The keyboard riff was taken from "Song For My Father," which was released in 1964 by the jazz composer and pianist Horace Silver. The opening of both songs is nearly identical. It's a good example of how Steely Dan used elements of jazz in pop songs.
According to a 2006 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Rikki of the title is Rikki Ducornet, a New York writer and artist. Steely Dan co-front Donald Fagen met her while both were attending Bard College, a small liberal arts school located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Ducornet said they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number, although not in the same context as the song. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and tempted to call him, but she decided against it. A complete write-up of this incident is at ew.com, and it kind of sounds like it came straight out of a Doonesbury strip.
This is Steely Dan's highest charting single, reaching #4 on the Hot 100 in 1974. The B-side was "Any Major Dude Will Tell You."
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