Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Originally having a full band lineup, by the end of 1974 Becker and Fagen chose to stop playing live and continue Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, utilising a revolving cast of session musicians. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".
Pretzel Logic is the third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on February 20, 1974. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz. The album was Steely Dan's last to be made and released while the group was still an active touring band, as well as the final album to feature the band's full quintet-lineup of Becker, Fagen, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, though it also features significant contributions from many prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians.
Can't Buy a Thrill is the debut studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in November 1972. It was written by band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and recorded in August 1972 at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles with producer Gary Katz. The album is one of Steely Dan's most stylistically eclectic, encompassing the sounds of soft rock, folk rock, jazz-rock and pop, alongside philosophical, elliptical lyrics.
Aja is the sixth studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on September 23, 1977. On the album, band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker pushed Steely Dan further into experimenting with different combinations of session players, enlisting the services of nearly 40 musicians, while pursuing longer, more sophisticated compositions and arrangements.
Countdown to Ecstasy is the second studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in July 1973. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, except for Rick Derringer's slide guitar part for "Show Biz Kids", which was recorded at Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado. After the departure of vocalist David Palmer from Steely Dan, the group recorded the album with Donald Fagen singing lead on every track.
Katy Lied is the fourth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records in March 1975; reissues have been released by MCA Records since ABC Records was acquired by MCA in 1979. It was the first album the group made after they stopped touring, as well as their first to feature backing vocals by Michael McDonald.
Gaucho is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released by MCA Records on November 21, 1980. The album marked a significant stylistic shift for the band, with more focus on rhythm and atmosphere than their earlier work, but the recording sessions demonstrated the group's typical obsessive nature and perfectionism, as they used at least 42 different musicians, spent over a year in the studio, and far exceeded the original monetary advance given by the record label. At the 24th Annual Grammy Awards, Gaucho won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Florence Warner is an American singer who has worked mainly in recordings of television commercials, including the "Hello News" image campaign from Gari Communications. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Peg" is a song by the American rock group Steely Dan, first released on the band's 1977 album Aja. The track was released as a single in 1977 and reached number 11 on the US Billboard chart in 1978 and number eight on the Cash Box chart. With a chart run of 19 weeks, "Peg" is tied with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Hey Nineteen" for being Steely Dan's longest-running chart hit. In Canada, "Peg" spent three weeks at number seven in March 1978.
A Decade of Steely Dan is a compilation album by Steely Dan, released in 1985. It was the band's first compilation specifically for the compact disc market, and was certified a gold record by the RIAA.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released in 1978 by ABC Records. The double album includes tracks from the band's first six studio albums, as well as a previously unreleased song, "Here at the Western World", recorded during sessions for The Royal Scam (1976). Greatest Hits was certified platinum in the U.S., with sales of over one million units.
Citizen Steely Dan is a four-CD box set compilation album by Steely Dan, released in 1993.
The Best of Steely Dan: Then and Now is a compilation album by Steely Dan, released in 1993. The album cover is a photograph of Carhenge in Nebraska.
"Do It Again" is a 1972 song composed and performed by American rock group Steely Dan, who released it as a single from their debut album Can't Buy a Thrill as its opening track. The single version differed from the album version, shortening the intro and outro and omitting the organ solo.
"Being Boiled" is the debut single by the British synth-pop band the Human League. Composed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, with lyrics by Philip Oakey, it has been released several times since 1978, finally becoming a UK top ten hit in 1982.
"Any Major Dude Will Tell You" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker that was first released by Steely Dan on their 1974 album Pretzel Logic. It was also released as the B-side of the first single from that album "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". It was later released on several of the band's compilation albums.
"FM (No Static at All)" is a song by American jazz-rock band Steely Dan, the title theme for the 1978 film FM. It made the US Top 40 that year when released as a single, a success relative to the film. Musically, it is a complex jazz-rock composition driven by its bass, guitar and piano parts, typical of the band's sound from this period; its lyrics look askance at the album-oriented rock format of many FM radio stations at that time, in contrast to the film's celebration of that medium.
"Josie" is a song written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and first released by Steely Dan on their 1977 album Aja. It was also released as the third single from the album and performed modestly well, reaching number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 44 on the Easy Listening chart that year. It has appeared on several Steely Dan live and compilation albums.
"Aja" is a jazz rock song, with elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock, by the American rock band Steely Dan from the album of the same name, their sixth studio album, released in 1977. Composers Becker and Fagen play guitar and synthesizer, respectively, with studio musicians playing the other parts. Fagen sings lead vocals. Production duties were handled by Gary Katz; the album was released through ABC Records. Musically, it is tonally sophisticated and a structurally complex work that was praised upon release as the most ambitious track the duo had ever attempted. The song's lyrics voice the interior monologue of a man who runs to the title character to escape the stresses of his life "up on the hill." Fagen claimed that it was inspired by the relative of an acquaintance, who had married a Korean woman named Aja. He has described the song as being about the "tranquility that can come of a quiet relationship with a beautiful woman."
"Dirty Work" is a song written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan, which appeared on the band's 1972 debut album Can't Buy a Thrill.
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