← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Rock ’n Soul, Part 1
00:56:21
Hall and Oates took a decade to find their sound, created their own ’80s genre and made their dreams come true.
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- [00:00]
Chris Melanfi
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. You can try it for a month for just $1 and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitbo parade plus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode.
- [00:58]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Foreign.
- [01:06]
Chris Melanfi
Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show 40 years ago this week in January of 1982, America had a new number one song. Built out of a cutting edge digital rhythm track, it sounded both frigid and fiery, with icy, fluttery keyboards and a sizzling bassline. It was chilled out but club ready, a perfect pop song to liven the dead of winter. The same week it topped Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. The song also rose to number one on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart, which was pretty remarkable because at a time when the R and B chart was at a peak of bespoke blackness, commanded by the likes of the Gap Band, Teddy Pendergrass and Cool in the Gang, the two men who performed this number one RB hit were white. With the song I Can't Go for that, Daryl hall and John Oates had, after a decade of recording together, finally achieved a dream. They had not only taken control of their music and become regular chart toppers, they had also proven the universal appeal of what they called rock and soul, a seamless blend of black and white sounds that could cross over effortlessly all along the radio dial. But it really had been a slog to get there. Paul and Oates had spent the entire 70s trying a little bit of everything. Not being any one thing meant they did not naturally fit into any specific chart or radio format. They were urbane rockers. Whose biggest hits sounded a lot like silky soul. They took inspiration from the pop rock and R B of the 60s. And yet when they broke big, they couldn't have sounded more like the 80s. And they went on to dominate the charts at the peak of MTV and New waves. At their height. When everything hall and Oats touched turned to gold, cutting edge dance and electronic producers wanted to work with them and they just kept topping the charts. And even after they fell off, Paul and Oates music was persistent and resonant, re emerging with a millennial generation who admired their craft and their irresistible hooks. Today on Hit Parade, we come to honor Daryl hall and John Oates, two independent minded singer songwriters who who joined forces, stuck to their guns, dominated their era and never lost their hunger for new sounds.
- [05:27]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Oh, here she comes Watch out boy, she'll chew you up oh, here she.
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Chris Melanfi
Comes She's a man eater man eaters Try Omnivores, the genre resistant age we now live in, where Gen Z artists veer from pop to rap to punk and refuse to adhere to any one radio format. Arguably, hall and Oates got there first, defying rock convention and eradicating genre definitions before poptimism was a thing. And it all reached its apex when they topped a pair of Billboard charts simultaneously. And that's where your hit parade marches today. The week ending January 30, 1982. When I can't Go for that no can do by Daryl hall and John oates hit number one on both the Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts. It was also on the dance chart and the album rock chart that week too. Hall and Oates made their dreams come true. Their decade long experiment to define their own lane had in fact succeeded to beyond their dreams. How did this pair from Philadelphia make rock and soul not only viable, but the sound of the 80s and beyond. In 2015, in yet another of its many articles ranking things, Rolling Stone listed what it considered the 20 greatest duos of all time. The magazine noted that the very form of the duo is unique, less narcissistic than solo performers, but more intimate than a mere band. Unquote. The Rolling Stone critics cast their net fairly wide, ranking not just hit making duos like Simon and Garfunkel, Cecilia, you're.
- [07:50]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence.
- [07:54]
Chris Melanfi
Daily, but also acclaimed but low selling pairs like electro punk duo Suicide, producer Dream Team Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, and the fractious ex married couple Richard and Linda Thompson. There were duos who actually played virtually every instrument on their records, like the minimalist but raucous White Stripes, a former married couple turned faux brother and sister. And conversely, there were duos who were backed by armies of session musicians like Steely Dan, the meticulously smooth, smooth studio creation of Donald Fagan and Walter Becker. And Rolling Stone ranked rap's greatest duos, including Eric B and Rakim, and of course Big Boi and Andre 3000, aka Outkast. Even the brother sister duo the Carpenters, who in their 70s hit making heyday were mostly scorned by critics. They too, rightfully made Rolling Stone's duo.
- [09:30]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Ranking I'm on the Top of the world.
- [09:41]
Chris Melanfi
And the top spot on Rolling Stone's list, given their formative influence on generations of bands and harmony singers went to the legendary brothers Phil and Don Everly. No argument here.
