Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra

Music video by Steve Miller Band performing Abracadabra. © 1982 Sailor Records

“Abracadabra” – Single by Steve Miller Band from the album Abracadabra
B-side: “Give It Up” (US/Canada), “Baby Wanna Dance” (US/Canada, alternate B-side), “Never Say No” (international)
Released: May 1982
Label: Capitol (US/Canada), Mercury (international)
Songwriter: Steve Miller
Producers: Steve Miller, Gary Mallaber
Charted No.1 in US, No.2 in UK, No.1 in Canada, No.2 in Germany, No.1 in Spain, No.26 in Italy

The song is said to have been inspired by the American singer Diana Ross, whom Miller had met when they each performed on the same episode of the pop music television show Hullabaloo in the 1960s. The lyrics “Round and round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows” are a reference to the spinning wheel segment from The Original Amateur Hour.

Written entirely by Steve Miller, this catchy pop song with mild sexual innuendo contains lyrics of the simplistic “June moon spoon” variety:

I see magic in your eyes
I hear the magic in your sighs
Just when I think I’m gonna get away
I hear those words that you always say

Yes, the man who once spoke of the pompatus of love was now rhyming “abracadabra” with “reach out and grab ya.”

It’s certainly not the song that got Miller into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, but “Abracadabra” was a huge hit, spending two weeks at #1 in the US in September 1982.

The video was the first that Miller made. One of most low-profile frontmen in rock, Miller stayed out of the spotlight and was rarely seen in public off the stage, but in 1982 MTV was becoming a force and you needed a video to sell records.

Miller was never going to be a video star, so this video did a little sleight of hand, playing up the magic theme with magicians performing various tricks. Miller is incognito, wearing sunglasses while playing the guitar and moving in slow motion.

The clip was directed by Peter Conn, who was one of the first to integrate computer effects into videos.