Daryl Hall and John Oates are the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in
music history!
Starting out as two devoted
disciples of earlier soul greats, Daryl Hall & John Oates are soul
survivors in their own right. They have become such musical influences on some
of today’s popular artists that the September 2006 cover of Spin Magazine’s
headline read: “Why Hall and Oates are the New Velvet Underground.” Their
artistic fan base includes Rob Thomas, John Mayer, Brandon Flowers of the
Killers, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie and MTV’s newest hipsters Gym Class
Heroes who dubbed their tour “Daryl Hall for President Tour 2007.” One of the
most sampled artists today, their impact can be heard everywhere from boy band
harmonies, to neo-soul to rap-rock fusion.
Signed to Atlantic by Ahmet
Ertegan and managed by Tommy Mottola in the 1970’s, Hall & Oates have sold
more albums than any other duo in music history. Their 1973 debut album, Abandoned
Luncheonette, produced by Arif Mardin, yielded the Top 10 single, “She’s
Gone,” which also went to #1 on the R&B charts when it was covered by
Taveras. The duo recorded one more album with Atlantic,
War Babies, (produced by Todd Rundgren) before they were dropped and
promptly signed to RCA. Their tenure at RCA would catapult the duo to
international superstardom.
From the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, the duo would score six
#1 singles, including “Rich Girl” (also #1 R&B), “Kiss on My List,”
“Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (also #1 R&B), “Maneater”
and “Out of Touch” from their six consecutive multi-platinum albums—’76’s Bigger
Than Both of Us, ’80’s Voices, ’81’s Private Eyes, ‘82’s H2O,
‘83’s Rock N Soul, Part I and ‘84’s Big Bam Boom. The era would
also produce an additional 5 Top 10 singles, “Sara Smile,” “One on One,” “You
Make My Dreams,” “Say It Isn’t So” and “Method of Modern Love.”
Daryl also wrote the H&O single "Everytime You Go
Away," which singer Paul Young scored a number-one hit with a cover of the
song in 1985.
That same year, Daryl and John, participated in the historic
“We Are the World” session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia.
By 1987, the R.I.A.A. recognized Daryl Hall and John Oates
as the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in music history, a record they still hold today.
On May 20, 2008, the duo was honored with the Icon Award
during BMI’s 56th annual Pop Awards.
The award has previously gone to the Bee Gees, Crosby, Stills &
Nash, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson, James Brown, Ray Davies, Carlos
Santana and Dolly Parton.
Daryl Hall’s latest project is a monthly Internet series, Live
from Daryl’s House (www.livefromdarylshouse.com). “It was a light bulb
moment,” he says of the show’s genesis. “I’ve had this idea about just sitting
on the porch or in my living room, playing music with my friends and putting it
up on the Internet.”
Past episodes of Live
from Daryl’s House have featured a mix of well-known performers like Smokey
Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall,
Todd Rundgren, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy, Finger Eleven’s James Black and
Rick Jackett and the Bacon Brothers, along with newcomers such as Philly soul
singer Mutlu, Canadian techno-rockers Chromeo, MySpace pop-rock phenom Eric
Hutchinson, Cash Money rocker Kevin Rudolf, Wind-up Records’ Chicago rockers
Company of Thieves, Bay Area singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson, Charlottesville,
VA’s rising Parachute, Chicago rock band Plain White T’s and highly touted
tunesmith Diane Birch.
In the Fall of 2008, John Oates
released his critically acclaimed solo album, 1000 Miles of Life.
John dedicated the album to three inspired individuals who
had recently passed away, but were major influences in his career—producer Arif
Mardin (who produced Hall & Oates’ first two albums on Atlantic Records),
Jerry Lynn Williams (a writer who contributed songs to Eric Clapton, Bonnie
Raitt and B.B. King, among others) and his original guitar mentor Jerry Ricks,
who introduced him to the roots blues/folk scene in Philadelphia in the late
60s.
Most recently, Daryl Hall &
John Oates released their first box set, Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The
Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates. The box set marks the first comprehensive multi-CD, multi-label deluxe box set
compilation ever assembled from their entire career’s work, four CDs containing
74 tracks (16 of them previously unreleased).
The fortieth anniversary of
their first meeting finds Daryl Hall and John Oates very much at the height of
their powers making their own kind of soul, with a new generation of musicians
recognizing not only their historic track record of success, but also their
continuing influence and achievements.
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