- [09:54]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Wake up, please, Susie, wake up.
- [10:00]
Chris Melanfi
What I do have a bone to pick with, however, is the duo that's not ranked at all. An act that, by the way, had just been in inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame the year before this list was compiled. And yet to Rolling Stone, they didn't even rate above the 20th ranked duo, the Black Keys. Given the subject of this Hit Parade episode, you've probably already guessed. Yep, Daryl hall and John Oates were blank. This bizarre and yet in a way, predictable. The music critic establishment has long had a wary relationship with hall and Oates. Several generations of listeners were taught to think of them as uber commercial cheese merchants. As recently as a decade ago, even fans of hall and Oates seemed almost apologetic about their fandom. Listen to these Excerpts from a VH1 behind the Music episode devoted to the duo that was released in 2010. A lot of these kids have no sense of irony about the band. It's not a guilty pleasure for them. I know that critically, they were never appreciated in their day as much as they should have been. If there's snooty about them f them, clearly hall and Oates fans and hall and Oates themselves have their backs up after years of condescension. Mind you, the duo was rarely actively hated or became an easily loathed target on worst lists like, say, Kenny G or Nickelback. Even prior Hit Parade subject Billy Joel gets more vocal scorn from critics. But as that Rolling Stone ranking of duos proves, hall and Oates are just easy to overlook.
- [12:02]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
You have to say it isn't so. It isn't so not.
- [12:09]
Chris Melanfi
But in the world of hit making, hall and Oats are impossible to overlook. At their height in the 1980s, Casey Kasem said this about them. Holy hyperbole, Batman.
- [12:23]
Casey Kasem
I'm Casey Kasem on American top 40 each decade of the Rock and roll era seems to have had one dominant recording act on the Billboard singles chart. In the 50s it was Elvis Presley. In the 60s, the Beatles. In the 70s it was the Bee Gees. And now in the 80s a male duo has taken over. And here they are at number one, the top act of the 80s so far, Daryl hall and John Oates.
- [12:54]
Chris Melanfi
Yes, hall and Oates really were that big, even if they were later eclipsed in 80s chart dominance by titans like Michael Jackson and Madonna. And okay, comparing hall and Oates to Elvis or the Beatles was even then a little much. But Casey Kasem's analogy of the duo to the Bee Gees is much more apt. Both groups took a while to find themselves longer even than the Beatles did. As we discussed in our Bee Gees episode of Hit Parade, who could have predicted that a trio of white English brothers raised in Australia who first broke during the 60s British invasion would score their biggest hits singing R and B flavored disco? In their first decade, the Gibbs had as many misses as hits before they found the sound that would bring them super stardom in the mid to late 70s. And then, as I noted, when the Bee Gees became uncool, the fall was particularly hard. The fall off of hall and Oates wasn't as abrupt, but like the Bee Gees, hall and Oates are tied in the public imagination to a specific moment, a time of obligatory saxophone solos, kitschy early MTV videos, John Oates peak 80s mustache, and hits that came with synthesized clapping. And like the Bee Gees, by straddling the cultural boundaries of music perceived as white and black, hall and Oates were universally consumed, but perhaps held close by no one audience.
- [15:10]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Whoa, one on one. I wanna play that game tonight, Wanna wanna know?
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Chris Melanfi
Which results in a situation where some listeners think you have to enjoy Hallow notes ironically or as camp, or categorize them with trends they had nothing to do with.
- [15:33]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
I don't feel the need to give sad secrets away.
- [15:40]
Chris Melanfi
As we discussed in our Yacht Rock episode, the creators of that genre name have clarified that despite the satirical appearance of hall and Oats in the Yacht Rock video series as comic foils from the east coast and the doobie bounce of a couple of their hits, hall and Oates are not yacht rock. And that is the last time you'll hear me use the Y word in this episode, What Daryl hall and John Oates were and are can't be reduced to kitsch. As we'll detail in this episode, they traveled in hipper circles than you may realize, especially Daryl, whose voice is prized by artists across the musical spectrum.
- [16:35]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
You burn me up on the cigarette Alive with you with a little bit.
