Aja was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago.

A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. Odd, then, that its creators saw it as an "ambitious, extended" work, the apotheosis of their anti-rock, anti-band, anti-glamour aesthetic. 

Populated by thirty-fi ve mostly jazz session players, Aja served up prewar song forms, mixed meters and extended solos to a generation whose idea of pop daring was Paul letting Linda sing lead once in a while. And, impossibly, it sold.

Including an in-depth interview with Donald Fagen, this book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.

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Author: Don Breithaupt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Pages: 144pp
Size: 5 x 6.5
Notes: paperback
Release Date: May 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0826427830