Hall and Oates share lifetime of music
CD BOX SET: Hits that made duo big in ’70s, ’80s offered, along with obscure tracks that may enlighten casual fans

BY GENE TRIPLETT Comments 1
Published: November 6, 2009

When the sleek little aircraft from Los Angeles scorched black lines along the Wiley Post landing strip on Feb. 6, 1985, it was John Oates who emerged the victor of the MTV Learjet Rally.

Daryl Hall and John Oates in 1978. Photo by John Kroll/Sony Entertainment

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The shorter, darker, Chaplin-esque half of singing duo Daryl Hall and John Oates flashed a thumbs-up at waiting fans, press and the mayor of Oklahoma City, declaring, "I like to win.”

His tall, blond, elegantly lanky partner arrived at the Oklahoma City airport from New York City about 15 minutes later, flashing the smile of a gracious loser and signaling the end of a race that was one of the most ambitious promotional gimmicks ever mounted for a single Oklahoma City-area rock concert.

Then-Mayor Andy Coats presented the two rock stars with special medallions commemorating the founding of Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, passengers on both jets — winners of a nationwide mail-in drawing on MTV — were handed the keys to four brand-new, bright red Pontiac Fieros, which awaited them outside the Jet Away hangar at Wiley Post. They also had backstage access and front-and-center seats at the next night’s Hall and Oates concert in Norman’s Lloyd Noble Center.

"I’ve been there since, by the way,” Oates said in a recent phone interview. "It was wild. I cheated, but that’s all right.”

That race from the coasts to the Oklahoma City finish line was a big deal in the rock world back then, but so were Hall and Oates.

All of the hit songs that made them so big in their ’70s and ’80s heyday can be found on "Do What You Want, Be What You Are,” a four-CD box set that’s big enough to contain many of their best album and live tracks, rarities and a 2009 remix — 74 tracks in all.

"Daryl and I were very active in the creation of this box set,” Oates said. "We worked with the guys at Sony/Legacy, who were really amazing. They’re really passionate, they’re big fans, and they really wanted to make it something of quality. And Daryl and I felt the same way, so we got in there, we listened to all the music, we tried to pick songs that really represented the depth and breadth of a whole lifetime of music, basically.

"And we know the world, the casual fan, knows us from our hits, but the real hard-core fans, the real dedicated fans, they know that we’ve made a lot of very interesting music over the years, that go above and beyond those hit records.”

The collection even reaches back to a time just before Hall and Oates joined forces, with two tracks from an early Hall-fronted band, the Temptones, and one from Oates’ baby band, the Masters. Both groups were already steeped in the Philadelphia style of rhythm and blues that would later shape the duo’s trademark blue-eyed soul sound.

"They were bands that we were in before we met each other, and they were both being played on Philadelphia R&B radio at the time (1966-67), so in a sense we were competing with each other. And I was aware of Daryl’s group, he was aware of me, and we were invited to a radio station-sponsored teenage record hop.

"A deejay would spin the records, and the artists would come out and lip-sync to them. And we were supposed to do that, but while we were waiting backstage, a big gang fight broke out because it was in the inner-city of Philadelphia. And we ran out the back, basically, and in leaving, we kind of bumped into each other and said, ‘Hey, man, how ya doin’? Yeah.’ We both went to Temple University at the time, and we started hanging out, and we began a partnership.”

It’s been a musical pairing that’s surpassed Simon and Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers in the annals of pop duos in terms of record sales, racking up 22 Billboard Top 20 singles, including six No. 1 hits ("Rich Girl,” "Kiss on My List,” "Private Eyes,” "I Can’t Go for That,” "Maneater,” "Out of Touch”), six platinum albums and another six gold LPs, which are generously sampled in the box set.

All the Top 10 hits are here, too, including "She’s Gone” and "Sara Smile,” plus 16 previously unreleased tracks.

Oates thinks many of the more obscure tracks in the set will prove revelatory to many of those "casual fans” who take the time to listen.

"The hits were really a byproduct of the albums we made,” he said. "We never set out to make these hits. ... We wanted to show the songwriting and the skill in our producing, studio skills and things we did over the years, and how some of it’s quite adventurous and creative and different.”

Oates really does have a lot to show for a rewarding 40-year career, even down to that medallion the mayor of Oklahoma City gave him back in ’85.

"Wow, yeah, I’ve got all of that stuff, are you kidding?”