album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Pop rock / soft rock / jazz-rock / yacht rock. Can't Buy a Thrill is the debut studio album by Steely Dan — the project formed in Los Angeles by New York songwriters Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (piano, vocals) together with guitarists Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter and Denny Dias, drummer Jim Hodder and, for this album only, vocalist David Palmer, who was recruited to sing lead on two tracks after Fagen expressed reluctance to perform live. The band took its name from a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch — a clue to the literary sensibility, dark humour and cryptic obliqueness that would distinguish Becker and Fagen's songwriting throughout their career. All ten songs on the album were written by Becker and Fagen. The music blends tight pop-rock structures with Latin, jazz and swing inflections, anchored by Fagen's keyboard-driven arrangements and notably sophisticated guitar work. Session guitarist Elliot Randall played the lead solos on 'Kings' and 'Reelin' in the Years'; the latter, according to Jimmy Page, contains his favourite guitar solo of all time. The album's cover — a photomontage by Robert Lockart featuring a line of prostitutes in Rouen, France — was banned in Francoist Spain and replaced by a photograph of the band in concert.
Label: ABC Records (USA), released November 1972.
Producer: Gary Katz. Engineer: Roger Nichols.
Recording studio: The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California, USA. Recorded in August 1972.
Critical reception: Can't Buy a Thrill was well received on release and has grown in stature considerably since. AllMusic gave it a 90/100 score, calling it a 'seductive, poker-faced debut' and praising 'Do It Again' as 'one of the most mysterious pop hits in history.' Pitchfork awarded it 86 points in a retrospective review. It appeared on Rolling Stone's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list (2003) and in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Rate Your Music ranks it among the 20 best albums of 1972.
Commercial success: The album peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA. The single 'Do It Again' reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 'Reelin' in the Years' reached number 11. Both became FM radio staples and have remained so for more than fifty years. Steely Dan has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
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