"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a single released in 1974 by rock/jazz rock group Steely Dan and the opening track of their third album Pretzel Logic.

Reviewing the single for AllMusic, Stewart Mason said:Just to clear up a generation's worth of rumors about the lyrics of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," Walter Becker stated for the record in a 1985 interview in the pages of Musician that the "number" in question was not slang for a marijuana cigarette ("send it off in a letter to yourself," supposedly a way to safely transport one's dope back before the post office abolished general delivery mail,[a] was held up as the key line), and an uncharacteristically forthcoming Donald Fagen has similarly revealed that the "Rikki" in question was simply a woman he'd had a crush on in college [writer Rikki Ducornet].

It says something about Steely Dan's reputation as obscurantists that even a straightforward lost-love song like "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" could be so widely over-interpreted.

It's unsurprising that "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" ended up becoming Steely Dan's biggest commercial hit ... as it's one of the group's most gentle and accessible songs.

"[11] John Lennon, in a 1974 interview discussing recent hit songs, said "I liked "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," that was a good commercial record.