Steely Dan was an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen chose to stop performing live by the end of 1974 and continued Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, using a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone magazine named them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".
Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians and began recording music. Their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and bluesAllMusic [ Steely Dan: Biography]. with sophisticated studio production and cryptic, irony-infused lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success with seven studio albums, peaking with their top-selling album Aja, released in 1977.
Steely Dan disbanded in 1981. Becker and Fagen worked sporadically on solo projects through the 1980s, although a cult following remained devoted to the group's work. After reuniting in 1993, Steely Dan toured steadily and released two albums of new material, the first of which, Two Against Nature (2000), earned a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 43rd Grammy Awards. Their final album of new studio material was 2003's Everything Must Go, though they continued to release compilations, box sets and live albums on a regular basis. After Becker's death in 2017, Fagen continued the group with himself as the sole official member until his retirement in 2026.
Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and has sold more than 40 million records worldwide. VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the "100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time" in 2010, and Rolling Stone ranked them No. 15 on its list of the "20 Greatest Duos of All Time" in 2015.
History
Formative and early years (1967–1972) Walter Becker and Donald Fagen met in 1967 at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Becker approached Fagen in hopes of getting the bass player spot in the band Fagen led, but Fagen turned him down because the band's present bassist owned all their equipment and booked all their shows. Sometime later, as Fagen passed by The Red Balloon café, he heard Becker practicing the electric guitar. In an interview, Fagen recounted the experience: "I hear this guy practicing, and it sounded very professional and contemporary. It sounded like, you know, like a black person, really." He introduced himself to Becker and asked, "Do you want to be in a band?" Discovering that they enjoyed similar music, literature, and snarky humor, the two began writing songs together, and Fagen brought Becker in as the guitarist for his band.
Becker and Fagen played together in a number of local groups. One such group—known as the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Group and later the Leather Canary—included future comedy star Chevy Chase on drums. They played covers of songs by The Rolling Stones ("Dandelion"), Moby Grape ("Hey Grandma"), and Willie Dixon ("Spoonful"), as well as some original compositions. Terence Boylan, another Bard musician, remembered that Fagen took readily to the beatnik life while attending college: "They never came out of their room, they stayed up all night. They looked like ghosts—black turtlenecks and skin so white that it looked like yogurt. Absolutely no activity, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes and dope."
After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance (of Jay and the Americans), who had a production office in the building, took an interest in their music, which led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget film (featuring Richard Pryor and Robert Downey Sr.) You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat. Becker later said bluntly, "We did it for the money."Metal Leg Issue #2. A series of Becker/Fagen songwriting demos from 1968 to 1971 have appeared in multiple releases, not authorized by Becker and Fagen. A few of the demos include guitar by Denny Dias, but more often they utilize vocalist Keith Thomas and drummer John Discepolo, and many of the demos have no performers aside from Becker and Fagen themselves. Although some of these songs ("The Caves of Altamira", "Brooklyn", "Barrytown") were re-recorded for Steely Dan albums, most were never officially released.
In 1970, Gary Katz produced an album by singer Linda Hoover, I Mean to Shine, featuring Fagen, Becker, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, and including five Becker/Fagen songs. The album was shelved over songwriting licensing issues, but was finally released 52 years later, in 2022. Becker and Fagen later joined the touring band of Jay and the Americans for about a year and a half.Metal Leg: Issue #1 . They were at first paid $100 per show, but partway through their tenure the band's tour manager cut their salaries in half. The group's lead singer, Jay Black, dubbed Becker and Fagen "the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'n' roll", referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.
They had little success after moving to Brooklyn, although Barbra Streisand recorded their song "I Mean to Shine" on her 1971 Barbra Joan Streisand album. Their fortunes changed when one of Vance's associates, Katz, moved to Los Angeles to become a staff producer for ABC Records. He hired Becker and Fagen as staff songwriters; they flew to California. Katz would produce all their 1970s albums in collaboration with engineer Roger Nichols. Nichols would win six Grammy Awards for his work with the band from the 1970s to 2001.
