Show Biz Kids

"Show Biz Kids"
"Show Biz Kids"
Single by Steely Dan
from the album Countdown to Ecstasy
B-side	"Razor Boy"
Released	July 1973
Genre	Rock, jazz fusion
Length	3:59
Label	ABC
Songwriter(s)	Donald Fagen, Walter Becker
Producer(s)	Gary Katz
Steely Dan singles chronology
Official audio
	"Show Biz Kids" on YouTube

"Show Biz Kids" is a song composed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and performed by Steely Dan with Rick Derringer on slide guitar. It was the first single from Steely Dan's 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy, and reached number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2] It was edited for the single release.

Cash Box said that the song has "an infectious chorus delivered a la Nilsson's "Coconut" hit."^[3]

The song satirizes contemporary Los Angeles lifestyles.^[4] Critic Tom Hull described the album lyrics as "a running paste together joke [...] sufraintelligent, witty and slyly devious", citing as an example the following lyrics from "Show Biz Kids": "They got the booze they need / All that money can buy / They got the shapely bods / They got the Steely Dan T-shirt / And for the coup de grâce / They're outrageous."^[5]

Personnel

Donald Fagen – piano, lead vocals, backing vocals
Walter Becker – electric bass, harmonica, background vocals
Jim Hodder – drums, percussion, background vocals
Rick Derringer – slide guitar (recorded at Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado, courtesy of Columbia Records)
Victor Feldman – marimba, percussion
Sherlie Matthews, Myrna Matthews, Patricia Hall, Royce Jones, James Rolleston – background vocals

References

^ "Steely Dan singles".
^ Steely Dan USA chart history, Billboard.com. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. July 21, 1973. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
^ "Special Merit". Stereo Review. 31 (5): 94. November 1973.
^ Hull, Tom (April 1975). "The Rekord Report: L'Objet Rèpris". Overdose. Retrieved July 12, 2020 – via tomhull.com.