studio was expanded into a former post office and upgraded to 16 tracks. Sales of recording equipment and machinery to ABC Records' first recording studio led to a contact with Phil Kaye, who was in charge of the facility. Nichols was hired in 1970 to maintain the equipment and do engineering work with Kaye and Steve Barri. Some of the clients Nichols recorded at this time included John Phillips and Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas, the Grass Roots, and Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. The Steely Dan years First meeting In 1971 Nichols met Gary Katz, newly hired at the ABC Dunhill label as a record producer. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were also working at ABC as song writers; one night Nichols was drafted, when no one else on the staff wanted to be involved, to stay and engineer a demo session that Becker and Fagen were holding to record their tunes for use by other artists. Nichols discovered he had a great deal in common with the then-unknown duo, including sharing a taste for impeccable audio quality. Nichols was asked to engineer their first record album in 1972, and he would wind up working with Katz, Becker and Fagen in recording the first, decade-long incarnation of the band that became known as Steely Dan. Engineering the birth of Steely Dan As a result of working with Nichols, Becker and Fagen and producer Katz were determined to have him seated behind the recording console for the 1972 start of studio sessions their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill. This conflicted with Nichols' summer vacation, and the decision was made to postpone recording until Nichols returned, much to ABC president Jay Lasker's annoyance, due to the amount of money advanced to the fledgling band. Once begun, the process was exacting. Nichols later commented: We finished it in six months, which was quick for them. But even then their acceptance level was way above everyone else's. They never had the attitude of 'It's getting late that's good enough', or 'No-one else will notice'. Everything had to be as near perfect as technically and humanly possible. The album sold well and yielded two hit singles, ensuring Nichols would be tied to the band's fortunes. Nichols was involved in engineering every Steely Dan album. Nickname: "The Immortal" Interviewed in 1993 for 'Metal Leg, the Steely Dan Magazine', Nichols stated (regarding