Libby Titus, the 1970s singer who wrote Steele Dan’s “Ain’t No Pride in Love” before marrying Donald Fagen, has died at age 77.

Libby Titus, the singer who recorded two albums in the late 1960s and 1970s before retiring from the music scene and later became the wife of Donald Fagen of Steele Dan, died Sunday at the age of 77. No cause of death was given.

Fagen announced his death on Steely Dan’s website. “My beautiful wife, Libby Titus Fagen, passed away on October 13th surrounded by her family,” he wrote. “Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and respecting our privacy at this time.”

Titus was the mother of singer-songwriter Amy Helm, whose father was Levon Helm, Titus’ partner in the late ’60s and ’70s.

Titus’s most famous and most frequently recorded song was “No Pride in Love,” co-written with Eric Kaz. Their 1977 version is less known than the numerous versions of the song, including successive recordings by Bonnie Raitt in 1972, Linda Ronstadt in 1973, and Tracy Nelson and Rita Coolidge in 1974. Rod Stewart, Billy Bragg, Rita Wilson, Jane Monheit and others.

Titus’s short career as an artist included two albums, both self-titled. The first, on the independent Hot Biscuit Disc Company label in 1968, contained covers of songs such as “The Fool on the Hill” and “You Didn’t Have to Be Pretty” and received little attention. The second album was released almost a decade later, in 1977, on Columbia and featured four songs co-written with Titus and a much more stellar list of producers, including Paul Simon, Robbie Robertson and Carly. It was a high level job. Simón and Phil Ramón.

He appeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live on October 15, 1977 during the show’s third season.

As a songwriter, Titus co-wrote songs with Burt Bacharach for the Woman album in the late ’70s and contributed to Carly Simon’s albums.

Titus helped form Rock & Soul Revue with Fagen, and Steele Dan performed with the band until the reunion, although he did not appear on the group’s only album.

The Woodstock, New York, native’s first marriage was to Barry Titus, followed by a relationship with Helm and then a wedding to Fagen in 1993.

He played small roles in The Awakening and Heartburn.

In a 2000 Rolling Stone profile of Steele Dan, on the duo’s reunion album, Titus recounted her role in the role, as well as her history with her husband. The singer said he met Fagen in 1987 when he went backstage to interview Dr. John. Fagen recalled seeing her at Bard, but not yet meeting her, where he said she remembered him from afar. “I was wearing a fur coat, a very, very short skirt and I was all dolled up, and he said he thought I looked like a bohemian king,” she said. In 1987, after a meeting with Dr. John, “we went to dinner and had an endless conversation. “He invited me to dinner and we talked until the spring of ’89.” He told the magazine that he produced small shows for “SNL” veteran Tom Schiller at a Manhattan restaurant. “One night there would be, say, Dr. John and Carly Simon, and it was by invitation only. Another night I had Aaron Bell, Duke Ellington’s bassist, and Donald came that night and loved it. In May 1989, he did a show for me at Elaine’s with Dr. John, and it was his first performance in years.

“After that we decided to do our own show,” he continued. “We got different artists to perform Jerry Ragovoy songs. Donald didn’t want to do the concert, but I told him, “You have to do it or no one will come.” We did our shows once or twice a month (later became the New York Rock and Soul Revue) until the early ’92s. And it brought Walter to New York. He returned to produce Donald’s ‘Kamakiriad’ album and later played guitar on stage with Donald,” which eventually led to a Steele Dan reunion in the mid-’90s.

Titus and Fagen made headlines in 2016 when police responded to a call in New York and he was accused of pushing her out of a window of their apartment during an argument. She said she was “tired and breaking up with my husband” in a phone interview with celebrity.land, but that momentum was short-lived and police closed the case before the end of the month. The couple later said in a brief statement to the Post: “Despite misinformation in the press, we are happily married. We have been married for 23 years and have many, many more things coming up.

Amy Helm has spoken of her mother’s influence in interviews, as well as that of her father Levon. “He was also a huge influence on me,” she told Relix in 2021. “He made sure to complete my musical education by bringing me closer to singer-songwriters Laura Nyro, Brenda Russell and Joni Mitchell, whose lyrics are so fierce and whose poetry is so intense. It was very different from soul music. I fell in love. with Aretha Franklin and I never looked back, but she also made sure to open my ears to other singers.