Reelin' In the Years

The second single from Can't Buy a Thrill, released in March 1973, was recorded in August 1972 at the Village Recorder. Fagen sang and played piano, Dias and Baxter played rhythm guitar, Becker played bass, Hodder drums and Feldman tambourine. Baxter was first given the solo but could not satisfy the band, so Randall recorded it in one take with no edits. Guitar World readers ranked it 40th in 2016, and Q placed the recording 95th among guitar tracks in 2005.

It reached 11 on the Hot 100 and 15 in Canada, and was 68th on Billboard's 1973 year-end chart. Rolling Stone in 2017 called it a prime early example of the band's trademark vibe. The Guardian ranked it ninth in 2022 and heard its influence in Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back in Town and Nick Lowe's So It Goes, noting that Fagen and Becker later dismissed it as dumb but effective. In live shows in 1974 it was preceded by a five-minute instrumental that later became the opening of Your Gold Teeth II on Katy Lied. It appears in 615 setlists on setlist.fm, the ninth most of any of their songs.