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Chris Melanfi
And and in their way, hall and Oates were post genre pioneers, a pair of distinctive singer songwriters, each with his own sensibility. By the way, they prefer to be known as Daryl hall and John Oates on many of their album covers. They even leave off the and they joined forces to mix up their varied influences while remaining individuals. And they never wanted to be classified as any one thing, which makes sense when you consider where they came from.
- [17:17]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Come on baby, let's do that twist.
- [17:23]
Chris Melanfi
Like so many pieces of rock and roll history, Chubby Checkers 1961 smash the Twist originated in Philadelphia on local label Cameo Parkway and on Dick Clark's Philly based show American Bandstand. One year later, so did the Develles number two smash the Bristol Stomp, another dance craze single on Cameo Parkway. Named for the Bristol suburb of Philadelphia, This was the melting pot young Darrell Franklin hall, spelled H O H L and young John William Oates grew up around in the 1950s and 60s. They would later cite these records as formative to their upbringing in the city of Brotherly Love, where the black Chubby Checker and the white doo wop group the Develles not only coexisted but competed on the charts. Born a year apart in 1946 and 47 respectively, hall and Oates each grew up in a north Philly suburb. Hall was born in Pottstown and Oates, born in New York City, moved with his family to North Wales, Pennsylvania at age 5. Both were playing in doo wop and soul groups while still in high school. Both independently enrolled in Temple University, which finally brought them into the city of Philadelphia itself. And by the mid-1960s, each man began recording. This 1966 single, I need you'd Love is by the Masters, an all purpose rock and soul group fronted by John Oates, who picked up the guitar as a kid after giving up the accordion. Over five years of playing both covers and originals, Oates had tried his hand at everything from Motown and James Brown covers to coffee house folk. By 1967, his future partner was singing on wax too. This 1967 single is Girl, I Love you, sung by Darrell Hall. He would finally change the spelling of his name to H A L L and credited to a group called the Temp Tones. Hall had an exceptional tenor voice nurtured by his mother, who was a professional vocal coach. And why was his mid-60s group named the Temptones? Hall himself explained it to VH1. The Temptations were our Beatles. You know, they were like the Gods.
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Casey Kasem
Because they were the best vocal group.
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Chris Melanfi
In the world at the time. Paul actually befriended members of the Temptations, including Paul Williams and David Ruffin, when they passed through Philadelphia to play the Uptown Theater.
- [21:07]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Well, you could have been anything that you wanted to and I can tell the way you do the things you do.
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Chris Melanfi
And among the local industry figures Darrell befriended and impressed were legendary Philly producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Tom Bell, who would revolutionize sophisticated soul in the 70s, and by the mid-60s were already producing vocal groups like the Delphonics. Hall sang backup for some early Gamble Huff and Tom Bell recordings. However, the first recording to make the national Billboard charts to feature Darrell hall had no vocals at all. The fluke no. 16 hit Keem O Sabe by the Philly instrumental studio band the Electric Indian. Hall played keyboard. Given all the parallels in Daryl Hall's and John Oates upbringing, the way they finally met is oddly improbable. It wasn't in a Philly studio session or at Temple University. It was at a gig, but not while either one of them was performing. It was a 1967 Multi act radio showcase at West Philly's Adelphi Ballroom. Acts from various Philadelphia labels were all there, like Chicago's the Five Stair Steps and local hitmaker Howard Tate.
- [22:59]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
The Doctor Said song, you ain't over the hill, now he can't sit still. Great gosh.
- [23:11]
Chris Melanfi
Also there to perform were the Temp Tones featuring Daryl hall and the Masters featuring John Oates. But as they were all waiting backstage, a fight broke out between rival gangs and someone pulled a gun. Darrell and John ran to get out of the way. In some versions of this apocryphal story, they each bolted for a freight elevator and when the hubbub died down, they made small talk. They realized they both went to Temple and said maybe they should hang out sometime. Hall and Oates would then spend the next several years rooming together in various apartments around Philadelphia while each man tried to make his recording career happen. For the rest of the 60s, nothing quite took off. Hall joined several more Philly soul groups and continued playing sessions, while while Oates played with country bluesman Jerry Ricks and briefly, a band called Valentine led by Frank Stallone. Yes, Sly's brother. In one fluke gig, hall joined singer songwriter Tim Moore's band Gulliver, who got signed to Elektra Records and issued one self titled studio album in 1970. Marked by Groovy, psychic psychedelic pop. It didn't sell it was around this time that Daryl and John, who'd been roommates off and on for three years, Oats even briefly lived with hall and his first wife and, playing with each other mostly for fun, decided to actually record together. By 1970 they had gone full hippie with long hair down to their shoulders, and their earliest work sounded more like John Oates trippy folk and blues experiments than anything to do with Philly soul.
