4 Facts About Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”

It was Steely Dan’s highest-charting single The song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, a peak no other Steely Dan single matched.

The title refers to a real person Rikki was a college acquaintance of co-writer Donald Fagen, though the story in the lyrics is fictional.

The guitar riff borrows from a jazz standard The opening riff is nearly identical to the melody of Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” a deliberate homage.

It appears on the album Pretzel Logic The single was the lead track on Steely Dan’s third studio album, released in 1974.