Reelin' in the Years
by Steely Dan
- 136
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 53
- Danceability
- 14
- Acousticness
Jimmy Page ranked the guitar solo on Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years" as his favorite of all time, and he scored it 12 out of a possible 10. In 2016 readers of Guitar World placed it 40th among the best guitar solos. Elliott Randall played it, but he was not the first choice. Jeff Baxter had been assigned the part, and when he could not play it to the band's satisfaction he asked Randall to try. Randall recorded it in one take, with no edits or punch ins. The four-channel quadraphonic mix has extra lead guitar fills that the common stereo version lacks.
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wrote the song, and Fagen sang lead. The band had recruited David Palmer so that Fagen would not have to sing lead live, but even on the first tour Fagen took this one, with the other five members singing backup.
It was the second single from the 1972 debut album Can't Buy a Thrill. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1973 and at No. 15 in Canada. In a 2009 interview Fagen called it dumb but effective, and Becker said it was no fun.
Reelin' in the Years runs at 136 BPM, the tempo of techno, trance and big-room dance. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.76 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 441 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.