Credit: Paul HaggardThe new career-spanning Steve Miller Band compilation Ultimate Hits, will be released on Friday, September 15, as a single CD and a two-CD collection. The album features several previously unreleased tracks, including an alternate version of the 1969 tune “Seasons,” which you can listen to now at the group’s official VEVO YouTube channel.
Miller tells Billboard he accidentally stumbled on the alternate take of the song while going through some of his archival recordings.
“I had stopped looking around for ‘Seasons,’ and we were going through mixes and cassettes and looking for things and we found this version of it — and I thought it was better than the original one,” he explains. “I didn’t even know it existed…I usually remember almost everything I’ve done but I was just really surprised by that version of it. I think it’s the best version, so I was happy to find it.”
Ultimate Hits is the first release in a new catalog deal Miller signed with Capitol Records/Universal Music that brings most of his music under the same label. Also emerging from the deal will be a vinyl box set featuring bonus tracks that will arrive next year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Steve Miller Band’s first two albums — Children of the Future and Sailor.
Miller tells Billboard that he’s also hoping to put out a lot more cool unreleased archival material, including eight or nine tracks he recorded with Paul McCartney and some songs on which he and Brian Wilson collaborated.
In addition, he says he has a variety of live collaborations he’d like to release, including performances with Paul Rodgers and Journey‘s Neal Schon.
In addition, Miller is plotting a 50th anniversary tour for 2018, while revealing that he’s also “writing new material now.”
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