Hall & Oates are (L-R) : John Oates and Darryl Hall
Hall & Oates Career Fortunes
#1!
Hall & Oates are the #1 best selling pop duo of the 80s. From 1972, the year of their debut album "Whole Oats", the duo have released an album EVERY YEAR until 1985 !
Hall & Oates Complete Album History
1972 Whole Oats Atlantic
1973 Abandoned Luncheonette Atlantic
1974 War Babies Atlantic
1975 Daryl Hall & John Oates RCA
1976 Bigger Than Both Of Us RCA
1977 Beauty On A Back Street RCA
1977 No Goodbyes Atlantic
1978 Livetime RCA
1978 Along The Red Ledge RCA
1979 X-Static RCA
1980 Voices RCA
1981 Private Eyes RCA
1982 H2O RCA
1983 Rock N' Soul Part 1 RCA
1984 Big Bam Boom RCA
1985 Live At The Apollo RCA
1988 Ooh Yeah! Arista
1990 Change Of Season Arista
1997 Marigold Sky Push
Musical Style & Chart Success
Hall & Oates musical style underwent several evolutions since they began as acoustic artistes on "Whole Oats". The 70s albums were mostly rock and roll sounds before they found their greatest impact as soul cats.
The 80s albums were "hall"marks of smooth R&B soul and the string of superbly crafted albums from "Private Eyes" to "Ooh Yeah" enjoyed consistent Billboard success and accelerated the duo past the Everly Brothers as the all-time pop duo chart heavyweights.
The chart below shows the hit singles from the 80s albums and the solid chart time each 80s album logged which earned the duo - all time status.
Top 10 singles and their
ranking listed below each album
| Album | Highest ranking |
Date entered Top 40 |
Weeks in Top 40 |
| H2O Maneater(1), One On One(7), Family Man(6) |
3 | 11/6/82 | 46 |
| Private Eyes Private Eyes(1), I Can't Go For That(1), Did It In A Minute(9) |
5 | 9/26/81 | 32 |
| Big Bam Boom Out Of Touch(1), Method Of Modern Love(5) |
5 | 10/27/84 | 31 |
| Rock 'N Soul, Part 1 Say It Isn't So(2), Adult Education(8) |
7 | 11/19/83 | 28 |
| Bigger Than Both Of Us
Rich Girl(1) |
13 | 9/18/76 | 35 |
| Voices Kiss On My List(1), You Make My Dreams(5) |
17 | 8/30/80 | 35 |
| Daryl Hall & John
Oates Sara Smile(4) |
17 | 5/22/76 | 11 |
| Live At The Apollo | 21 | 10/5/85 | 8 |
| ooh yeah! Everything Your Heart Desires(3) |
24 | 5/28/88 | 7 |
| Along The Red Ledge | 27 | 10/7/78 | 6 |
| Beauty On A Back Street | 30 | 9/24/77 | 5 |
| X-Static | 33 | 11/24/79 | 6 |
| Abandonned
Luncheonette She's Gone(7) |
33 | 10/30/76 | 4 |
Sources:
"Blue Eyed Soul "
"You Make My Dreams" Hall & Oates 1980
"Voices" album
What is that? Well, its not easy to define what blue eyed soul is. Hall & Oates were perhaps the highest profile pioneers of that smooth R&B soul sound with their turn-of-the-decade albums "Private Eyes and "H20" and carried through to "Change Of Season" in 1990.
The crassest definition of "Blue Eyed Soul" is "white cats singing black R&B music". Since Hall & Oates, other white artistes have had the label slapped on their foreheads, not least Michael Bolton, George Michael and Michael McDonald. But Hall and Oates were something more and their musical legacy remains legendary.
May 1998 VW