My name's Rick, I was 16 the year this song came out and that it was the also the first time I went to a Gay bar with my fake ID! The DJ played this song and dedicated it to me that night which was so great for a shy, nervous young Gay kid!

"Send it off in a letter to yourself" was a way of saying as a backup, mail yourself a copy of the phone number. This was PRE-cell phones with cameras and other gadgets. Today, you could just take a picture of the number and store it in your iPhone or use your "Notes" app. LOL! Geez, I'm so darn old.

"I feel like Steely Dan, and groups like them...." OK, let's stop right there. There are no groups like Steely Dan.

It’s a beautiful simple, but same time complex song. And incredibly well crafted. Trademark Steely Dan! Now it’s time to get out of your mind and do time out of mind 😎

Rikki is their pop hit

Rikki. The soundtrack of my earlly teen years. Haunting and soulful. The things that made it on to the radio then was kind of mind-blowing. Piano by Michael Omartian is brilliant.

Back in the 70's (and before), if someone was away from home, many would send themselves "by letter" any important information or "that number". All, of course, not necessary with today's technology.

This is one of my favorite Steely Dan songs because it evokes genuine feeling in the singing. Fagen sounds desperate, especially in the middle eight when he sings, "And you could have a change of heart!"

You're driving to K-mart or Sears at the mall with an Z-rock FM station on and this is playing. Anyone else have that memory association?

Thank you for reacting to this!! I recommend listening to Steely Dan's "Caves of Altamira"!!!! Great brass arrangement!

Pretzel Logic is still my favourite Steely Dan album as it fits comfortably in the middle of their canon of cuts. The album might not have the sophisticated production of later ones or the proto rawness of earlier works by them. To me it is an honest album with just the right amount of mystery and familiar themes, signature vocals and well crafted lyrics and melodies. The variety of songs from ballads to rock is sufficient to rank this album highest on my list. This doesn't mean that all others are inferior, I love them all as much as the other for different reasons. Steely Dans library is the 70's great American novel and not a page can be left out. Pretzel Logic is only a short album but it contains all the elements of the wonderful story telling and authentic historical musical production. Also, Steely Dan riffs have been sampled for decades by rap and hip hop artists. signed: the dolphins off the starboard bow.

Btw, It was Bard College, not Barth like that site said. Bard College, along the Hudson River in upstate NY, is where Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met in 1967 and began writing songs together. The school is the subject of the song "My Old School", which you should also check out. Fun fact: While in college, Fagen and Becker played in some bands (Don Fagen Jazz Trio, The Bad Rock Group, The Leather Canary). One of the bands had future comedian-actor, Chevy Chase, on drums. Chevy Chase was also a Bard student at the time.

Musical Moods, Alex from Andy and Alex remarked, "Steely Dan sounds like what leather smells like" and so it is when SD crafts a song, the particular addition of each layered instrument is consciously placed to engulf the listener in a particular mood, given that sounds entering into our brain are unfiltered, unlike sight. I think "The Fez" is the best example of very simple lyrics, which still retain complex emotional undertones, all wrapped up in a mood that only SD can provide. Haitian Divorce is one of their satirical cultural remark pieces that has the bet WAH guitar ever recorded, again such a SD mood song. And on it goes. Still you should listen to Yours Is No Disgrace" from YESSONGS

I always took "it's the only one you own" to mean it's the only copy of that number that she has - that if she throws it out, she won't be able to get it back. To me, the most interesting thing about the song is the chord progressions. They make it feel like the center is constantly shifting, as if it had a bunch of key changes, although it uses only one key.

My old school is a good one if you haven't reacted to it yet.

Great memories....love THE DAN...AWESOME CHOICES. THANX👍🇺🇸💙💛☀

Dethstrok9...very st8 foward song......don't lose that # its the only one you own.....he only gave it to her once.....she only possesses one copy of his number. Dont lose that number cause we will not see each other again so i cant give it to you again. She was married. Great video!

More tracks worth checking out from Pretzel Logic: Night By Night, Any Major Dude Will Tell You, Parker's Band, Pretzel Logic

I think of the beach when I hear this song. It was the first time I heard this song. Love these songs, bring back such great memories.

You can read the whole story on the internet, but Donald Fagen had a crush on a girl he met at a party, though she was married, he gave her his number just in case she ever had a change in heart about him. It was the only number she owned of his. She never called him back but she definitely remembered him. I believe she was also became a professor as Bard College?

Another possible take on "It's the only one you own" could be that it's a play on "having someone's number" as in knowing them intimately and thus having power over them. In other words, "You've got my number like you've got nobody else's". I've also heard the Rick Derringer hypothesis and both stories could well be true.

These lyrics are straight forward so just appreciate the music on this one. SD isn't always deep or tangential.

this is probably one of their more smooth rock radio hits. This was also the biggest hit of their career! Not my favorite track but still one i love!

I'm so glad you took the time to try to get the lyrics. I think the name Rikki was a girl they met at Bard College in NY. But, these guy couldn't just write about a girl...that's way too easy. I believe they are talking about session guitarist Rick Derringer who evidently left a session in anger. " You don't wanna call nobody else" and "Its the only one you own" cause Steely Dan is the best session you're going to get. "we could go out driving on Slow Hand Row" is a reference to being able to use world famous Eric Clapton on their project. "you don't even know your mind" again this telling him you've got a great gig ... don't blow it. Honestly, you can't get SD with a listen. This music is way too deep. Their music harmony is like no other Pop/Rock band. They are so creative!!! Bass is playing a jazz standard line from Horace Silver's "Song for my Father" a total rip-off.

Bass line quotes jazzman Horace Silver- "Song for My Father"

Rikki was a woman Fagen met at a party and he wanted. Unfortunately she was married to one of his professors and pregnant. He gave her his number anyways hoping she would change her mind. She ended up divorcing her professor husband and moved to France. She ended up publishing a book of French Poetry and moved back to the US. She is a famous poet Riki Ducornet.

Simple by the Dan's standards, but not that simple (especially musically) compared to much else on AM radio in '74 (or since for that matter). It's a great song still, but like most reactors you're seeing the most requests for the biggest hits, which is understandable but can lead to a lowest common denominator scenario that's not necessarily right for your 'brand'. At least you listened to the full marimba opening, most use the single version which cuts out those first 30 seconds! Your Gold Teeth, Kings, The Caves of Altamira and Gaucho and many other Steely delights still await you...none were hits, but all are great!

This song is extremely well-produced (as all of their stuff is), and has a really good range of tones and sounds. I used to carry a cassette (later a burned CD) with this song (and one or two others) on it to test out stereo equipment when I was upgrading my system.

OH SHITTTT YOU HAVE ( GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD ) UP ON YOUR BOARD, YEAHHHHH, JUST 1 OF 7 IN A ROW MULTI PLATINUM ALBUMS BY ELTON BETWEEN 71-75, ON TOPPPPP OF THE ROCK WORLD FOR 5 STR8 YEARS, DOMINATED ROCK! :)

It may be a simpler song but if i'm given the choice to listen to this or Aja more than a few times,Aja doesn't get a look in.Your also the first reactor to comment on how beautiful the piano playing is in this song,Please give King of the world or Kings a listen please.Cheers.

I always hear that line as "it's the only one you want." That's how I make sense of it....

That intro is a marimba.

Now, a lot of bands could create a catchy tune and this is certainly one. Excepting the nuances, the little things that the Dan always does that blows the attuned through the roof, this is a solid song that could energize gener- ations, it goes beyond, waaaayyyy. That intermezzo, the guitar and that vocal plea, so human and so freaking plaintive. It just f'ing kills. The song is a masterpiece that us 50 and olders will know but those younger won't even give the time of day. I just shared it with my 19 year old daughter and she'll blow it off. GRRRRR! I can't complain too much, she's cleaning house. I'd rather she listen, honestly!

I'm really enjoying the fact that you aren't just listening to songs on the the 'trending' group. I have some songs that aren't being heard by anyone and they should be. I will start posting some of those songs and see how you like it. ;-)

Fagan said in an interview, this IS about a dealer’s number. Heroin was around. The suggestion is that he might really want/need this later.

I know this is probably way out of your comfort zone, but I think you would appreciate the jist of the song. It's called Fragile and the singer is Tech9

Great sound quality on this Album. It was often the first record that one would play on a new stereo system to check out the sound! 😊

This is very, very late, but that opening bass riff is lifted from Horace Silver's "Song for my Father" from the Horace Silver Quintet's album of the same name. SD are jazzers at heart. P.S., everything is simpler than Aja.

YEs! Ditto on "My Old School" also "King of the World". I had the feeling in this song that he knew this persons history, so he knew they had only him to rely on. So l didn't think it was presumptuous on his part. Peace

How did I miss this?? Love the sampled intro!! We can stay inside and play games-I don’t know... That’s a great line.

