Steely Dan is a Grammy-Award winning American Jazz fusion band centered on core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. The band’s peak of popularity was in the 1970s,  when it released six albums that blended elements ofJazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Their music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies, literate and sometimes obscure or ambiguous lyrics filled with dark sarcasm, and their adroit musicianship and studio perfectionism.

The group toured from 1972 to 1974, but in 1975 became a purely studio-based act. They disbanded in 1981, but have since reunited. They had two reunion tours in the summers of 1993 and 1994 and new studio releases in 2000 Two Against Nature and follow-up, 2003’s Everything Must Go, with accompanying tours. They have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.

Their sixth LP, the jazz-influenced Aja saw Becker and Fagen using the services of top-notch jazz-rock musicians including Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Wayne Shorter, and Chuck Rainey. Aja won several awards, shot into the Top Five in the U.S. charts within three weeks of release, and was one of the first American LPs to be certified ‘platinum’ for sales of over 1 million albums. The first single off the album was “Peg,” which featured Michael McDonald’s backing vocals and peaked at US #11. Other singles included “Deacon Blues” (#19) and “Josie” (#26). The album cemented the duo’s reputation as songwriters, as well as their reputation for studio perfectionism. The story of the making of the album has been documented in an episode of the popular TV and DVD series, Classic Albums. The album features such jazz and fusion luminaries as saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Pete Christlieb and Tom Scott, drummer Steve Gadd and ex-Cannonball Adderley pianist/vibist Victor Feldman. It also featured Becker’s trademark clean, jazzy guitar leads as a prominent solo voice where they had only appeared sporadically in prior releases.

Soon after the success of Aja, Becker and Fagen were asked to contribute the title track for the movie FM. The movie was one of the year’s worst box-office disasters but the song was another hit, barely missing out on the Top 20 in the US and was another minor hit in the UK. The group still performs it today.