular song, which he wrote and sang, was Miracles, featured on the 1975 Jefferson Starship album Red Octopus, which was the highest selling album of any incarnation of the "Jeffersons" (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship). Balin later did a solo version of the song on his 1999 album, Marty Balin Greatest Hits.

(hat tip to Wikipedia for the pic)

Miracles walks a fine line between treacle and classic love song. Fortunately, the music and thoughtful chorus save it:



The music is jazz-infused pop with a distinctly 1970's sound. It has a sound that is just smooth that goes down like an over-creamed coffee with just enough sweetener.

Or maybe too much sweetener, as the verses border on sickening sweet. For example (from Google):

Every time you come by let me try (come on by)
Pretty please, with sugar on it, that's how I like it, ugh.
I can't even believe it with you
It's like having every dream I ever wanted
(Dream of a lifetime) come true.
I picked up your vibes, you know (I'm having a fine time)
It opened my mind but I'm still dreaming.
Yeah (yeah eh eh oh)
And you're right where I found you, with my arms around you! (oh baby)

Fortunately, the chorus forms an intriguing relationship between two ideas:

If only you believe like I believe, baby, (If only you believe like I believe)
We'd get by
If only you believe in miracles, (If only you believed in miracles so would I)

We could apply that logic to many conflicts beyond romantic relationships, and that could be why this song still seems relevant today, in spite of the overly sweetened verses.

The success of Miracles (which reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) may have taken Jefferson Starship in a direction they didn't want to go. According to Songfacts:

...the very middle-of-the-road sound of "Miracles" didn't sit well with [Jefferson Starship singer] Grace Slick, who told BAM magazine in 1980: "All of that 'baby come back to me' stuff was us trying to copy 'Miracles.' We'd never been a real hot singles band. So, when 'Miracles' hit, it was all of a sudden 'better stick with that s--t.' But I felt odd doing it, felt like I was wearing a costume, a monkey suit or something."

Ultimately, the true lesson of Miracles isn't in its chorus, but rather in another lesson: You cannot replicate success. You can only hope to repeat it.