Serenade, by Steve Miller (played by the— you'll never guess it— the Steve Miller Band), is my favorite song by him and one of my all-time favorite songs. The lyrics aren't necessarily the best part of the song however; they're rather simplistic, even though they get the point across quite nicely. No, it's the music itself that's the highlight, from the trademark, Classic Rock, clean, jangling guitar, to Steve Miller's layered vocals.
Now, Steve Miller has been described as something of an everyman, mostly because of his voice, which is talented but not necessarily "great," by critical standards. In this song, however, he (as far as I can figure) layered his voice three times, to make it sound as if his voice fills the room. And his Mediterranean coloratura throughout the song adds a certain exotic flair, full of mordents and turns. It's a surprisingly good vocal performance, especially for the seventies, an era lacking in pitch correction hardware and other ways of making a singer sound better than he actually is.
The chorus (that would be the "oh's" and "ah's") is pained in all of its echolalic glory, implying that perhaps the lover Steve Miller is talking of is perhaps lost to him, strengthened by the extremely exotic Phrygian melody, implying she is far away.
The song clocks in at three minutes and twelve seconds, somewhat long for a typical rock song of the era, but it seems really short in context of the song.
Serenade can be found on several discs by Steve Miller, the two of most interest to people who aren't collectors would be Greatest Hits 1974-1978 and Fly Like An Eagle. It's track five on the former and track four on the latter. It debuted on Fly Like An Eagle, in 1976.
Did you see the lights,
As they fell all here 'round you?
Did you hear the music,
A serenade from the stars?
Wake up, wake up
Wake up and look here 'round you
We're lost in space
And the time is our own.
Oh-OooOoooOoooo, Oh-OooOoooOoooo
Ah-AaaAaaaAaaaa
Did you feel the wind
As it blew all here 'round you?
Did you feel the love
That was in the air?
Wake up, wake up
Wake up and look here 'round you
We're lost in space
And the time is our own.
Oh-OooOoooOoooo, Oh-OooOoooOoooo
Ah-AaaAaaaAaaaa
The sun comes up
And it shines all here 'round you
You're lost in space
And the earth is your own.
Oh-OooOoooOoooo, Oh-OooOoooOoooo
Ah-AaaAaaaAaaaa
There was one discrepancy I couldn't figure out: the repeating vocal line "... all here 'round you" could possibly be "... all the way 'round you." The first is more poetic and fitting, in my opinion, but the second one sounds a bit more like what I actually heard.