SD have (at least) two very underrated gems: Midnight Cruiser (about Thelonious Monk, a jazz musician who influenced their work) and Kings (a history lesson about royalty).

Simple is good. The guitar work is amazing and the piano was off the charts for a pop song. It WAS their most popular commercial success.

“…the only one you own,”. I think the line indicates that he has given himself to her. She owns the number, he offers himself.

Love this SONG! Makes me remember when I was 5 or 6. I have a great memory of Music. I remember listening to Summer Breeze at 5 years old swinging on the swingset on my backyard swing set. I had good taste as a Kid.

If you want a slower deep track from Steely Dan try “Third World Man”. Has a beautiful guitar solo from Larry Carlton.

Start :Your Hummig the first bars of the jazznumber : Song for my father.

You gotta review and analyze " Peg" by Steely Dan. It's more upbeat and one of their classic mid 70's hits! You'll love it!!

When I was in high school when this song came out, my sophomore year and I was listening to songs with a friend, this a boy told me this song was about a gay relationship and pointed to the lyric: You tell yourself you're not my kind But you don't even know your mind And you could have a change of heart

I feel you're right.....simpler than most and why it was their big am radio hit.

Didn't read through all the comments so forgive me if it's been said, but this song(musically) is based off Horace Silver's "Song For My Father". You may want to check that song out.

Need to dig into the king of Southern rock The Allman Brother especially what is considered one of the greatest live albums call Filmore East

Rikki was a fellow female college student who DF tried to hook up with. He give her his number at a party. She is a very prominent college professor now. Link here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikki_Ducornet

Okay, this song is from one of the Twilight movies. Lykke Li --- Possibility

To answer your question regarding skynyrd, yes. Skynyrd closed for this band all throughout the seventies. They were constantly touring together. This is the outlaws version of free bird

White Demon Love song by the Killers (also on Twilight)

Simple for them maybe, light years ahead of most others.

Daniel, maybe he wants it to be her only number, you made me laugh about that line

This is a song about two friends and one friend gives the other friend a drug and he has a bad experience a the friend gives him the number to the dealer in case he has a change of heart.

Do "Time Out of Mind" next.

I agree: sometimes less (meaning) is more... (Also: do you get enough sleep ? You can take a break if you need to, you know ;o)

That's what happens when you have 3 amazing guitar players in the same band. Each one of them gets a 5 minute guitar solo in you wind up getting a song like this

You will absolutely love Statesboro Blues

I think you were spot on in your assessment of the arrogance of the person telling the story. This was a song about a refusal to take no for an answer. And one other line shows this when he says "we could go out riding on Slowhand Road", which I think is a referral to Eric Clapton's musical stalking and eventual winning of Patti Boyd who was married to George Harrison. Basically, I think he's saying he could go to those lengths to take her from her significant other. Eric Clapton's nickname is Slowhand.

Just a thought. If your grandfather is still alive, you should sit there and record a conversation about the type of music he listened to when he was a kid. I have a feeling you and him are going to agree on everything

Of all the Steely Dan songs you have covered (and Aja is my favorite album of all time) this song is perhaps the least musically complex. Meaning I learned how to play it on guitar in a fairly short time. I played in a band for decades, and we did a cover of "My Old School" with up to 4 horns (though we sometimes were missing a barry sax, meaning only 3) but this one, the band made me get up and do solo when they were being lazy musicians. :-) Then they would demand that I do a James Taylor tune, then I would usually demand that they all get their asses on stage, because reasons!

It’s good that you e come to expect a lot from certain bands and that when you perceive something as simple or easy, you’re willing to be critical. Obviously, this isn’t Green Earrings or Kid Charlemagne, but I bet that melody and/or chorus stuck in your head for a while. It’s a solid tune, but not musically groundbreaking. Btw, I think the instrument at the beginning is some sort of marimbas

Rikki was a girl the singer knew in college.

In the 70's, a "number" meant a joint. Weed. We all sheepishly laughed at that, being little teen potheads. Later, I had read on one of the Dan websites (Dan-heads are particularly obsessive. More so than most) that it was a subversive song about a homosexual relationship. Re-read the lyrics through that filter. Just a thought. Fantastic tune, in any way.

The great....Skunk Baxter on guitar...

It was their biggest hit. Very digestible for the pop audience.

Do Haitian Divorce next. Nobody reacts to it but it’s incredible. Or Your Gold Teeth. PS do yourself a favor though and don’t try to analyze the lyrics for Your Gold Teeth. I still don’t really know fully what that one’s about.