- [25:29]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Even those past times be.
- [25:40]
Chris Melanfi
They played their first club show together in December 1970 as Daryl hall and John Oates. At one point they considered naming their project Whole Oats, spelled the normal way without the e, unlike John's last name. They even played a few gigs under the Whole Oats moniker. But after signing with a scrappy young manager in 1971, I'll get to him in a minute and signing to Atlantic Records, hall and Oates decided instead that Whole Oats would be the name of their debut album, now the Night Is.
- [26:21]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Over and I.
- [26:26]
Chris Melanfi
From the Jump. Hall and Oates worked with great producers. Their Atlantic debut was produced by Arif Martin, who had produced Dusty Springfield's celebrated Dusty in Memphis LP and who would later guide the disco breakthrough of the Bee Gees. On Whole Oats, Martin guided Hall and Oates toward a plush folk inflected sound with soulful overtones. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlwine, who has written extensively on the duo, said some of the album album's haziness derives from the fact that at the time of its recording, hall and Oates were essentially two singer songwriters playing their own tunes in tandem. Indeed, the LP veered from more of Otz's folky musings like Southeast City Window to the hall penned Water Wheel, on which he echoed Joni Mitchell I heard.
- [27:39]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
You call me Water wheel spin round round in a circle.
- [27:50]
Chris Melanfi
When Whole Oats failed to chart, hall and Oates pulled up stakes and moved from Philadelphia to New York City, where they would wind up making the bulk of their future albums. Producer Arif Martin corralled a bunch of studio pros in New York to back them up on their second album, when.
- [28:11]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
You come home, try to come home alone. So much better with two.
- [28:19]
Chris Melanfi
This approach worked on 1973's abandoned Luncheonette LP. The duo would sound less like a pair of individual folkies and more like hall and Oates. A collective identity it is perhaps ironic though, that this New York based album generated a track that very clearly evoked the sound of Philly soul. It would also turn out to be hall and Oates first signature song. She's Gone was a true collaboration. A song that evoked breakups both men were going through in their move to New York. John Oates started it on acoustic guitar as a bluesy lament one night when a girlfriend stood him up. Then Daryl hall, whose first marriage was falling apart, transformed it on his keyboard into something closer to R and B. It also featured very distinctive octave based harmonies that showcased the both men's voices. Released as the first single from Abandoned Luncheonette in November of 73, She's Gone took took months to connect. It broke on the charts in February of 1974, rising to a modest number 60 on the Hot 100. That finally nudged abandoned Luncheonette onto Billboard's top LPs chart. The first hall and Oates album to make the chart, but it only got as high as number 192.
- [30:18]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Now I can't.
- [30:26]
Chris Melanfi
So a single that missed the top 40, an album that just barely cracked the charts. She's Gone was an amazing song and a vocal showcase especially for Daryl Hall. But that would not be the end of the story for the album or most especially that song. A group of five brothers signed to Capitol Records. Tavares recorded a cover of She's Gone in the summer of 1974. Tavares producer Dennis Lambert loved the Holland Oates version so much he replicated its arrangements almost exactly. Reinforcing that the song was R and B to its core. By December 74, the Tavares version of She's Gone reached number one on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart. It was in a way prophetic. The the first chart a Hall and Oates song topped was the R and B chart. It wouldn't be the last time for that either. R and B was not how hall and Oats were being marketed in 1973 and 74. The band was opening for white rock acts including David Bowie on his Ziggy Stardust tour.
- [32:07]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
So where were the Spiders? While the fly tried to break our bones.
