Songs with the name Miles

The name Miles carries a different weight in each of these recordings. In Miles Davis's "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," the name is the persona, the sorcerer-like figure guiding a thick, swampy groove from his Bitches Brew era. The trumpeter plays over a slinking, electric bassline and restless percussion, making the track feel like a dark, hypnotic ritual. Cat Stevens uses the name as a literal measurement of physical and spiritual distance in "Miles From Nowhere." The 1968 recording is a warm, driving folk-rock piece, beginning with a steady acoustic strum and building into a desperate, yearning plea for salvation and a place to rest.

Christina Perri's "Miles" turns the word into a tender lullaby, her delicate piano and soft voice transforming it into a quiet vow of unconditional devotion to a child. Winger's "Miles Away" makes the name an aching measure of romantic separation, grounding an anthemic late-1980s hard rock ballad in a clean, soaring chorus. Madonna takes a similar title in a different direction on "Miles Away," wrapping the phrase in shimmering electronic pop production. Her track layers breezy, rhythmic synths over a melancholic narrative about a love that only makes sense when the two people are physically far apart, letting the name stand for the emotional gap that always seems to save them.