{"id":886,"date":"2018-07-15T12:14:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T16:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=886"},"modified":"2019-12-07T13:06:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T18:06:23","slug":"the-backstory-behind-the-hit-sara-smile-by-hall-oates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/the-backstory-behind-the-hit-sara-smile-by-hall-oates\/","title":{"rendered":"The backstory behind the hit ‘Sara Smile’ by Hall & Oates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Even<\/a>

Even though both Daryl Hall and John Oates are credited with writing “Sara Smile,” it’s a Daryl Hall song.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Daryl Hall was living on the Upper East Side of New York in 1975 when he and John Oates began producing material for the \u201cDaryl Hall & John Oates\u201d album – which would come to be known as \u201cThe Silver Album\u201d because of its glam rock style cover. Living with Hall at the time was his girlfriend, Sara Allen.<\/p>\n

Oates had introduced Allen to Hall a few years earlier. According to Oates, he had met a flight attendant – called \u201cstewardesses\u201d in those days – and a girlfriend of hers on the streets of New York and had struck up a conversation with them. One of those flight attendants was Sara Allen.<\/p>\n

Oates eventually took that chance meeting and turned it into a song titled \u201cLas Vegas Turnaround\u201d that appeared on the duo\u2019s second album, \u201cAbandoned Luncheonette,\u201d released in 1973. He also eventually introduced Hall to Allen.<\/p>\n

By 1975, Allen and Hall were a few years into a personal relationship that would end up lasting more than 30 years. And Hall was inspired enough by his feelings for Allen that he wrote a highly personal song, one that would end up being on \u201cThe Silver Album.\u201d<\/p>\n

That song was \u201cSara Smile,\u201d which became the first Top 10 hit for Hall & Oates, reaching No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in early 1976.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a song that came completely out of my heart. I\u2019ve said this many times – it was a postcard. It\u2019s short and sweet and to the point,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n

But there was no big first-time reveal of the song to Allen.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was there, in the house. I was just writing the song. I don\u2019t think there was a first time that I played it for her. She listened to the evolution of the song,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n

Both Hall and Oates are credited as writing the song but it\u2019s a Daryl Hall song, according to Oates.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Oates contributed some lyrics to “Sara Smile.”
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen you think about that song, the one thing you have to understand about Daryl and I and our songwriting process is that if one of us kind of had a handle on the idea, the other one would help and kind of function almost like an editor, to help make the song happen.\u201d said Oates. \u201cIt could have been as simple as throwing out an arrangement idea or it could have been a 50-50 collaboration or anything in-between. There were no rules involved with any of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oates said Hall had the song, the music, the chord changes, he was singing the melody and had the chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve always just tacitly acknowledged that it was his song, because it was. But he and I wrote the lyrics together,\u201d said Oates.<\/p>\n

But it was two Oates songs – \u201cCamellia\u201d and \u201cAlone Too Long\u201d – that were slated by the record company to be the two singles released from \u201cThe Sliver Album.\u201d At that point in the process, \u201cSara Smile\u201d wasn\u2019t being considered for release as a single.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen \u2018Sara Smile\u2019 was recorded, it was probably tracked in a half hour at the most. Daryl did all the vocals. In fact, the lead vocal is a live vocal tape. We punched in one word, the first \u2018Sara\u2019 before the first chorus because it was flat,\u201d said Barry Rudolph, the engineer on the album. \u201cDaryl is very much a live and immediate artist; he\u2019s not much for punching in lead vocals. Backing vocals are different. But he really was a real-by-feel kind of singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Chris Bond – who co-produced the album with Hall and Oates – and Rudolph didn\u2019t think \u201cSara Smile\u201d was destined to be a single from the album.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I heard \u2018Sara Smile,\u2019 I thought it was a really neat song. And that\u2019s all I thought about it. But it did definitely belong on this record,\u201d said Bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, everyone kind of thought that \u2018Sara\u2019 was a really cool kind of album cut. It was a really nice song and everyone loved working on it,\u201d said Rudolph. \u201cIt was a very simple production, a very simple song. Daryl said to me, \u2018When we do the backing vocals, I want it to sound like the Dells.\u2019 I said OK. I sort of knew who they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dells were a doo-wop group popular in the 1950s and 1960s who had an R&B hit with the single \u201cOh What a Night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard the playback the first time of the first take that we\u2019d done of \u2018Sara,\u2019 I thought oh, something was happening,\u201d said Bond. \u201cI\u2019m sitting in the control room thinking to myself, oh my God, to me this sounds like a hit record. But everybody kept  insisting the hit single was \u2018Camellia.\u2019 This was the 1970s. Albums all had concepts – that\u2019s what it was all about. And the concept with \u2018Sara\u2019 was that it was like an Al Green song. I wanted it to sound like an old Al Green song from Memphis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cut \u2018Camellia\u2019 three different times, with three different sections. I did two different string dates on it. I tried it with two different drummers. I even tried cutting it in different studios to see if I could make it sound like a hit to me and it never did,\u201d said Bond.<\/p>\n

