Steely Dan is 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).

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 albums.

Their first, Can’t Buy a Thrill(1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, blues^[8] and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success with seven studio albums, peaking with their top-selling album Aja, released in 1977.

Aja solidified Becker’s and Fagen’s reputations as songwriters and studio perfectionists. It features such jazz and fusion luminaries as guitarists Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour; bassist Chuck Rainey; saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Pete Christlieb, and Tom Scott; drummers Steve Gadd, Rick Marotta and Bernard Purdie; pianist Joe Sample and ex-Miles Davis pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman and Grammy award-winning producer/arranger Michael Omartian(piano).

Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the “100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time”. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 15 on its list of the “20 Greatest Duos of All Time”.