Four Essentials About Daryl Hall and John Oates

Philadelphia proud, Hall & Oates is the most successful duo in rock ‘n’ roll history.

Prologue

Alert readers will identify two different designations for this popular rock duo in the above two headlines. Although Hall & Oates is their commercial shorthand, they’ve remained adamant about being called Daryl Hall and John Oates and all of their US album releases bear that name.

The duo’s heyday stretched from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s. They scored their sixth and final number-one hit with “Out of Touch” in December 1984. Live projects like Live Aid and USA for Africa, compilation albums, and constant touring took them to the century mark. Solo projects and a hiatus culminated in their 2014 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Today, Daryl Hall tours without his long-time partner.

Here are four essentials about Daryl Hall and John Oates.

1) It’s a Philly thing.

Though neither was born there, Daryl Hall and John Oates moved to Philadelphia at a young age. Oates learned the guitar and Hall studied voice and piano. As teens, the two separately ventured to the North Philly ghetto to take in street corner doo-wop singing groups. Daryl Hall recorded a single with Kenny Gamble and the Romeos…yes, the one-half of future Philadelphia production icons Gamble & Huff.

They finally met in 1967 backstage at Philadelphia’s Adelphi Ballroom, each heading his own band. During the Battle of the Bands competition, a real battle broke out between rival gangs and Hall and Oates managed to escape bodily harm by commandeering a freight elevator. They became good friends, attended Temple University together, and dropped out when they signed their first record contract.

Read: The Sound of Philadelphia in Four Takes

“For us,” Daryl told Spin Magazine in 1988, “Philly was like a farm club that nurtured a way of making rock and soul, hammering the skills and the drive into you.”

In 2009, Hall explained to American Songwriter: “I’m a Philly musician…That influence comes from gospel, jazz, and even classical music. It’s a very interesting racial and geographic mix that makes Philadelphia music what it is.”

Here is a 1973 live radio performance of  “Fall in Philadelphia,” a song from their first album Whole Oats (1972), published by Daryl Hall and John Oates via YouTube:

2) Hits with the ladies: Sara and Janna Allen

Daryl Hall and John Oates earned their first hit record with the 1976 release of “Sara Smile.” The song is based on a real person. Sara Allen met Daryl Hall in a Philadelphia recording studio in the early ’70s. They began a romantic relationship that would last for 28 years. “I cannot tell you how many girls told me they were named for it,” remembers Hall.

Sara Allen collaborated with Hall on several of the duo’s hits including three number ones: “Private Eyes” (1981), “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” (1981), and “Maneater” (1982). Hall revealed to Songfacts their formula: “She was really good at jumping into my thoughts and helping me sort of coalesce them. There were a couple of songs where she wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music.”

Janna Allen, Sara’s younger sister, was an aspiring singer when she and Daryl Hall co-wrote “Kiss on My List” with the intention of Janna taking lead vocals. But the duo’s manager, future Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola, loved the song’s commercial potential and insisted that it remain with Hall & Oates. It reached number one in 1981.

Janna received songwriting credit for “Private Eyes,” “Did It in a Minute, “Method of Modern Love,” as well as “Kiss on My List.” She died of leukemia in 1993 at the age of 36.

3) Cruising with Tommy Mottola

Long before the Sony Music fiefdom, the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Mariah Carey, Tommy Mottola fell in love. He was 21 and the head of a music publishing company when he listened to a demo tape of Hall and Oates. “I saw an amazing situation that I thought could be developed into something special and major,” Mottola told Rolling Stone.

The boys weren’t so sure. “We threw our lot in with a guy who had never managed a band,” remembers John Oates. “A guy who worked at a publishing company. A guy who was younger than us, for God’s sake.”

No complaints from Daryl or John. Mottola got them a deal with RCA Records, a lucrative tour sponsorship, and several high-profile endorsements. Daryl Hall and John Oates skyrocketed. The tally: six number-one hits, nine more singles in Billboard‘s Top 10, six platinum and five gold albums, and songs finely etched into the American Songbook.

4) The thing about Daryl and John

Much like another famous duo Simon & Garfunkel, there is one star of Hall & Oates and one who plays a supporting role.  Daryl Hall is six foot two with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and that’s his crisp, lucid voice you hear on the radio. In a 1985 profile, Rolling Stone captured the dynamic: “The two have a strange relationship: they are a cross between business partners and brothers…Oates seems removed, even distant, from the entire Hall and Oates organization. But they’re both professionals. They work well together and never slag each other publicly. It would just be bad form.”

The Lawsuit

On November 17, 2023, a lawsuit was filed in a Nashville court seeking to prevent John Oates from selling his share in the duo’s joint venture partnership to a music publishing firm called Primary Waves. Weeks later, a judge issued a restraining order blocking the sale until an arbitrator could hear the case.

Daryl Hall filed the suit claiming a “breach of contract” of the duo’s longstanding business agreement. Hall admits he made a deal with Primary Waves in 2006 to sell the copyrights of many of his songs that he co-wrote with Sara and Janna Allen. One can argue that Hall is preventing his partner from doing the exact thing Hall did 18 years ago. Little is known about this entanglement since court documents are sealed.

Hall & Costello?

This summer, Daryl Hall is going on an arena tour with British punk/pop legend Elvis Costello. When asked by Variety if Hall & Oates were officially over, Hall replied, “That is correct.”

John Oates released his sixth solo album, ironically titled Reunion, on May 17. Reflecting on his 50-plus years with Daryl Hall, John Oates told Men’s Journal, “It’s a miracle we lasted that long. [But our] songs will remain as a soundtrack for people’s lives. The songs don’t go away. The thing that we created will endure.”