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Credit: Far Out \/ Steely Dan \/ Shockwaves Records<\/p>\n
Mon 15 June 2026 18:15, UK <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like Steely Dan<\/a> were ever chasing pop appeal, but did they ever sit atop the hallowed Billboard Hot 100 or 200 charts?<\/p>\n The duo were made for the album era. It was clear from 1972\u2019s Can\u2019t Buy a Thrill debut that co-founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were making music for themselves, indulging in their love of ironic lyrical snark and jazzy expanse to cut a soft rock sound, both orbiting the Eagles\u2019 breezy soundtracks while hiding a cynical punch in the pair\u2019s songwriting.<\/p>\n Such curious acerbicsm would prop up Steely Dan as a stalwart of 1970s FM radio, as well as the decade\u2019s prickly antidote. Just don\u2019t call it \u2018yacht rock\u2019. Legend has it that Fagen personally told someone from the HBO network to \u201cgo fuck yourself\u201d when approached for 2024\u2019s Music Box documentary on the genre.<\/p>\n Once they abandoned their touring duties to commit to a purely studio project for Katy Lied, Steely Dan\u2019s taste for complex songcraft and meticulous recording polish would herald their true golden age in the eyes of hardcore \u2018Danfans\u2019, or kick off their tedious run of sterile perfectionism to their detractors. Whatever the case, the AOR era would owe plenty to Fagen and Becker\u2019s uncompromising dwell in their finely crafted jazz-rock universe.<\/p>\n Musical stubbornness didn\u2019t entirely scare off the pop charts. \u2018Do It Again\u2019, \u2018Reelin\u2019 In the Years\u2019, \u2018Rikki Don\u2019t Lose That Number<\/a>\u2019, \u2018Peg\u2019, and \u2018Hey Nineteen\u2019 all flexed the duo\u2019s knack for a pop hook when they felt like it, and peaked at number 11 or higher in the US singles chart. But did they ever grace the premier top spot during their classic heyday?<\/p>\n So did they ever have a number one?<\/p>\n No, or at least not where it mattered. 1977\u2019s Aja nabbed a very respectable three on the Billboard 200, and \u2018Rikki Don\u2019t Lose That Number\u2019 four on the Hot 100, but never won a chart topper in either.<\/p>\n The closest Steely Dan got when considering all of Billboard\u2019s minor sub-charts was 1978\u2019s Greatest Hits LP, claiming number one on the Billboard Catalog Albums chart, and \u2018Hey Nineteen\u2019 topping the US Adult Contemporary chart in 1981. But the Hot 100 and 200 always eluded the pair.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Not that they cared. Not only did their fans never want the duo any other way, but Fagen wore his contempt for mainstream attention firmly on his sleeve. \u201cAnthemic rock music is inherently fascist,\u201d he quipped in 2013\u2019s Eminent Hipsters book. \u201cAnything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognition finally caught up with them. After years of cutting records on their own terms, Steely Dan were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, a year after their Two Against Nature comeback<\/a>, still not boasting a solid chart topper, but enjoying a distinctive body of work giving future bands license to honour their own artfully idiosyncratic impulses and entirely on their own terms. It\u2019s a legacy worth more than pleasing a fickle pop charts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n