That Eric Alper

Steely Dan’s darkly cynical and musically intricate fifth album, 1976’s The Royal Scam, with such fan favorites as “Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez,” “The Caves of Altamira,” and the biting title track, will return to vinyl for the first time in more than forty years on June 6 via Geffen/UMe, concluding the extensive reissue program of the band’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog that began in November 2022 with the Dan’s legendary debut LP, Can’t Buy A Thrill. The series, which is personally overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, returns the group’s first seven records to vinyl, most of which haven’t been available since their original release.

The Royal Scam has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes for release as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD).

UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version has been remastered by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound from high-resolution digital files and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork. Nino-Hernes’ new remaster of The Royal Scam will also be available to stream on the DSPs on June 6, joining the already available remasters of the rest of the catalog – Can’t Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, Aja, and Gaucho – which were remastered by Alex Abrash from Bernie Grundman’s masters.

The 45 RPM UHQR versions will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection. Each UHQR is pressed, using hand-selected vinyl, with attention paid to every single detail of every single record. All of the innovations introduced by QRP that have been generating such incredible critical acclaim are applied to each UHQR. The 200-gram records feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable.

Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humor, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of its day, their records, which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable, were stylistically diverse, melding their love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop songcraft.

Released in 1976, The Royal Scam marked a pivotal moment in Steely Dan’s evolution toward studio perfectionism, delivering a darker, more cynical tone wrapped in complex jazz-rock arrangements. This album features some of the band’s sharpest songwriting and introduces legendary drummer Bernard Purdie to the fold-his first appearance on a Steely Dan record-bringing his signature groove to tracks like “Kid Charlemagne” and “Green Earrings.” Guitarist Larry Carlton delivers searing solos throughout the album, particularly on “Don’t Take Me Alive,” while Dean Parks adds talk box flair to the reggae-influenced “Haitian Divorce.” The album also includes standout cuts like the funky, offbeat “The Fez” and the epic title track, “The Royal Scam,” a scathing portrait of shattered American dreams. With contributions from bassist Chuck Rainey, keyboardist Paul Griffin, and the soaring background vocals of Michael McDonald, The Royal Scam combines biting social commentary with masterful musicianship, making it a cult favorite and a testament to Steely Dan’s uncompromising artistic vision.

Despite achieving gold record status and peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, The Royal Scam was not as critically well-received as its predecessors at the time, or the band’s masterpiece, Aja, that would follow just a year later, but since its release more than 50 years ago it has become a favorite among the fans as well as the music press who have come to better understand its quixotic charms and cryptic characters. In 2004, Rolling Stone awarded the album five stars in their retrospective review, atoning for their original less than stellar review. More recently, in March 2025, four of the tracks (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Caves of Altamira,” “Sign In Stranger,” The Royal Scam”) were ranked in the band’s top 25 in the magazine’s ranking of every Steel Dan song. “Kid Charlemagne” was ranked as the band’s second-best song (while Mojo ranked it as #3), exclaiming, “Drawing on the exploits of famed LSD manufacturer (and Grateful Dead audio engineer) Owsley Stanley, ‘Kid Charlemagne’ is an outlaw parable for the ignominious end of the Sixties counterculture. A bustling rocker juiced by a sprightly clavichord jump and laced with a first ballot hall of fame guitar solo from Larry Carlton. Donald Fagen tells the tale like a hippie noir – diamonds crossed with pearls and Technicolor motorhomes dissolving into darkly comic bumbling.” Meanwhile, The Royal Scam was ranked as Steely Dan’s second-best album by Stereogum, declaring it “their fiercest, funkiest record in their entire catalog, a classic that transitioned them from the uneasy company of the yacht-rock smooth to a mean unit that grooved like Stevie for pessimists.”

Pre-order The Royal Scam here.

THE ROYAL SCAM (33 RPM Vinyl)
Side A
1. Kid Charlemagne
2. The Caves of Altamira
3. Don’t Take Me Alive
4. Sign In Stranger
5. The Fez

Side B
1. Green Earrings
2. Haitian Divorce
3. Everything You Did
4. The Royal Scam