Australian singles charts:
The Joker entered the Kent charts on 14 January 1974 and peaked at #8. The song was #50 on the Top 100 of 1974.
Album:
The song is on The Joker which entered the Kent album charts on 18 February 1974 and peaked at #38.
Songwriters:
Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegun, Steve Miller
Producer:
Steve Miller
Record label of Australian release:
Capitol
Wikipedia:
The first line of the lyrics is a reference to the song Space Cowboy from Miller’s Brave New World album. The following lines refer to two other songs: Gangster of Love from Sailor and Enter Maurice from Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joker_(Steve_Miller_Band_song)
Songfacts:
The line in this song, “I speak of the pompatus of love,” has baffled listeners for some time. Greil Marcus provided this explanation in a 2002 article for Los Angeles Magazine titled “In The Secret Country.” The word “Pompatus” does exist in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it means “to act with pomp and splendor.” Miller possibly heard the word on a song called The Letter, which was recorded by the Los Angeles doo-wop group The Medallions in 1954.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/steve-miller-band/the-joker
.
Other accounts say “pompatus” is simply a nonce word.
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.