Steely Dan’s 1972 debut album, *Can’t Buy a Thrill*, helped bring the band’s sophisticated jazz-rock fusion to a wider audience, despite their initially limited appeal in New York’s disco- and proto-punk-dominated music scene. Its standout single, ‘Reelin’ In the Years’, reached number 11 in the US singles chart and demonstrated that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s harmonically ambitious style could achieve commercial success.

The track’s celebrated guitar solo was played by Elliott Randall, a former touring associate, rather than Becker or Fagen. Randall recorded the entirely improvised solo in one take with little direction, later saying the song “virtually played itself”; Jimmy Page subsequently named it his favourite guitar solo, even rating it 12 out of 10.