b. 10 January 1948, Passaic, New Jersey, USA. A graduate of New York's Bard College, Fagen joined fellow student Walter Becker in several temporary groups, including the Leather Canary and Bad Rock Group. The duo then forged a career as songwriters - their demos were later compiled on several exploitative releases - and spent several years backing Jay And The Americans. Having completed the soundtrack to You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Or You'll Lose That Beat), a low-budget movie by Zalman King, Fagen and Becker then formed Steely Dan. Probably one of America's finest groups, their deft, imaginative lyrics were set into a music combining the thrill of rock with the astuteness of jazz. Although initially a sextet, the group soon became an avenue for the duo's increasingly oblique vision as band members were replaced by hirelings. Their partnership was sundered in June 1981, but two years later Fagen re-emerged with The Nightfly. Abetted by Steely Dan producer Gary Katz, the singer simply continued the peerless perfection of his earlier outfit with a set indebted to state-of-the-art techniques, yet in part invoking the aura of 50s' and early 60s' America. The cover shot, depicting the artist as a late-night jazz disc jockey, set the tone for its content wherein Fagen name-dropped Dave Brubeck, re-created "Ruby Baby", a 1956 hit for the Drifters and, in "Maxine", suggested the close harmony style of the Hi-Lo's or Four Freshmen.

Fagen subsequently contributed to Rosie Vela's Zazu (1986) and later scored the Michael J. Fox movie, Bright Lights, Big City, from which the excellent "Century's End" was culled as a single. In May 1990 Fagen was reunited with Becker at New York's Hit Factory studios, signalling the revival of Steely Dan. In the spring of 1993 the long-awaited second album was released, to much critical acclaim. Kamakiriad is supposedly an album of eight related songs about the millennium (according to the sleeve notes); to lesser mortals, though, it simply sounded like another excellent Steely Dan record.

Fagen and Becker began touring and recording together again as Steely Dan in the latter part of the 90s, enjoying renewed critical and commercial success. Fagen took time out from the group to release his third solo album, the mordant Morph The Cat, in 2006.
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