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Chris Melanfi
In addition to playing rock shows, they were attending them as well. At the very moment punk was starting to break in New York, Darrell hall recalled, quote, I was going to the Mercer Arts center and seeing the New York Dolls and those kinds of bands. I wrote a bunch of songs that reflected the chaos of that scene. So for their third album, they teamed with an old friend from Philadelphia who had just produced the first New York Dolls album, the iconoclastic Todd Rundgram. And Rundgren produced what turned out to be hall and Oates most experimental rock album. 1974's progressive utopia like LP War Babies. In essence, War Babies was an act of willful commercial suicide. Hall and Oates were annoyed with Atlantic Records for under promoting Abandoned Luncheonette, which had earned universal critical acclaim. War Babies did manage to reach number 86 on the LP chart, but Atlantic, fed up with hall and Oates identity crisis were they folk R and B prog rock dropped the duo. Hall and Oates parting gift to the label was a final single, It's Uncanny that sounded like Billy Joel crossed with the Doobie Brothers. It peaked at number 80 on the Hot 100.
- [34:33]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Baby.
- [34:33]
Chris Melanfi
Truth be told, they wanted to get dropped. Hall and Oates were already eyeing a better deal at another label, one that had been arranged by their energetic hustler of a manager. Perhaps you've heard the name Tommy Mottola. Hall and Oates called him Little Gino and they even wrote the song Geno the Manager about him. Mottola's wheeler dealer reputation was so legendary by the mid-70s that the disco group Dr. Buzzard's original Savannah band referenced him by name in a song. Most likely you've heard of Tommy Mottola from his success two decades later when with his discovery Mariah Carey, who famously became his wife and then infamously his ex wife. But I digress. Hall and Oates were Tommy Mottola's first success. They signed with him back in 191971 when Mottola was 21 and barely even a manager. It was he who got them signed to Atlantic in 72, then dropped by Atlantic in 75. He was pleased when War Babies flopped because it cleared hall and Oates to sign with RCA Records. They recorded a new LP for RCA right away. Produced by studio guitarist Christopher Bond, the self titled album became better known thanks to its metallic cover as the Silver Album. But that LP jacket was famous for more than its color. In a cover photo taken by David Bowie stylist Pierre Laroche, hall and Oates of appear in heavy glamorous makeup styled as women only. John's mustache breaks the gender bending illusion. Darryl in particular makes an especially comely woman. He later joked that he looked like the kind of woman he would want to date. Though the COVID led to blowback from certain narrow minded rock fans who made homophobic insinuations about the duo's sexual identity. And it was in keeping with the look of glam rock at the time and the notoriety might have helped. The Darryl hall and John Oates album debuted on the LP chart in the fall of 75 even as its first couple of singles flopped and I heard.
- [37:35]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Him call oh Camelia Won't you take me away.
- [37:44]
Chris Melanfi
Both RCA and the artists were convinced that either Camellia or Alone Too Long were the potential hits on the lp. Alone Too Long even briefly cracked the R B chart at a lowly number 98. Hall in particular, rebuffed those who suggested the album's best track was a gentle, pillowy ballad he had written for his girlfriend. But then a DJ in Cleveland, Lynn Tolliver, began playing that ballad as an album cut. And he proved Daryl hall wrong.
- [38:20]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Baby hair with a woman's eyes.
- [38:26]
Chris Melanfi
I.
- [38:27]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Can feel you watching in the night.
- [38:32]
Chris Melanfi
Sarah Smile was named for Sarah Allen, who was more than Hall's companion. In 1973, when hall began seeing her, she was a flight attendant. Hall wrote a song on abandoned luncheonette called Las Vegas Turnaround, the stewardess song about her.
- [38:53]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Sarah's off on a turnaround Flying gambling fools to the holy land, Las Vegas. But.
- [39:01]
Chris Melanfi
But after several years living with Darrell and hanging around as he and John worked on songs, Sarah Allen began chiming in with lyrical and other musical ideas to their credit. Rather than regarding Allen as an interloper, hall and Oates brought her in as a credited songwriter. Starting with the Silver album, Sarah Allen's name began appearing in the liner notes of their LPs. She became both Hall's lover and professional collaborator, roles she would go on to play for over 20 years. And on what turned out to be the duo's breakthrough hit, she was Daryl's muse.
- [39:45]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
It's you and me forever Sarah Smile.
