{"id":29858,"date":"2025-10-02T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29858"},"modified":"2025-08-14T13:52:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:52:58","slug":"take-five-pre-megastardom-gems-from-hall-and-oates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/take-five-pre-megastardom-gems-from-hall-and-oates\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Pre-megastardom Gems from Hall and Oates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Daryl Hall and John Oates were among the biggest musical acts of the 1980s. With their trademark mix of soul, r&amp;b and pop, the duo soared to the heights of the charts with 1980\u2019s Platinum-selling <em>Voices<\/em>, and sustained their momentum through that decade. Each of their successive \u201880s albums \u2013 <em>Private Eyes<\/em> (1981), <em>H<sub>2<\/sub>O<\/em> (1982), 1984\u2019s <em>Big Bam Boom<\/em> and <em>Ooh Yeah!<\/em> from 1988 \u2013 all sold Platinum or better, and in that period Hall &amp; Oates placed a staggering 21 singles on the U.S. Top 40.<\/p>\n<p>That landmark run overshadows the fact that Hall and Oates weren\u2019t exactly an overnight sensation. <em>Voices<\/em>, the album that kicked off that string of mega-successful records, was the duo\u2019s ninth studio album. The records they made throughout the 1970s were solid sellers, and most of those albums had at least a modestly commercially successful single. From a critical standpoint, H&amp;O were making quality music for years before they went supernova. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their fourth and self-titled album, here are five must-hear Hall and Oates cuts from their first decade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShe\u2019s Gone\u201d from <em>Abandoned Luncheonette<\/em> (1973)<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile their 1972 debut <em>Whole Oates<\/em> didn\u2019t chart anywhere in the world, the duo\u2019s second release, 1973\u2019s <em>Abandoned Luncheonette<\/em> proved a success with critics and listeners alike. Working with some the music industry\u2019s best session players, Hall and Oates served up a solid set of songs, with the soulful and melancholy \u201cShe\u2019s Gone\u201d as the album\u2019s single. On its original release, the song didn\u2019t crack the Top 40, but \u201cShe\u2019s Gone\u201d is considered by many (including its writers) as one of Hall and Oates\u2019 best-ever tracks.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/87Q042KlxI4?si=CPTI6ITbMhFgUk9e\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cCan\u2019t Stop the Music (He Played it Much Too Long)\u201d from <em>War Babies<\/em> (1974)<\/strong><br \/>\nRather than building on the commercial momentum of <em>Abandoned Luncheonette<\/em>, for their third LP Hall and Oates instead made a deeply idiosyncratic album. Produced by old friend Todd Rundgren, the experimental <em>War Babies<\/em> is the duo\u2019s oddest record, filled with unusual arrangements and surreal lyrical imagery. Yet among hardcore fans, it\u2019s often cited as a favorite. Penned by John Oates, the album\u2019s non-charting single is representative of the off-kilter yet compelling character of <em>War Babies<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O7tboGLiCdU?si=Vmm8H__-VRN14n6y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSara Smile\u201d from <em>Daryl Hall &amp; John Oates<\/em> (1976)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe commercial misstep of <em>War Babies<\/em> resulted in Hall and Oates being dropped by Atlantic, their record label. Picked up by RCA, the duo moved back toward their Philly soul style for their fourth album. The third of three singles released from <em>Daryl Hall &amp; John Oates<\/em>, the slinky smooth \u201cSara Smile\u201d was an exemplar of their trademark sound, and won the duo their first-ever Top 40 single.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dYEpFJhuu1E?si=twAuvzCx_bwhxHL6\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRich Girl\u201d from Bigger Than Both of Us (1977)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe 1970s saw a number of expletives find their way into hit singles: Pink Floyd slipped bullshit into \u201cMoney,\u201d and Hall and Oates\u2019 funky \u201cRich Girl\u201d used the word bitch as a rhyming device (and a pointed comment on the song\u2019s subject). The single climbed to the No. 1 spot on the <em>Billboard<\/em> Hot 100, the first of six Hall and Oates tunes to claim that achievement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AmHE65RAkSY?si=kqi8MDkQpEE17_ey\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s a Laugh\u201d from <em>Along the Red Ledge<\/em> (1978)<\/strong><br \/>\nHall and Oates followed up <em>Bigger Than Both of Us<\/em> with a (somewhat premature) best-of release, 1977\u2019s <em>No Goodbyes<\/em>. A few months later, <em>Beauty on a Back Street<\/em> was released. Though it earned some positive reviews, it didn\u2019t sell. A live album followed, 1978\u2019s <em>Livetime<\/em>, and in August \u201878 the duo released <em>Along the Red Ledge<\/em>. Featuring a superstar collection of guest guitarists (Todd Rundgren, George Harrison, Dick Wagner, Cheap Trick\u2019s Rick Nielsen, King Crimson\u2019s Robert Fripp), the album opened with its single, Hall\u2019s bitter \u201cIt\u2019s a Laugh.\u201d The single stalled at No. 20, but Hall and Oates had the last laugh: within two years they would be well on their way to household name status.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vt2k8_9xsRg?si=9ZPqzRFezTWf-YMK\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daryl Hall and John Oates were among the biggest musical acts of the 1980s. With their trademark mix of soul, r&amp;b and pop, the duo soared to the heights of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5752],"class_list":["post-29858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-hall-and-oates","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29860,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29858\/revisions\/29860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}