ARTISTSteely Dan

Steely Dan began as a vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who met at Bard College in 1967. After playing together in several groups and working as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill in Los Angeles, they formed the band in 1972 with Denny Dias, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Jim Hodder, and David Palmer. Their debut, Can't Buy a Thrill, appeared that year and found critical and commercial success, with singles including “Do It Again” and “Reeling in the Years.” It was followed by Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, and Aja. The latter reached the Top Five and was among the first albums certified platinum. The group’s music paired accessible melodies with complex harmonies and time signatures, drawing on jazz, traditional pop, blues, and R&B.

After the tour for Pretzel Logic, Becker and Fagen stopped performing live and shifted Steely Dan toward studio work, recording with professional musicians. Gaucho was released in 1980 and reached the Top Ten; the following year, the two announced they were parting ways. They reunited in 1993 for Kamakiriad, produced by Becker, and toured again. In 2000, they released Two Against Nature, the group’s first studio album in two decades, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year; Everything Must Go followed in 2003. After Becker’s death was announced in September 2017, Fagen continued with Steely Dan, often calling the group “the Steely Dan Band.” The new lineup is documented on the live albums Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly Live, released in September 2021 and recorded between 2018 and 2019.