Album · Steely Dan
Countdown to Ecstasy by Steely Dan
Countdown to Ecstasy is an album by Steely Dan, released in 1973. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 48 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “My Old School”, on 36 lists with a best position of #181.
Countdown to Ecstasy, Steely Dan's second album, arrived on ABC in July 1973, and with singer David Palmer gone, Donald Fagen took the lead on every track. Walter Becker and Fagen, the Bard College wiseguys who had headed west to Los Angeles, cut it with producer Gary Katz at the Village Recorder, bringing in Rick Derringer for a slide guitar part on "Show Biz Kids" that was taped at Caribou Ranch in Colorado.
It's a sly, slippery record, rock with jazz in its veins and lyrics you have to squint at, and "Bodhisattva" and "My Old School" show off the band's knack for swinging hard while keeping a straight face. It still didn't give them a US hit single and only reached number 35, but the critics loved it, and it went gold in 1978.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Countdown to Ecstasy on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Old School | 36 | #181 | – | 1997–2026 | |
| 2 | Bodhisattva | 9 | #314 | – | 1996–2026 | |
| 3 | Showbiz Kids | 3 | #674 | – | 1997–2012 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.