Hall & Oates are a pop music duo made up of Daryl Hall and John Oates.The act achieved its greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul." They are best known for their six #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", and "Out of Touch", as well as many other songs which charted in the Top 40. They have sold 80 million albums worldwide.
They last reached the pop top forty in 1990 and then slowly faded from public view, though they did not formally break up. They have continued to record and tour with some success. In total, the act had thirty-four singles chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. As of 2006, Hall and Oates have seven RIAA platinum albums, along with six RIAA gold albums.
A greatest hits compilation was released in 2001 from Bertelsmann Music Group. The BMG collection was expanded in 2004 and reissued the following year, after BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment. In 2003, Daryl Hall and John Oates were voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Daryl Hall (born Hohl) first met John Oates at the Adelphi Ballroom in Philadelphia in 1967 while attending Temple University. Each was heading his own musical group at the time—Hall with the Temptones, and Oates with the Masters. They were there for a band competition when gunfire rang out between two rival gangs, and in trying to escape, they ran to the same service elevator. Because of their similar musical tastes, and close proximity inside the elevator, they quickly became acquainted. It would take them another two years to form a musical duo, and three years after that they had signed to Atlantic Records and released their debut album.
Early on in their recording careers, Hall & Oates had trouble clearly defining their sound, alternating among folk, soul, rock, and pop. None of their early albums - Whole Oats, Abandoned Luncheonette, and War Babies - were very successful, despite being produced by such big-name producers as Arif Mardin and Todd Rundgren. They had no hit singles during this time period, though Abandoned Luncheonette contained ""She's Gone". This song would be covered by Lou Rawls and Tavares before Atlantic Records re-released it in 1976. "She's Gone", as covered by Tavares, did go to number one on the R&B chart in 1974.
Another Abandoned Luncheonette single that has become a Hall & Oates fan favorite was "Las Vegas Turnaround", written about (and mentioning by first name) Hall's girlfriend, stewardess and future songwriting collaborator Sara Allen.
Hall & Oates left Atlantic Records after the release of War Babies to join RCA. Their first album for the new label, Daryl Hall & John Oates (often referred to by fans as The Silver Album because of the silver lamé backing on the original album cover), was their first legitimate success. It contained the ballad "Sara Smile", a song Hall wrote for his girlfriend, and featured an album cover in which the two are overly made-up to the point where they (especially the then long-haired Hall) looked like women. Hall would later say in an interview for VH1's Behind the Music that he looked like "the girl I always wanted to go out with" on the album cover.
"Sara Smile" became their first top-ten hit, reaching number four on the chart in June 1976. "She's Gone", re-released by Atlantic Records after "Sara Smile" also went to the top ten, reaching number seven in October 1976. Hall & Oates followed those hits with the more pop-oriented Bigger Than Both of Us later that year. Though the first single from the album - the Philly soul-oriented ballad "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" - barely made the top forty, the second single was a smash. The song "Rich Girl", was Hall and Oates' first number one hit, reaching the pinnacle on March 26, 1977.
After this small run of hits, Hall & Oates encountered something of a dry spell. Despite touring constantly and recording albums with efficiency, the duo could not find any pop success for a number of reasons.
First, as Oates would later say, they were "in a learning process in the '70s". The two were still fine-tuning their soul-rock style. Also, the musical climate at the time was not very receptive to their sound. By the time they released the rock-oriented albums Beauty on a Back Street in 1977 and Along the Red Ledge (an album that is generally well-regarded today) in 1978, disco music was trendy and taking most spots of popular music. Hall & Oates tried to jump on the disco bandwagon with the release of X-Static in late 1979, but by then dance music was out of favor, and the album did not fare well. They did release a few hit singles during this period, the highest chart placers being the Top 40 "Back Together Again", and two Top 20's: "It's a Laugh", and "Wait for Me".
In 1977, RCA attempted to push Daryl Hall to the front with his first solo effort, Sacred Songs. However, after being presented with the highly experimental recording (produced by Robert Fripp of King Crimson), RCA became unwilling to publish the record, which they saw as non-commercial. It was eventually released in 1980.
