Editing Steeleye Span (section)

===Mike Batt era===
With their star now conspicuously ascendant, the band brought in producer [[Mike Batt]] to work on their eighth album, ''[[All Around My Hat (album)|All Around My Hat]]'', and their biggest success came with the release of the title track as a single – it reached number 5 in the [[UK Singles Chart]] in late 1975. The single was also released in other European countries and gave them a breakthrough in the Netherlands and Germany.{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=527}} Other well-known tracks on the album included "[[The Raggle Taggle Gypsy|Black Jack Davy]]" (sampled by rappers [[Goldie Lookin Chain]] on their track "The Maggot") and the rocky "Hard Times of Old England". While ''All Around My Hat'' was the height of the band's commercial success, the good times were not to last long. Despite touring almost every year since 1975, they have not had another hit single, nor any success in the album chart, since the late 1970s.

The follow-up album, ''[[Rocket Cottage]]'' (1976), also produced by Batt, proved to be a commercial flop, despite having much in common musically with its predecessor.<ref name="Larkin"/> The opening track, "London", was penned by Rick Kemp as a follow-up to "All Around My Hat", in response to a request from the record label that Kemp describes as "we'll have another one of those, please", and released as a single. The song failed to make the UK Chart, in complete contrast to "All Around My Hat", despite having much in common – a 12/8 time signature, upbeat tempo, solo verses and full harmony chorus. ''Rocket Cottage'' also included the experimental track "Fighting for Strangers" (with sparse vocals singing concurrently in a variety of keys) and, on the final track, excerpts of studio banter between the band members and a seemingly impromptu rendition of "[[Camptown Races]]", in which Prior gets the lyrics wrong.

At the time of their seventh album, ''[[Commoners Crown]]'', the advent of [[Punk rock|punk]] saw the mainstream market turning away from folk rock almost overnight, heralding a downturn in commercial fortunes for the band. As thanks to their committed fans, Steeleye Span showered attendees of a November 1976 concert in London with £8,500 in pound notes (then equivalent to US$13,600). The unannounced idea was Maddy Prior's and, remarkably, no-one was injured in the rush to grab the falling notes. Contemporary press reports indicated that it took some time for the crowd to even realise what was happening.<ref>"Band showers fans with pound notes", Associated Press wire story published in The Toronto Star, 26 November 1976, Page F1.</ref> Thanks to their connection with Mike Batt, band members appeared in Womble costumes on ''Top of the Pops'', performing the Wombles hit "Superwomble".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/mikebattmusic/posts/steeleye-span-become-the-wombles-for-a-daya-bit-from-my-unpublished-autobiog-fou/10156609519636271/|title=Mike Batt Facebook posting (2018) - from his unpublished autobiography|website=facebook.com|access-date=6 Aug 2023}}</ref>