- [39:58]
Chris Melanfi
After Lynn Tolliver began playing it, Sarah Smile spread from Cleveland to other cities. RCA belatedly issued it as the third single from the Daryl hall and John Oates LP. It rose all the way to number four on the Hot 100 in June of 1976. It even made it to number 23 on the R and B chart. This time under hall and Oates own names. And the languishing LP finally rose into the top 20 and went gold. In a move to recoup their investment in the now hit act Atlantic, hall and Oates old label reissued She's Gone as a single. The slow burning lament now sounded like a natural follow up to the soulful Sarah Smile. Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [40:50]
Casey Kasem
You know. Back in 1974, Darrell hall and John Oates wrote and recorded a song that became their first chart record. It peaked at number 60 on the pop chart. Then a half a year later, Tavares covered the record, getting up to number 50 and going all the way to number one on the soul chart this week. Two and a half years later, after it was first released, hall and Oates debut on the 40 with their original recording of that song coming in at number 39. It's called she's gone.
- [41:28]
Chris Melanfi
She's gone. The original version would peak at number seven on the Hot 100 by the fall of 76. The Abandoned Luncheonette album re entered the LP chart and cracked the top 40, going gold in October, by which time there was now a new hall and Oates album in music shops. Recording again with Chris Bond, the duo tried to emulate the rock and soul sound that had finally broken them.
- [41:58]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Do what you want girl be what you are.
- [42:06]
Chris Melanfi
When bigger than both of us dropped in the late summer of 1976, the duo and the label again had a hard time choosing a single. In an effort to emulate the revived She's Gone, they issued the slow burning do what you want, be what you are. But it only reached number 39. And then in the winter of 77, they released a new, more uptempo and much snarkier single. And it obliterated anything hall and Oates had released to this point.
- [42:38]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
You're a rich girl and you're gone too far Cause you know it don't matter anyway.
- [42:45]
Chris Melanfi
Here's the funny story about Rich Girl. Daryl hall wrote it about a rich boy. Hall later told the story to American Songwriter. It was about an old boyfriend of Sarah's from college. He came to our apartment and he was acting sort of strange. His father was quite rich I think with some kind of a fast food chain. I thought this guy is out of his mind. But he doesn't have to worry about it. Cuz his father's gonna bail him out of any problems he gets in. So I sat down and wrote that chorus. He rely on the old man's money He's a rich guy. I thought that didn't sound right so I changed it to Rich Girl. But he knows the song was written about him, unquote. Again, hall and Oates did best with the songs that evoked their hometown background. Rich Girl was pure Philly soul with the kind of lush strings Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Tom Bell had made a chart staple for hall and Oates. It was a chart juggernaut. By March 1977, Rich Girl had become their first number one. By April, Darrell hall and John Oates were on the COVID of Rolling Stone. Three of their albums were gold and all three had been riding the LP chart simultaneously. If you know where the hall and Oates story is headed from here. You might think it's an instant road to platinum, but that's not how the late 70s turned out. The duo's identity crisis persisted it Even after topping the charts. On their 1977 album Beauty on a Backstreet, producer Chris Bond insisted on recording hall and Notes in a stripped down style, style that echoed current rock titans like the Eagles or Kansas. It was a bad fit, a failed effort to nudge hall and Notes in the direction of album rock, since they were not really going for pop airplay. Beauty on a Backstreet singles were Stiffs, why Do lovers break each other's heart peaked at number 78, and don't change missed the hot 100 entirely. Hall and Oates were in essence, back to square one. Sensing an opportunity, Daryl hall decided to try an experiment without breaking up with Oats. He would pause for a solo album, and Darrell, after the conservatism of his recent work with Chris Bond, was eager to make a hard left turn, one even more unpredictable than War Babies. King Crimson leader Robert Fripp, the subversive British progressive rocker and thinking personal Emerson's guitar hero, according to AllMusic, had befriended Daryl hall in the early 70s, and he kept up with him whenever he visited England. Impressed with Hall's supple voice, Fripp pledged to work with him someday. In 1977, Robert Fripp made good on that pledge. Between 1977 and 79, Robert Fripp recorded a trio of albums that he considered his pop trilogy, accessible by his standards but experimental for the artists fronting the projects. The first of the three albums was a solo LP for Daryl hall, on which Fripp invited such men musicians as Brian Eno and bassist Tony Levin of King Crimson to perform. The next year, Fripp brought many of these same musicians to work on Peter Gabriel's self titled 1978 sophomore album, which echoed the sound of Daryl Hall's solo album.