The 1980s brought about change for Hall & Oates. They had determined that the biggest problem was that their music was being filtered through outsider producers and studio musicians who were not familiar with their own tastes and thoughts. They also wished to capture the sound of New York City, which by then had become their home. Instead of recording in Los Angeles like they had done previously, they decided to record at Electric Lady Studios in New York, just five minutes away from their apartments. They also began producing their own records, using their touring band in the studio, and enlisting Hall's girlfriend Sara Allen (and also her sister Janna) as a songwriting collaborator.
Voices was written, produced and arranged by Daryl Hall & John Oates in one month according to their authorized biography Dangerous Dances (by Nick Tosches). The result was a clearer style and a better sound, and beginning with the Voices LP in 1980, Hall & Oates had found the missing link in their formula for hits.
The first two singles from the album charted fairly well, with "How Does It Feel to Be Back" charting at #30 and the well-received cover of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" just missed the top ten, peaking at #12, but spent fourteen weeks in the top forty. The third single, "Kiss on My List", hit number one in April 1981 and remained there for three weeks. The follow-up single, "You Make My Dreams", reached number five in July of that year.
The other well-known single from Voices, apart from those four hits, is the emotive ballad "Everytime You Go Away", with powerful lead vocals by Hall, who wrote it. British singer Paul Young had a Billboard number-one hit with a cover of the song in 1985. Though the Hall & Oates original (recorded in a Memphis soul style) was never released as a single, it remains a favorite on the duo's greatest hits albums, was featured on their Apollo Theater CD in 1985, and is frequently featured in their live set lists to this day.
The Voices album firmed-up the duo's working relationship with Neil Kernon, an engineer on the Voices set who would work as co-producer on the succeeding two albums that would ensure their status as music fixtures.
By the time "You Make My Dreams" was falling down the charts, Hall & Oates had already released their follow-up album Private Eyes. Having worked in the studio while Voices was at its peak in popularity, the two already had most of their material laid down and felt no need to repeat the old formula from that LP. The result was the first Hall & Oates album to reach the top ten on the Billboard 200 album chart. The four singles from Private Eyes all reached the top forty.
The title track and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" were nearly consecutive number one hits, separated only by the ten-week stay at Number 1 by the monster hit "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" was one of the few songs ever by a white act to go Number One on both the R&B and the pop charts. "Did It in a Minute" reached No. 9 in the spring of 1982, and "Your Imagination" peaked at No. 33. The set is considered among the duo's best albums, mixing soul, new wave, and power pop.
Next came H2O, a polished, synth-heavy album that became the duo's most successful album to date. H2O reached number three on the album charts and spawned three top-ten singles. "Maneater", the biggest hit of their career, reached the number-one spot on December 18, 1982 and stayed there for four weeks. The ballad "One on One" and a cover of Mike Oldfield's song "Family Man" reached number seven and number six in March and June 1983, respectively.
"One on One" -- with its clever mixed references to romance and basketball -- was used in NBA commercials of the period. (The commercial featured numerous players, including Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins performing a 360-degree slow-motion spin move during the sax solo.)
For the H2O album, Hall & Oates made changes to their band. Drummer Mickey Curry -- who had appeared on some Private Eyes tracks, including the title song -- replaced Jerry Marotta full-time, and bassist Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, who had mimed John Siegler's bass line in the "Private Eyes" video, replaced Siegler full-time. The two joined the band's holdovers — lead guitar player G.E. Smith, saxophonist Charles DeChant, and Hall & Oates to form one of the most acclaimed studio/backing units of the 1980s. DeChant and Wolk continue to perform with the duo to this day. Curry returned for the Do It for Love sessions.
