![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/The-band-Joni-Mitchell-and-Aimee-Mann-agreed-were-22the-American-Beatles22-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy \/ Andy (6tee-zeven)<\/p>\n
Sat 17 January 2026 21:10, UK <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lofty thing to claim that anyone could match, let alone beat, The Beatles, who, in under a decade, didn\u2019t just evolve endlessly as a group, morphing from thing to thing with baffling speed, changing music history over and over. However, to Joni Mitchell<\/a> and Aimee Mann, there was another unit that matched them in that regard, and it\u2019s a divisive one. <\/p>\n There are certain bands that have a huge and looming impact on music and culture, but still can\u2019t win over everybody; thus, when it comes to Steely Dan, there is undeniably an element where the band failed to ever really break through into the realm of cool. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are respected and beloved, earning themselves a huge fan base and building a decade-spanning career that still holds onto a mass of fans. Still, somehow, neither of them ever really entered the league of legends that people revere for effortless energy, their style, their cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n Does that matter though? In such cases, one wonders how to measure the worth of a band, and whether it is in their energy and reputation, or whether it is simply all in the music. For Mann and Mitchell, if it all came down to the latter, Steely Dan would be the rulers of the big leagues, rivalling The Beatles as they both truly believe that the music matches up.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was Mann who first made that bold comparison<\/a>, saying, \u201cThey\u2019re the American Beatles\u201d. Given the obvious differences in the two bands\u2019 music, and given the looming impact of the Fab Four, it raised some eyebrows, but for Mann, it\u2019s all about their boldness and evolution. <\/p>\n \u201cThey coined a musical genre that hadn\u2019t existed before,\u201d she explained, seeing The Beatles\u2019 pioneering spirit, and finding it in Steely Dan too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Attempting to sum up the Fab Four\u2019s genre evolution succinctly is almost impossible, as within only a few years, they mastered rock and roll, blues, and folk. They harnessed elements of Indian classical music, arguably invented punk, dabbled in sonic performance art and spiralled into the psychedelic world, doing it all, and doing it well, and in a lot of cases, they also did it before everyone else, leaving the rest of the world to follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mann saw that same spirit in Steely Dan as she said, \u201cYes, it\u2019s sort of a mixture of rock and jazz, but the way in which those two elements were combined was completely unique to them\u201d. <\/p>\n Talking to Uncut, she continued her strong praise for the band, adding, \u201cTo have the musical facility to put beautiful melodies on top of unlikely chord changes, with such well-written lyrics about really broken, sad subjects, and to create a whole new sound with a really idiosyncratic vocal, that\u2019s the whole package,\u201d declaring, \u201cThey invented a new thing.\u201d<\/p>\n