- [47:45]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
DIY DIY.
- [47:49]
Chris Melanfi
And the year after that, Robert Fripp brought in both Peter Gabriel and Daryl hall to sing on Exposure, Fripp's own solo debut. Outside of King Crimson, hall sang lead on several tracks, including the punky Rave up, you Burn Me Up, I'm a.
- [48:09]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
Cigarette, you Burn Me Up, I'm a Cigarette.
- [48:16]
Chris Melanfi
And the positively ethereal, almost freeform North Star. This was all miles away from She's Gone and Rich Girl and it weirded out rca. Truthfully, Hall's album was the most accessible of the Robert Fripp trilogy. But when hall presented his solo LP to the label in 1977 under the title Sacred Songs. RCA balked they would not release it, claiming it would unsettle the hall and Oates fan base. Sacred Songs would remain unreleased for 3 years. QUOTE they thought I was getting weird on them, hall later said. They got scared and didn't want to lose their investment. It didn't sound like hall and Oats, and it wasn't supposed to. Supposed to. To me, it's a pretty straight ahead album. Dutifully returning to the fold, hall recorded two more 70s albums with John Oates that continued the search for their next sound. Produced by LA based journeyman David Foster, 1978's along the Red Ledge to did generate a top 20 hit in the Mellow It's Allowed, And hall and Oates leaned back toward a more discofied version of Philly Soul on I Don't Wanna Lose youe, which just missed the top. David Foster manned the boards as they went even deeper into disco on 1979's album Ecstatic on the Club Crazy who said the world was fair?
- [50:40]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
If there's enough to go around.
- [50:44]
Chris Melanfi
If.
- [50:44]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
There'S enough to go around.
- [50:52]
Chris Melanfi
And the disco rock hybrid Portable Radio. But none of this connected on the radio or the charts. X Static landed in the middle of the 1979 disco backlash, and it became hall and Oates first album not to go gold since 1974's War Babies. The only thing salvaging the LP and ushering the duo into the 80s was a soulful rocker called Wait for Me. It peaked at number 18 on the Hot 100 in January of 1980, and wait for me's crisp sound suggested how hall and Oates might move forward. The next month, Daryl and John had a long talk with their manager Tommy Mottola, insisting that they wanted to produce themselves from here on. Even after working with pros from Arif Martin to Todd Rundgren to David Foster, they felt if they couldn't define their sound themselves, they shouldn't be making music. Mottola agreed. You're absolutely right, he said, and we have nothing to lose. Their first move was convincing RCA to belatedly issue Darrell's Sacred Songs LP. When it finally arrived in stores in March 1980. It did decently, reaching number 58 and even selling a little better than a couple of hall and Oates 70s LPs. More important, that 1977 recording recording with its uncluttered new Wavy Frippertronics production, would inspire the sound of 1980s voices, the self produced LP that would become hall and Oates blockbuster. It helped that Both men, assisted by their co songwriter Sarah Allen, were writing strong material such as Daryl's love ballad Every Time youe Go Away. For Voice's lead single as a statement of purpose, they chose the John Oates penned mid tempo rocker How Does It Feel to Be Back?
- [53:49]
Daryl Hall and John Oates (singing excerpts)
How Does It Feel to Be Back?
- [53:53]
Chris Melanfi
It reached number 30 on the Hot 100. Then, hedging their bets a bit, the duo followed it up with a cover. The first of their singles ever not to be written by one of them, hall and Oates take on the Righteous Brothers. You've Lost that Lovin Feelin', still a radio staple to this day, rose to number 12 in November 1980. What's remarkable about these two good but fairly unambitious singles was what hall and Oates were holding in reserve. A song so catchy it was like a control alt delete reboot of the duo's entire career. When we come back, Darryl hall and John oates defined the 80s, the MTV era and Blue Eyed Soul entering the record books in one of the greatest imperial runs in chart history. The lane they built turned out to to be a superhighway non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Asha Soluja. Special thanks this month for research support from Matt Shady Wardlaw and St. Stephen Thomas Erlewine June Thomas is the Senior Managing Producer of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on Marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.