Hall & Oates signed with Arista Records in 1987, shortly before the string of top ten hits ended, in Tommy Mottola's effort to keep them under contract when their RCA obligation ran out. Their first album for the label, Ooh Yeah!, included the hits "Everything Your Heart Desires" (number three hit in May 1988 - their last to make the top ten), "Missed Opportunity", and "Downtown Life". This may have been the last Hall and Oates album - other than greatest hits packages - to enjoy platinum success. Hall & Oates did one more album for Arista called Change of Season. The album's first single, "So Close" (co-produced by Jon Bon Jovi) hit number eleven on the pop charts and was Hall & Oates' last major hit. Another song off the album, "Don't Hold Back Your Love", has become a Hall & Oates staple. Change of Season was a more mainstream-rock album than their previous work. Despite the fact that Ooh Yeah! and Change of Season went platinum and gold respectively, they were perceived as disappointments. It was during this time that album and single releases were credited as Daryl Hall John Oates, with the '&' or 'and' missing between the duo's names.
The duo's occasional songwriting collaborator, Janna Allen (sister of Sara), died of leukemia in 1993. Hall & Oates released the Marigold Sky album in 1997 (their first all-new studio album in seven years), which included an adult contemporary hit "Promise Ain't Enough." They also released a "VH1 Behind the Music" Greatest Hits package shortly after appearing on the show in 2002.
At the same time, Daryl and Sara, professional/personal collaborators, broke off their romantic relationship after some three decades. Their friendship is still apparently strong; he has noted her help in the recovery from his 2005 attack of Lyme disease.
Daryl Hall & John Oates put out the Do It for Love album in 2003. That included "Do It for Love" (a number-one Adult Contemporary hit). They have also released the Hall & Oates Live DVD from an A&E Live by Request special. This album was the first album and first success for their newest joint venture, U-Watch Records.
Daryl Hall has also released a third and fourth solo album called Soul Alone (1993) and Can't Stop Dreaming (originally released in Japan 1996), and a live 2 CD solo album called Live in Philadelphia (2004).
Hall & Oates covered Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" on the 1991 John/Taupin tribute album "Two Rooms", saying in the booklet "we chose 'Philadelphia Freedom' because the music is so close to our hearts and the lyrics represent the way we feel about Philadelphia."
John Oates released his own solo album in 2002 entitled Phunk Shui and a companion live concert DVD.
Hall & Oates have also put out their first CD of (mostly) covers, Our Kind of Soul, in 2004. It includes some of their favorite R&B songs, such as "I'll Be Around", "Love TKO", [Dan Hartman's] "I Can Dream About You", and more. Hall & Oates are still on the touring circuit, traveling as much as they did several years ago. In addition, a DVD of live performances of the songs from Our Kind of Soul was released in November 2005.
Daryl & John released a Christmas album, Home For Christmas on October 3, 2006 which contains 2 Christmas originals and covers. It includes a version of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", which became their second number one Adult Contemporary hit.
On December 11, 2008 Hall & Oates performed a farewell song to Alan Colmes (from Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes") on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Near the end of the show, Stewart mentions their new album Live at the Troubadour which was recorded at the club in May and released as a CD+DVD package the previous month
In September 2007, Chromeo's reps released a press release stating "Indeed, Chromeo's idols Hall and Oates have asked them to collaborate with them on their upcoming record! Needless to say, the gentlemen are giddy like schoolchildren to be given this opportunity," as reported by Pitchfork Media. This collaboration with the Chromeo duo will be on Hall & Oates forthcoming album, expected for a late 2008/early 2009 release after over a year of speculation.
There were two notable nationally televised appearances for the duo in late 2008. On October 27, Oates sang the National Anthem before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Though born in New York, John was raised in a suburb of Philadelphia and attended Temple University) Then, on December 11, both Hall and Oates appeared on the year's last episode of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." They sang a satirical tribute to Alan Colmes, as he would leave Fox News a month later. On March 24, 2009, Hall and Oates performed together on the American television show Dancing with the Stars.
Maneater
I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Private Eyes
Sara Smile
Method Of Modern Love
rich girl
Everything your heart desires
Kiss On My List
I CAN DREAM ABOUT YOU
