Aja

Six studios in Los Angeles and New York were used. Roger Nichols, Elliot Scheiner, Bill Schnee and Al Schmitt engineered, and Bernie Grundman mastered. Becker did not play on Black Cow or Peg. The title track joins separately written sections, and its middle section was adapted from an earlier instrumental, Stand by the Seawall, which the duo had played when auditioning for the band Demian. Wayne Shorter first answered no when Katz asked if he would play, then agreed after a colleague vouched for the band. Bernard Purdie suggested the Purdie Shuffle for Home at Last, explaining that it had a half-time feel that was funky and laid back, and Becker and Fagen had never heard of it. They wanted the saxophonist they had heard on The Tonight Show for Deacon Blues but did not know his name, so Katz brought in players one after another until they found Pete Christlieb. Peg was the last song recorded and the only one cut in New York. Outtakes included You Got the Bear, Stand by the Seawall and Were You Blind that Day, which was rewritten as Third World Man.

Scheiner said he mixed most of the album and recorded Peg at A&R in one night. Schnee recorded Aja and Black Cow, and Schmitt mixed Peg and Deacon Blues. Mixing was fully manual, with many parts sharing single 24-track tapes. Johnny Mandel arranged FM, which was cut separately at Capitol Studio A. Scheiner's first Aja mix turned out to be missing bass and was redone. Black Cow is named for a root beer float, and Fagen said the song grew from the image of a woman downing one in a luncheonette, probably in Brooklyn. Fagen has said Aja was the name of a Korean woman who married the brother of a high-school friend. The cover photo of the model and actress Sayoko Yamaguchi is by Hideki Fujii. Years later the multitrack masters for Black Cow and Aja were found missing, which halted a surround mix, and the 1999 reissue notes offered a $600 reward for their return.

Katz urged the private pair to raise their profile and arranged a meeting with Irving Azoff about managing them. Cameron Crowe wrote in Rolling Stone in December 1977 that it was by far their fastest-selling album. It reached the top five within three weeks, then 3 in the United States, 3 in Canada and 5 in the UK, and went double platinum. It won the 1978 Grammy for best engineered recording and was nominated for Album of the Year. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003 and the National Recording Registry in 2010. The Library of Congress described it as an apotheosis of jazz-pop made against the tide of punk rock and disco.

Christgau said he hated it for quite a while before coming round, and the New York Times's Ben Ratliff said it created a new standard for jazz and rock. Amanda Petrusich wrote in Pitchfork that it is as much a jazz record as a pop one. It is also cited among the best test recordings for audiophiles and as a milestone of yacht rock. A Classic Albums documentary on the album includes Becker and Fagen playing back the rejected guitar solos for Peg.