narrowcast: Deep Album Cuts Vol. 249: Daryl Hall & John Oates

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 249: Daryl Hall & John Oates

Back in August, I got to interview John Oates for GQ, and it was a really cool opportunity that I was happy to get. I've been getting more and more into the Daryl Hall & John Oates catalog the last few years, and have been wanting to finish this playlist for a long time, so working on that interview really spurred me to dive back in.

Daryl Hall & John Oates deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Fall In Philadelphia

2. Abandoned Luncheonette

3. Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)

4. Is It A Star

5. I'm Watching You (A Mutant Romance)

6. Out Of Me, Out Of You

7. Ennui On The Mountain

8. You'll Never Learn

9. Room To Breathe

10. The Girl Who Used To Be

11. Serious Music

12. No Brain No Pain

13. Everytime You Go Away

14. United State

15. Head Above Water

16. Friday Let Me Down

17. Open All Night

18. Delayed Reaction

19. Bank On Your Love

20. Talking All Night

Track 1 from Whole Oats (1972)
Tracks 2 and 3 from Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)
Tracks 4 and 5 from War Babies (1974)
Tracks 6 and 7 from Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975)
Tracks 8 and 9 from Bigger Than Both Of Us (1976)
Track 10 from Beauty On A Backstreet (1977)
Track 11 from Along The Red Ledge (1978)
Track 12 from X-Static (1979)
Tracks 13 and 14 from Voices (1980)
Tracks 15 and 16 from Private Eyes (1981)
Tracks 17 and 18 from H2O (1982)
Track 19 from Big Bam Boom (1984)
Track 20 from Ooh Yeah! (1988)

Artists like Aretha Franklin and Willie Nelson famously kicked off their classic periods by signing to Atlantic Records after years of plugging away less successfully on other labels. But it was the other way around for Daryl Hall and John Oates, who released three Atlantic albums to little success before becoming major stars on RCA. Even the most famous song from their Atlantic period, "She's Gone," didn't become a top 10 hit until it was re-released to capitalize on their RCA breakthrough with "Sara Smile."

Another thing that happens when a band changes labels and becomes successful is their early stuff gets repackaged a lot. There was one official Atlantic compilation, 1977's No Goodbyes, which featured 3 new songs. But a quickie Rhino compilation called She's Gone & Other Hits that my dad owned ended up being my gateway to really appreciating them. At first I was disappointed by the deceptive title ("She's Gone" is the only one of the duo's many recognizable pop hits on the album), but then I fell for all the other songs on there, particularly the ones from Abandoned Luncheonette. And one of my favorite things about talking to John Oates was getting some stories out of him about Bernard Purdie, who does fantastic work on that album. It turns out Oates is a big fan of that period too, and talked about how "Is It A Star" from the Todd Rundgren-produced War Babies was the deep cut of choice for setlists on their tour this year.

John Oates wrote and sang lead more on the '70s albums, and I think it's kind of a shame that a lot of people think of him as more a sidekick than an equal partner after Hall became the singer of most of their biggest hits. I included some songs Oates sings lead on like the live staple "Last Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)," "You'll Never Learn," "The Girl Who Used To Be," "Serious Music," and "Friday Let Me Down," as well as some songs where they share vocal duties. Daryl Hall also demonstrated a pretty interesting range as a singer and songwriter before he found that pop star sweet spot -- "No Brain No Pain" is basically a Devo song, and he references The Stooges' "TV Eye" on "I'm Watching You (A Mutant Romance)" -- at least I assume so -- according to Kathy Asheton, "TV eye" was her personal slang term that Iggy Pop made into a song, so there's no other context for the phrase that I know of. I decided not to make room for solo albums, but there are some good ones, particularly Hall's Robert Fripp-produced solo debut Sacred Songs.

Their 9th album Voices was sort of the moment where Daryl Hall & John Oates finally arrived as consistent hitmakers, after almost a decade of sort of sporadic patches of success. But one of the most popular songs debuted on that album wasn't a hit right away. The original "Everytime You Go Away" on Voices wasn't a single, but it became a #1 hit for Paul Young in 1985, and I primarily associate the song with the Blue Room cover that played over the credits of Planes, Trains & Automobiles. And really their '80s albums are loaded with more songs that could've been hits, "Head Above Water" sounds like a smash.