I never bought any Hall & Oates records until just a few years ago I bought a Greatest Hits CD. I wasn’t too crazy about them but I felt that I had to get their Greatest Hits because there were so many on the radio during the College Intermission. It seemed like they had a dozen different songs on the charts then. I didn’t like them enough to commit dollars to their music but listening to the CD, they really did have a good handle on the pop song.
Hall & Oates is one of those bands that I kind of feel sorry for. They were wildly popular in 1983-84 but they seemed to drop into obscurity so quickly. What is that makes bands like Pink Floyd live forever while Hall & Oates seemed to disappear? How does a group like REO Speedwagon cope with the fact that they sold out the Coliseum in 1984 and now are playing Pierre’s.
My brother-in-law Dan actually met Hall & Oates when he was a manager for a Cracker Barrel in western Ohio. Hall & Oates ate dinner at his store. Apparently at that time Cracker Barrel had a Celebrities Eat Free policy that Hall & Oates would take advantage of. Now this was probably 1997 or 1998 so it had been 15 years since Adult Education. They eat dinner and expect it to be free. Dan goes out to the table. Hall says “Celebrities still eat free at Cracker Barrel?” Dan says “Yes, who are you?” To which Hall replies “Thanks a f*ckin’ lot!” That story has always made me chuckle. Dan tells it better. It does underscore what I was saying about obscurity. To be fair though, I believe Oates had shaved the mustache by then.
I probably could have saved that until it was in sync with the time line but we won’t be visiting Hall & Oates again. They had a bushel of great songs that were catchy and popular, just not timeless.
Say It Isn’t So
Kiss On My List
You Make My Dreams Come True
Private Eyes
Adult Education
I Can’t Go For That
Maneater
One On One
See, you recognized all of these songs and were even singin along and dancing in your head.