I'd like to hear your reaction to some Todd rundgren. Not any hello it's me crap, but something like the verb to love or the last ride or sometimes I don't know what to feel. Also some Hendrix. For example if 6 was 9.

"Green Earrings" next or "FM (No Static at All)" next.

This song was inspired by Horace Silver's Song For My Father. Please check it out.

Fagan - Fay-gan (gan as in the final syllable of "again")

DID YOU FALL INTO THE STEELYYYYY RABBIT HOLE DANIEL??? LOL :) LOTSA 25-40 YEAR OLDS ARE DOING THAT SO! ANYYYTHING BETWEEN 71-77 IS PRETTY DAMNNNNN AWESOME TO DO. : BLACK FRIDAY, REELING IN THE YEARS, MY OLD SCHOOL, PRETZEL LOGIC, BODHISATVA, I CAN STOP FOR NOW LOL GOOD LUCK DANIEL :)

Have you listened to Steely Dans best song called Deacon Blues..... has amazing lyrics

Rikki, is Rikki Lee Jones.

Dude... back in the day, we used to call joints ‘numbers’. Probably came from using code words to hide the drug reference. I don’t buy the ‘married woman’ story. I think that he was talking about drugs, and gave Rikki a joint (number) and said keep it until you need it later. (It’s the only one you own) Send it off in a letter to yourself... means keep it safe, send it to get rid of it for a while and not get caught with it.

Rikki lee jones was atalented LA musician hooked on junk od'ed and hangin the street.You could deposit an object in the post office by mailing it . All the musician community struggled to help her

Try Don't take me alive, Josie,Do it again

It’s time to move into some of their more modern stuff. Two Against Nature’s “Cousin Dupree” or “Pixeleen” and “Godwhacker” off of Everything Must Go.

Have you listened to Doctor Wu from the Katy Lied album by Steely Dan, one of my favorites

maybe he knows that Rikki (a she) ....never calls anyone back and just uses the men in her life and takes off so he is assuming his number is the only one she really owns hopefully she doesn't throw it away like the others before him

"It the only one you want" I read as his hubris. Call me. I'm the only one you want to call.

Why are peeps saying this is simple? Steely Dan doesn't do simple. The vibe alone is kickass. And this is nowhere near pop. They could be singing about Cheetos and it'd be jazzy, soulful rock.

Can you try Montana from the Over-nite sensation album by Frank Zappa, I’d be interested in what you thought about it.

Steely Dan always seemed to me to be the American equivalent of England's 10CC. Both with college boys writing clever lyrics, both with sexually derived names (more cleverness). Steely Dan perhaps a little more serious, 10CC a little sillier. Both had some solid musicians and some big hits, especially with the right audience.

How about Golden Years by David Bowie?

I think Rikki might have been a addict. Thats why this person was asking him/her not to lose the number if they needed help. I don't know. I suck this shit.

I can' t tell if the instrument is a glockenspiel or xylophone. OMG! ONLY 3 SENTENCES? JESUS IS CKMING!

This song I mean, how many bands can have a complex jazz chord apareggio as the drop and get away with it? Never mind the vibraphone intro that very discretely lives in the background of the rest of the song which you never would have noticed. Also I think the line "it's the only one you own" is about a person who keeps on rejecting romantic advances because they are afraid of being in a relationship. This band is not given enough credit for being early fusion.

Listen to "Boston Rag"

Dr. Wu

Not sure which tune it was when you mentioned Caller ID... back in the day of these tunes there was no way to know who was calling. Sending stuff in a letter to yourself always dates something with a dated federal postmark back then

I've never heard that weird intro thing, it wasn't on the single.

Well, not a lot to breakdown in this song, as you noticed. Honestly, this is one of those songs by "the Dan" I think of as merely "good." It's catchy. It's commercial. It was written for 70s radio. If you look back at my list from the first song you did by them, on the long playlist I gave you, I didn't include this for just that reason. At this point in your trip down the Steely Dan rabbit hole, this song was bound to disappoint.

Do. PEG. The best of their work

When I listen to a Steely Dan song I don't give a fcuk what the lyrics is about I don't fcuking care. I just want to hear the mother fcuking music,ok

With a memorable bass-line quote from jazz-icon Horace Silver, the song’s chord-progressions go way beyond those of average pop tunes, while the guitar soloing includes country as well as rock styles. The chorus is ultra singable, strongly melodic and beautifully harmonized. Last but not least, the lyrical genius found here lies in its intentional vagueness, once again rendering attempts at literal analysis to be a pointless stupid waste of time.