Can’t Buy A Thrill

1972 ABC Records copy of Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill, catalog ABCX 758, presented as a single 33 1/3 RPM LP and produced by Gary Katz. This example remains sealed in shrink, so the exact pressing variant, labels, and matrix/runout information are not verifiable without opening; it is therefore not represented as a first pressing. Condition is recorded in the Mint/Near Mint range for both the vinyl and outer sleeve, with the practical caveat that the disc has not been inspected outside the sealed package.

The jacket carries Robert Lockart’s classic cover design: a mottled parchment-colored field with the yellow-and-blue Steely Dan script sweeping across the top, the red handwritten album title, and a surreal collage of lips, ribbon forms, bananas, figures, and street photography. The ABC Records logo and “Stereo ABCX 758” appear on the front, while the shrink is visible along the edges and corners with normal light reflection and tight wrap texture.

The back panel is dense with period liner text, track-by-track notes, and musician credits, including Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Jim Hodder, and David Palmer, with guests such as Elliot Randall and Victor Feldman. Listed tracks include “Do It Again,” “Dirty Work,” “Reelin’ In The Years,” “Fire In The Hole,” and “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again,” with a visible 1972 ABC Records copyright line and “Printed in U.S.A.” at the bottom.

As Steely Dan’s debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill captures Becker and Fagen at the point where studio polish, sardonic pop songwriting, and jazz-leaning musicianship first came into focus under the band’s name, making this sealed ABCX 758 copy a carefully preserved artifact of the group’s early 1970s arrival.