Song · Steely Dan
“Babylon Sisters” by Steely Dan
From the album Gaucho (1980)
“Babylon Sisters” by Steely Dan appears on 4 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1997 and 2023. It was first released in 1980 on the album Gaucho. Its best result is #373 on The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #7,354 indie & aaa song of all time.
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote "Babylon Sisters" for Gaucho, Steely Dan's seventh studio album, which MCA released on November 21, 1980, after more than a year of studio perfectionism and a parade of at least 42 session players. It fits the album's turn toward rhythm and atmosphere: Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums and Chuck Rainey on bass lay the floor, Don Grolnick adds clavinet and electric piano, Steve Khan plays guitar and Crusher Bennett handles percussion.
The horns and reeds come thick, with Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn, Tom Scott on alto and tenor saxophone and clarinet, and Wally Kane and George Marge on bass clarinet, while six backing singers, Patti Austin, Diva Gray, Gordon Grody, Lani Groves, Leslie Miller and Toni Wine, stand behind Fagen's lead. Gary Katz produced, Elliot Scheiner mixed and Roger Nichols oversaw the engineering.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 932 | 102.3 WBAB | WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) | 1023 |
| 2009 | 834 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2020 | 1884 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 373 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
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