"Fly Like an Eagle" is a song written by Steve Miller for the album of the same name. It went to number 2 on the BillboardHot 100 chart during the week of March 12, 1977, kept from the top spot by "Evergreen " by Barbra Streisand. The single edit can be found on Greatest Hits . The song has an unusually mellow and "dreamy" feel. It is usually played in tandem with "Space Intro", but the song also segues into "Wild Mountain Honey".
History
The band first performed the song in 1973 for the concert at New York City's Felt Forum venue with The Marshall Tucker Band, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. An earlier 1973 version features a more bluesy and less funk-inspired rhythm, with the guitar taking the synthesizer parts. The lyrics are slightly different, indicating that the place the eagle wants to fly away from is a Native American reservation. The final, funk-inspired album version pays homage to "Slippin' into Darkness" by War. It was re-recorded for the eponymous album released in 1976. The guitar hook was first used in a slightly different form on Miller's 1969 track "My Dark Hour".
Reception
The original Steve Miller Band version sold over one million copies. The Seal version had sold over 300,000 units as of April 5, 1997. Billboard Magazine described the Steve Miller Band version as "uncharacteristically thoughtful, but rivetingly attention grabbing."
Twenty years after Miller's original version, British artist Seal covered "Fly Like an Eagle" for the Space Jam soundtrack, even sampling Miller's original "Space Intro" parts in the song's chorus. This version peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the Canadian RPM 100 Chart. The single was Seal's first top ten since 1995's "Kiss from a Rose". According to Seal, the executive producer of the Space Jam soundtrack, Dominique Trenier, asked him to record it. D'Angelo, who was managed by Trenier, played keyboards on the song. Seal said that Steve Miller approved of the cover version and at one point called him "thanking me and saying that was the best cover of the song that he had heard."
The song is featured as a playable song in Rock Band 3.
In 2012, "Fly Like an Eagle" was chosen as "the best-ever song about birds" by Birds & Blooms magazine. "We’re not at all surprised by the popularity of Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle with our readers," said Birds & Bloomseditor Stacy Tornio in a press release. "It’s an iconic song for the iconic American bird." Other notable songs on the Birds & Blooms list were Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and the Beatles' "Blackbird".
