Daryl Hall & John Oates, often referred to as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in 1970 in Philadelphia. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two write most of the songs they perform, separately or in collaboration. They achieved their greatest fame from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s with a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues.
Hall and Oates have sold an estimated 40 million records, making them the best selling music duo in history. They are best known for their six No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Rich Girl”, “Kiss on My List”, “Private Eyes”, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”, “Maneater”, and “Out of Touch”, as well as many other songs which charted in the Top 40 including the singles “You Make My Dreams”, “She’s Gone” and “Sara Smile”. In total, they had 34 chart hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, seven RIAA platinum albums, and six RIAA gold albums. Billboard magazine named them the most successful duo of the rock era, surpassing Simon & Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers. They have achieved moderate success in the United Kingdom with two UK top ten albums, spending a total of one-hundred and seventeen weeks in the UK top 75 album charts and eighty-four weeks in the top seventy-five of the UK Singles Chart.
In 2003, Hall and Oates were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Billboard magazine had Hall and Oates at No. 15 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time and the No. 1 duo, while VH1 placed the duo as No. 99 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On September 2, 2016, they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The duo never really liked to be referred to as “Hall & Oates.” In an interview with Esquire, Oates said, “There isn’t one album that says Hall and Oates. It’s always Daryl Hall and John Oates, from the very beginning. People never note that. The idea of ‘Hall and Oates,’ this two-headed monster, this thing, is not anything we’ve ever wanted or liked.”
This week on the Sounds of The 80s we feature music from: Bruce Willis, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, Phil Collins, Daryl Hall and John Oates, John Fogerty, Van Halen, Lionel Richie, Journey, Corey Hart and many more . . . 