{"id":1080,"date":"2019-09-02T13:50:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T17:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=1080"},"modified":"2019-10-29T20:17:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T00:17:31","slug":"daryl-hall-and-john-oates-their-hits-are-still-on-our-list-as-the-best-things-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/daryl-hall-and-john-oates-their-hits-are-still-on-our-list-as-the-best-things-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Daryl Hall and John Oates: Their hits are still on our list as the best things in life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daryl<\/a>

Daryl Hall and John Oates performed at the Allentown Fairgrounds Sept. 1, 2019, in Allentown, PA.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve long been an advocate of Daryl Hall and John Oates performing a complete album during their live show. It\u2019s not a new concept. Brian Wilson has performed the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cPet Sounds\u201d (1966) album for a while now. And the Doobie Brothers have done the complete  <\/span>\u201cToulouse Street\u201d (1972) and \u201cThe Captain and Me\u201d (1973) albums in concert.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s cool because the fans get to hear deeper cuts that bands usually don\u2019t perform live. But there is the very real possibility \u2014 the Beatles are on the record as saying this \u2014 that some album cuts, particularly those albums that were recorded early in the artists\u2019 careers, have never been performed live by the band. There are songs on albums that bands learned just for the album, and would have to relearn them some 40 to 50 years later.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not necessarily an easy thing for the artists to do, I\u2019m sure. And there\u2019s the consideration \u2014 which John Oates has told me more than once in past interviews when I\u2019ve asked him about how the concert setlist is determined \u2014 that when fans buy tickets to shows, Hall & Oates feel obligated to perform the hits. And with H&O, there are more than enough hits to fill up a concert.<\/p>\n

Still, I\u2019ve always wanted to hear Daryl and John do a full album live, my preferences being \u201cAbandoned Luncheonette\u201d (1973) and \u201cDaryl Hall & John Oates,\u201d also known as the \u201cSilver Album\u201d (1975). Those are my two favorites and the two that I\u2019ve written about most extensively in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues\u201d series. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the only one who likes \u201cAbandoned Luncheonette,\u201d both Daryl and John like it a lot, too.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Oates rocks a smooth groove during the Allentown performance.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a special album. It was a perfect storm of creativity for us,\u201d said Oates in an interview for \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues Volume I.\u201d \u201cIt was the right producer [Arif Mardin] in the right studio with the right musicians and the right songs, all at the same time. That seldom happens, but you hope it does. Fortunately for us, it happened on our second album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daryl said that Side One of the album is the \u201cmagic\u201d side. It includes one Hall-penned tune, \u201cWhen the Morning Comes\u201d; three Oates-written songs, \u201cHad I Know You Better Then,\u201d \u201cLas Vegas Turnaround\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Just a Kid (Don\u2019t Make Me Feel Like A Man)\u201d; and one co-written song, \u201cShe\u2019s Gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s Gone,\u201d which is always played by the duo in their live shows, was only moderately successful when it was first released as a single in 1974. But it climbed to No. 7 on the charts when a remixed version was re-released in 1976, after the two had moved to RCA Records and scored a big hit with \u201cSara Smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Side One, there\u2019s not a note on that body of work that isn\u2019t just right,\u201d said Daryl in an interview for TVD1. He won\u2019t go so far to say that \u201cAbandoned Luncheonette\u201d is his favorite Daryl Hall and John Oates album, but he comes close. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never look into the future, but I was proud of it at the time,\u201d said Daryl. \u201cWould I have known that we\u2019d be talking about it more than 40 years later? No, but I had the feeling that it was going to be around for a while. It was one of my favorite experiences, I\u2019ll say that. I guess I would equate that with a favorite album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Silver Album contained the breakout hit \u201cSara Smile,\u201d the writing of which Daryl detailed for me in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues Volume III: Stack of Wax.\u201d Other than that one, none of the other songs on that album have made consistent appearances in the H&O live set, although Oates\u2019 \u201cCamellia\u201d does often show up in his solo shows.<\/p>\n

\"Daryl<\/a>

Daryl Hall takes a turn on the keyboards during the performance.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

But as much as I\u2019d love to hear those two albums in their entirety live, I may have to change my tune after the H&O show Sunday night, Sept. 1, at the Allentown Fair in Allentown, PA. That\u2019s because if that show is any indication of what Daryl and John experience night after night at their shows, then John was absolutely correct: the fans buy tickets to their shows to hear them perform the hits.<\/p>\n

There were several big crowd reactions throughout the show, but none bigger than when H&O performed \u201cShe\u2019s Gone\u201d and \u201cSara Smile\u201d back-to-back in the middle of the set. Those songs have stood the test of time, and Daryl and John perform them like they\u2019re new songs. There is as much soulfulness in \u201cShe\u2019s Gone,\u201d and as much emotion from Daryl in \u201cSara Smile,\u201d as there was when those songs were recorded. And the audience erupted for both of the tunes, as well as for the other hits.<\/p>\n

Consider just the encore songs at this show: \u201cRich Girl,\u201d \u201cKiss on My List,\u201d \u201cPrivate Eyes\u201d \u2014 all No. 1 hits \u2014 and \u201cYou Make My Dreams,\u201d a No. 5 chart single, brought the crowd to its feet and collectively kept it there for the entire encore. <\/span><\/p>\n

Daryl and John know their audiences. And they give them what they want, which is the hits, occasionally sprinkling in songs like \u201cIs It a Star,\u201d from the \u201cWar Babies\u201d (1974) album, which appeared in the Allentown set.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re lucky that Daryl and John are still out there performing those hits for us. If they\u2019re in your town \u2014 or anywhere near your town \u2014 go see them. They\u2019re both still in great voice and their band has been top notch for many years now. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can still go for that. I know I can.<\/p>\n

\"Daryl<\/a>

Daryl Hall and John Oates, with their stellar band, kept the crowd on its feet with hit after hit.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve long been an advocate of Daryl Hall and John Oates performing a complete album during their live show. It\u2019s not a new concept. Brian Wilson has performed the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cPet Sounds\u201d (1966) album for a while now. And the Doobie Brothers have done the complete  \u201cToulouse Street\u201d (1972) and \u201cThe Captain and Me\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1080\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}