RIKKI DON'T LOSE THAT NUMBER (1974) by Steely Dan

'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' was off Pretzel Logic, and appears to be a favourite of Steely Dan fans. It was released in 1974.

It's intro is a nod to 'Song For My Father' by Horace Silver. Donald Fagen said in a 2011 interview when asked about the intro 'There was never a conscious thought about picking up Horace Silver's intro. We wrote this Brazilian bass line and when drummer Jim Gordon heard it, he played his figures. As for the piano line, I think I had heard it on an old Sergio Mendes album. Maybe that where Horace heard it, too [laughs]'.

Several musicians outside the band help out on the track. Michael Omartian plays keyboard, Dean Parks acoustic guitar, Jim Gordon drums, Victor Feldman percussion, and Timothy Schmit along with Fagen on backing vocals. I have done a slideshow video featuring most of these guest musos, as well as the usual Dan suspects, Donald Fagen (vocals), Walter Becker (bass) and Jeff Baxter (guitar, solo) .Denny Dias was not on the track.

This list of musos for this track is taken from the liner notes on 'A Decade of Steely Dan' compilation CD and a book I have on Steely Dan entitled 'Reelin in the Years' by Brian Sweet. According to Sweet, Jeff Baxter played the solo without an amplifier, just plugged directly into the board. Apparently the solo had to be done several times because of a 'blip' appearing on the tape. After sending the tape to the manufacturer 3M for analysis, it was found to have some little lumps which turned out to be mustard from a workman's sandwich!

Sweet also stated that the song was based on a student named Rikki from Bard College who had made an impression on Becker and Fagen, (although they were not known for giving straight answers when explaining their songs, so who knows?).

I tried to include images of Steely Dan and Donald Fagen album covers. I also obtained an add on to Windows Movie Maker, which gives a few more panning and zoom options. This is the first video using those.

(Update: as of 11 June 2012, this video is the most popular of the 90 music videos I have up on my channel with 502,904 hits). Further update as of 4 Sept 2017, it now has 4.180,112 hits. Also sadly, I have just found out that co founder and composer Walter Becker has just passed. RIP.

Comments are invited.