![St. Vincent declares Steely Dan's solos the greatest of all time.]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/St-Vincent-declares-Steely-Dans-solos-the-greatest-of-all-758x426.jpg "St. Vincent declares Steely Dan's solos the greatest of all time.] 1")
Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has named what she thinks is the best guitar solo ever recorded – and, according to her, it should be played note-for-note at all costs.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, St. Vincent named 1976 Steely Dan classic Kid Charlemagne, which also clinched the eighth spot on the publication’s recent list of the greatest guitar solos. Steely Dan’s Peg, released a year later, is also another favorite of Clark’s.
“Those guitar solos on [1976 album] The Royal Scam are so iconic that I want to hear them verbatim,” Clark asserts.
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“I don’t want to hear someone improvise and stretch out and be completely extemporaneous – even the great guitar players that they’ve had onstage. I want to hear the [session guitar legend] Larry Carlton solo note-for-note. That’s the testament to how great it is. It’s sacrosanct, compositionally.”
According to Steely Dan lore, it took more than two hours in the studio for Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to figure out the 50-second solo that defined their fifth studio album, The Royal Scam.
Carlton, in fact, had to record and re-record it multiple times on a Strat before being “allowed” to switch back to his go-to guitar, his Gibson ES-335. The solo ended up being a composite of two takes, although the outro – which was completely improvised – was done in one go.
In more recent news, Carlton revealed how he became part of a very select group of guitarists to work on records by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
