Steely Dan – Band History, Members & Discography

Biography

Steely Dan is a jazz group, formed in 1972 in New York City. Members include Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and Jeff Baxter. Record labels: ABC Records. The discography here lists 42 albums, from “Can’t Buy a Thrill” (1972) to “Done Up Loose: Live London ’74” (2025). Honours include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2001).

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 blues with sophisticated studio production and cryptic, irony-infused lyrics.

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Members

Donald Fagen b. 1948 · American recording artist, musician (born 1948)

Walter Becker 1950–2017 · American musician, songwriter, and record producer…

Jeff Baxter

Discography

Studio and live albums

Can’t Buy a Thrill 1972

Countdown to Ecstasy 1973

1974‐03‐20: KMET – Live: The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA, USA 1974 · Live

Pretzel Logic 1974

Katy Lied 1975

The Royal Scam 1976

Aja 1977

Gaucho 1980

Reeling Through the Years 1991 · Live

Steely Dan Live at Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA 1993 1993 · Live

Los Angeles 1974 1994 · Live

Memphis Blues Again 1994 · Live

Alive in America 1995 · Live

Two Against Nature 2000

Two Against Nature: Steely Dan’s Plush TV Jazz‐Rock Party in Sensuous Surround Sound 2000 · Live

2003‐10‐02: Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City, CA, USA 2003 · Live

Everything Must Go 2003

In Concert 2008

Toronto 2011 2012 · Live

Going Mobile: Classic 1974 Live Radio Broadcast 2013 · Live

1974-04-30: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, TN, USA 2014 · Live

Doing It in California 2015 · Live

Live at the Record Plant, LA, 1974 2015 · Live

The St. Louis Toodle‐oo – Missouri Broadcast 1993 2017 · Live

King of the World (American radio broadcast) 2019 · Live

Sweet Tour 2019 2019 · Live

Aja vs the Scam 2020 · Live

Chicago 2009 (radio broadcast) 2020 · Live

Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! 2021 · Live

Somebody Else’s Favorite Songs (The Broadcast Collection 1974–1993) 2021 · Live

The Royal Scam Sessions 2021

University of California, Irvine, CA (March 10, 1974) 2022 · Live

The Broadcast Collection 1974 – 1996 2023

Done Up Loose: Live London ’74 2025 · Live

1993‐09‐01: Riverport Amphitheater, St. Louis, MO, USA · Live

1994-09-17: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA, USA · Live

1996-07-21: Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA, USA · Live

2000-01: Two Aginst Nature: Sony Studios, New York, USA · Live

2003‐08‐11: DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI, USA · Live

2007‐08‐24, 2nd show: Billboard Live, Tokyo, Japan · Live

Magdalenian Pries: Katy Lied Demos and Outtakes

Southland (live) · Live

Awards

2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Listen on Spotify

Frequently asked questions

What are Steely Dan's best-known albums?

Albums in our database include Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972), Countdown to Ecstasy (1973), 1974‐03‐20: KMET – Live: The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA, USA (1974), Pretzel Logic (1974) and Katy Lied (1975).

External links

Data compiled from open sources; see the source links below. Spotted an error? Let us know.