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uring the 1980s, Daryl Hall and John Oates created their “rock and soul” sound by manipulating new musical technology, and with the help of music videos became what Billboard describes as the top-selling duo in rock, with 34 songs reaching the Top 100 chart. Since singing backup for Smokey Robinson almost 40 years ago, Hall has proved himself to be one of the best white soul singers of all time with hits like “Sara Smile.” His falsetto is so sweet on “One On One,” listeners might not realize the lyrics are sports metaphors. “I switch naturally between my natural voice and my falsetto; it kind of flows and overlaps,” says Hall, who doesn’t like the term blue-eyed soul. “I am a second tenor — if you want to get technical about it — but my falsetto increases my range considerably.” Hall and Oates met in the late 1960s. In the ’70s, the duo released the hits “She’s Gone” and their first No. 1 single, “Rich Girl.” In the early ’80s, Hall and Oates set out on some experimentation, including Hall’s partnership with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp — which sounds like a dream combo but was not a success at the time. In the mid-’80s Hall and Oates produced their own work, finally hitting their stride with songs like “Kiss On My List,” “You Make My Dreams,” and the adult-funk megahit “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” from 1981’s Private Eyes album. “Today we have a good problem,” Hall says. “We can’t even play all of our hits in one set, or else we’d have to play for three hours. That’s not a brag, it’s the truth. And that being said, we like to throw in some lesser-known songs like ‘Uncanny.’”
By Michael Patrick Welch
Aside from a 2006 Christmas album, the duo have not written or recorded original material together since 2003’s Do It For the Love. Hall has publicly suggested that, outside of their live shows, the duo’s writing partnership is over. “John and I are together through our body of work,” Hall says. “Even during our recording time, which extended all of those years, we didn’t write that much together. You can’t really tell from the credits, but we wrote a lot separately. We did come together on some really important songs like ‘She’s Gone’ and ‘Maneater’ and ‘Out of Touch,’ but most of the songs were written more separately. We’ve always been two solo artists working together. We’ve tried to maintain a separateness, which is one of the reasons we’re still together, really.” Despite roots in Philly soul, much of Hall and Oates’ work featured synthesizers and other electronic effects, creating new wave soul-pop. Today, Hall prefers a more organic sound. “I’ve come up through every kind of technology in music,” he says. “When I started out it was four-track reel-to-reel and the only nonacoustic instruments you could play were the electric guitar, electric piano and organ. I saw the Moog become the Polymoog, and all different kinds of advances in keyboard technology in the ’80s. My music in the ’80s reflected that, because I was making use of all these new tools. Now I’ve sort of gone past all that because I don’t really feel the technology has gone any farther than it did then. … So I just sort of revert to a more simplistic way of production and recording now than I did in the ’80s.”
HALL AND OATES 4 P.M. - 5:30 P.M. SUNDAY, MAY 5 GENTILLY STAGE PHOTO BY CAMERON WITTIG
This approach and sound is on display in Hall’s web and TV show Live From Daryl’s House (www.livefromdarylshouse.com), in which the singer invites old friends (Joe Walsh) and hip younger artists (Minus the Bear) into his home in upstate New York to jam, mostly on old Hall and Oates tunes. The show has traveled to Todd Rundgren’s Hawaiian home, but mostly Hall pairs up with artists like Chromeo and Cee Lo Green. Hall also records solo work, such as 2011’s Laughing Down Crying. His singing on that album is immediately recognizable and as pleasing as ever, though the songs have less open space
than Hall and Oates’ best work. Known as an electric piano man in Hall and Oates, Hall fills up his newer work with guitars. “I started playing piano when I was 5, then throughout my teenage years grew proficient on keyboards; then in my 20s, I started picking up the guitar,” he says. “I thought the guitar would complete my ability to write different styles and play different ways. I go back and forth, but especially on stage I like playing guitar.” At times, it has been difficult to discern Oates’ role in the duo’s success. He last made headlines in 1989 for shaving off his moustache (in favor of a soul patch).