Marty Balin Sent Jefferson Starship's Miracles to No. 3
jefferson starship turned a song the band initially doubted into its highest-charting single. “Miracles” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 after first appearing on the group’s 1975 album Red Octopus.
Marty Balin’s strange spark
Marty Balin first wrote “Miracles” for Jefferson Starship, and he later said the idea started with an Indian guru he had heard about through chanting and singing. In a 2018 interview, he said, “I had heard this Indian chanting and singing, and I found out it was this avatar called Sathya Sai Baba from India,” then added, “So I got involved in reading about him, listening to his tapes of his singing.”
Balin said the song grew out of that material and his own writing habit: “I was playing guitar one day, and I thought of him.” He described the finished lyric as being written “having the avatar in mind, and the idea of speaking to a woman, but speaking to a God actually.”
Red Octopus at No. 1
“Miracles” was released as a single from Red Octopus in 1975, and the band’s reaction was not immediate approval. Balin later recalled, “Everybody went, ‘I don’t know about that. That’s pretty weird, man,’” and said, “I was really worried; nobody liked it,” before deciding after about five days, “Maybe they’re wrong.”
The result gave Jefferson Starship a chart peak no earlier single had matched. “Miracles” became the band’s highest-charting single, while Red Octopus became Jefferson Starship’s only No. 1 album and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 200 on September 6, 1975, where it stayed for four weeks.
Grace Slick in 2025
Grace Slick said in 2025 that Starship’s three No. 1 hits were “Sara,” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” and “We Built This City.” She also said, “I thought they were ridiculous,” and, on “We Built This City,” added, “There isn’t a city built on rock and roll!”
That contrast is the point for listeners now: Jefferson Starship’s biggest chart result came from a song the band did not immediately trust. For anyone tracing the group’s commercial peak, “Miracles” is the cleanest place to start, because it links Balin’s personal inspiration to the band’s only No. 1 album and its top Hot 100 finish.