Believing that ABC artists could not handle the complexity of their songs, Becker and Fagen (at Katz's suggestion) formed their own band with Becker on bass, Fagen on keyboards, Dias and Baxter on guitars, and Jim Hodder on drums, and ABC signed them as recording artists. At this point the band had no lead singer; though Hodder had been both lead vocalist and drummer of his previous band, Bead Game, he did so only because they had been unable to find a replacement for their original lead vocalist, and preferred to remain primarily a drummer. Lacking a suitable alternative, Fagen reluctantly agreed to do lead vocals on most of Steely Dan's recordings. Fans of Beat Generation literature, Fagen and Becker named the band after a dildo mentioned in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch. Becker and Fagen had previously mentioned Steely Dan in the lyrics of their song "Soul Ram", which was among the aforementioned unreleased demos.
In 1972, ABC issued Steely Dan's first single, "Dallas", backed with "Sail the Waterway". However, ABC later decided that its country feel was too unrepresentative of Steely Dan's music to serve as an introduction to the band, and the single was withdrawn shortly after release. As of 2025, "Dallas" and "Sail the Waterway" are the only officially released Steely Dan tracks that have not been reissued on cassette or compact disc. In a 1995 interview, Becker and Fagen called the songs "stinko". "Dallas" was covered by Poco on their Head Over Heels album.
Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy (1972–1973) During recording of Steely Dan's debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill, ABC broached the subject of touring to support the album. This made the band's search for a lead singer more urgent, since Fagen was terrified at the prospects of singing live and being a front man. Additionally, while the band members felt that Fagen as a vocalist conveyed the right attitude for their songs, they also recognized that he had a very small vocal range, and believed that a singer with a wider range could open up the possibilities of Becker and Fagen's songwriting. Already Becker and Fagen had had to consciously narrow the vocal melodies in their songs in order to enable Fagen to sing them. At Baxter's recommendation, David Palmer was brought in as Steely Dan's lead singer in time to finish the album, though most of the tracks had already been recorded with Fagen singing lead.
Can't Buy a Thrill was released in November 1972. Its hit singles "Do It Again" and "Reelin' In the Years" (both sung by Fagen) reached No. 6 and No. 11 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. Along with "Dirty Work" (sung by Palmer), the songs became staples on rock radio.
Because of Fagen's reluctance to sing live, Palmer handled most of the vocal duties on stage, including three new songs written specifically to showcase Palmer's unique abilities as a singer, though Fagen sang lead on "Reelin' in the Years". However, Katz had objected to the recruitment of Palmer from the beginning, and by the end of the first tour, the band members had come to agree that he was not a good fit for the songs and in April 1973 fired him from the group. Palmer was understanding of the decision, stating in a 1997 interview, "There were two reasons for me leaving the Dan: First, I was asked to. Second, when you have a singer as great as Donald Fagen was and is, you don't need another lead singer in the band." He later co-wrote the No. 2 hit "Jazzman" (1974) with Carole King.
Sometime after recording Can't Buy a Thrill, Steely Dan wrote and recorded a jingle for Schlitz Beer that was rejected and never aired. Long considered lost, it was rediscovered in July 2023 by Cimcie Nichols in the archive of her late father Roger Nichols. The 1 minute and 50 second jingle has a distinct Steely Dan sound with layered vocals by Fagen, after a spoken word introduction in Spanish by Baxter (in a squeaky inhaled helium voice), with Fagen speaking an English translation. Recording took place in Studio A at The Village in Los Angeles. At the session, a photo was taken of Fagen in reindeer sweater and Dias in overalls and sombrero while holding a tank of helium that subsequently appeared on the back cover of Katy Lied.
For Steely Dan's second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, Fagen took on all the lead vocals. Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau was pleased with the elevation of Fagen, saying that Palmer "fit in like a cheerleader at a crap game." Countdown to Ecstasy was released in July 1973 but was not as commercially successful as the band's debut album. Becker and Fagen were unhappy with some of the performances on the record and believed that it sold poorly because it had been recorded hastily on tour. The album's singles were "Show Biz Kids" and "My Old School", both of which stayed in the lower half of the Billboard charts, although "My Old School", and to a lesser extent, "Bodhisattva", became FM rock staples in time. “My Old School” is a direct homage to events that occurred at Bard College, where Becker and Fagen met.
Because Fagen was still uncomfortable with singing live, for the tour supporting Countdown to Ecstasy vocalist-percussionist Royce Jones was brought on as a touring member and sang lead on several of the songs.
Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied (1974–1976)
Pretzel Logic was released in February 1974. A diverse set, it includes the group's most successful single, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100), and a rendition of Duke Ellington and James "Bubber" Miley's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo".