May 1, 2000 – The veteran songwriting, performing and producing duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, better known for the past three decades as the multi-platinum Steely Dan, will be presented with the ASCAP Founders Award at the annual gala ASCAP Pop Awards Dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, May 22, 2000, it was announced today by ASCAP President and Chairman Marilyn Bergman. In receiving ASCAP's top award for lifetime achievement in songwriting, Becker and Fagen will join an elite group of prior recipients which includes Stephen Sondheim, Joni Mitchell, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, and Jule Styne.

The annual ASCAP Pop Awards honor the writers and publishers of the most performed ASCAP songs each year. The event attracts a celebrity-studded audience of leading songwriters, recording artists and other music industry leaders each year.

The Becker and Fagen team had its beginnings in the 1960s when the two met at Bard College in upstate New York. Following an attempt to make it as Brill Building songwriters, Becker and Fagen became staff songwriters at ABC Records in Los Angeles in late 1971. Their cerebral songs didn't fit the artists on the ABC roster, but their own first album as Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill, containing the hit singles, "Reelin' in the Years" and "Do It Again" made the rock and pop worlds take notice and initiated a string of best-selling albums and singles. Their song hits also include "Peg," "FM," "Hey, 19," and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." Steely Dan's new studio album, Two Against Nature, recently debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard chart, putting Becker and Fagen on the top of the charts again.

Commenting on the award to Becker and Fagen, Marilyn Bergman said, "Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have created a memorable body of work that has stretched the boundaries of rock 'n' roll. Their songs are unique, clever, contagious, sophisticated, humorous and represent the best in American popular music."

Established in 1914, ASCAP is the world's largest performing-right organization, with over 95,000 active composer, lyricist, and music publisher members. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. ASCAP's repertory spans the entire spectrum of music -- from pop to symphonic, rock to gospel, Latin to country to jazz, rhythm and blues, theater, film and television music. ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership.