Kid Charlemagne

It opens The Royal Scam and was released as a single in June 1976 in a 3:56 edit against 4:38 on the album. The single reached 82 on the Hot 100. The backing track was cut in one take at A&R in New York, though the dubbed guitar solo took several. Fagen sang, Don Grolnick, Paul Griffin, Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie played, and the backing vocalists were Michael McDonald, Venetta Fields, Clydie King and Sherlie Matthews. Carlton's solo, running from about 2:18 to 3:08, is a composite of two takes chosen after nearly two hours of unused ones.

In a BBC interview in 2000, Becker and Fagen said the song is loosely inspired by the LSD chemist Owsley Stanley. The Guardian ranked it second among their twenty best, calling the solo the greatest in the band's catalogue. Kanye West sampled it on Champion in 2007, and Rolling Stone ranked the solo 80th in 2008. It appears in 767 setlists on setlist.fm, third most among their songs.