In the Shadow of The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane
Their psychedelic tracks never reached above no. 69 on the charts. Perhaps creating music alongside heavy hitters like Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane meant they were living in their shadow. Still, the Steve Miller Band was one of the bigger bands on the Haight-Ashbury scene, and they even backed up Chuck Berry on his 1967 blues-rock show Live at Fillmore Auditorium.
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The band then signed to Capitol for a sweet sum of money and recorded with none other than Paul McCartney. But they weren’t close to making hits just yet. That took some time. In fact, their albums tended to sell better than the singles themselves.