Once \u201cThe Silver Album\u201d was released, the two singles, \u201cCamellia\u201d and \u201cAlone Too Long,\u201d did OK on the charts, but nothing spectacular. At that time in the music business, according to Oates, artists had to give a single six to eight weeks to see if it would make the charts and get regular radio play.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time those two singles had been released – the album had been released prior to that – you\u2019re talking about being into this album for more than six months. At that point in our careers, six months was an eternity. We were already getting ready to make a new record,\u201d said Oates.<\/p>\n

Still, RCA had no intention of releasing a third single from \u201cThe Silver Album.\u201d (I interviewed Hall, Oates, Bond and Rudolph about the making of that album, which is featured in “The Vinyl Dialogues Volume III: Stacks of Wax.”)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn their minds, we were going to make another record, and in our minds, we were going to make another record,\u201d said Oates.<\/p>\n

But while the duo was touring, a disc jockey on a small R&B radio station in Toledo, Ohio, decided to start playing \u201cSara Smile\u201d as an album cut – just because he liked the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimple as that. And as soon he began to play it, the phones lit up, people kept calling and asking, \u2018Who are these guys, what is this song that you\u2019re playing and where do we get it?\u2019\u201d said Oates.<\/p>\n

But Bond and Rudolph remember the \u201cSara\u201d story differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story goes that Tommy Mattola (the duo\u2019s manager at the time) took a second loan out on his house and borrowed a bunch of money and basically got the top 10 stations in the country to play \u2018Sara\u2019 in regular rotation for a week. And that put it over the edge,\u201d said Rudolph. (I was unable to confirm that version of the story with Hall, Oates or Mattola.)<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, word of the song\u2019s popularity in Ohio quickly got back to RCA offices in New York and the record company officials decided to release \u201cSara Smile\u201d as the third single off \u201cThe Silver Album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall & Oates were touring England when \u201cSara Smile\u201d broke in the R&B world, becoming a hit on African-American radio. The song then crossed over into mainstream radio and became a pop hit as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never forget the first time I heard it on the radio,\u201d said Hall. \u201cI was in California. I heard it on the radio amidst all the other songs, and I thought to myself, \u2018This doesn\u2019t sound like anything else that\u2019s being played around it.\u2019 It was totally unique and stuck out like a sore thumb – well maybe not a sore thumb – but it stuck out. I have a distinct memory of that. I\u2019m sort of proud of that idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song went to No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles, No. 6 on the U.S. Cash Box Top 100 singles, No. 18 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and No. 23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daryl Hall was living on the Upper East Side of New York in 1975 when he and John Oates began producing material for the \u201cDaryl Hall & John Oates\u201d album – which would come to be known as \u201cThe Silver Album\u201d because of its glam rock style cover. Living with Hall at the time was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,112],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-sara-smile","tag-hall-oates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886"}],"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=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}