Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eric Dirth, and I'm coming to you from Cleveland, Ohio.
Welcome to the Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcast. Jason
and Dee are taking a deep dive into Private Eyes,
the nineteen eighty one album from halland Oates. The sound
of paranoia, heartbreak, and really really good Hair. Recorded at
Electric Ladies Studios and largely self produced by Daryl Hall
and John Oates, this album locks in their signature blend
of unusual R and B pop and just a hint
of someone's definitely following me. You've got hits like Private
Eyes and the heavily eighties synthesizer track I Can't Go
for That, No Can do. It's got it all eighties
pop culture sounds, heavy synths with driving and creative vocals
that cemented Hall.
Speaker 2: And Oaks as fan favorites.
Speaker 1: It's sleek, it's catchy, and if Trust Issues had a soundtrack,
this might just be it. So sit back and enjoy
the hair proud, synth driven pop, classic R and B
album equivalent of Mister Toad's Wild Ride. As the Shirley
Guys discuss the Hall and Odes nineteen eighty one phenomenon
Private Eyes.
Speaker 3: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Shirley You Can't Be Serious podcasts. Jason,
we are here today to talk about the most successful
duo in music history. You know who this is.
Speaker 3: It's Lennon McCartney.
Speaker 2: I was the Fab four, So not a duo, Okay,
I see.
Speaker 3: Where you're going. But no, not right right.
Speaker 2: Harrison still wrote some songs stringo saying something that's sure duo, okay,
Simon garfuggl No, the Eurythmics, No, Sunny and Share, No,
the Everly Brothers. Okay, I think eighties eighties yeah, wam no,
Tis for Fears, no, rock Sead, Yeah.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Did you study at all? Like, are you going to
be ready for this?
Speaker 3: I canteen, Yeah, Brooks and Dunn, the Judds. I mean,
what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2: We are here today to talk about the most successful
duo in music history, and that is Hall and Oats.
Speaker 3: Hall and Oates, of course, absolute hit making machines. In
the mid eighties, they were undeniable.
Speaker 2: In early MTV, they were undeniable, and early MTV, however,
they were very deniable when they first got started.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: There'll be an interesting story for us to talk about
but like after album three the record label was like
you suck by now and they were done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that they weren't. We almost lost them.
Speaker 2: We did almost lose them. But I would say the
magic of number one, their ability, number two the type
of music they were playing in the time of history
that they were playing it sure, and some very fortuitous
circumstances including the birth of MTV.
Speaker 4: For man.
Speaker 3: On absolutely one hundred percent. This is a three parter.
So we've done Jay Giles Band, Freeze Frame, Yep, we
did minute Work business as usual last week with James Buckley, Yes,
with James Buckley. And then this is their third of three,
This is Private Eyes.
Speaker 2: All of these came out in eighty one. This Private Eye,
I belief, came out November of eighty one.
Speaker 3: I got September one, Okay, we'll go with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could be wrong. I'm going I don't have
any notes. It's all up here.
Speaker 3: September first, all right. Dates. Yes, this is their tenth
studio album, tenth. It took him a while to kind
of get going, it did, but once they got going, man,
they were a hit making duo.
Speaker 2: Unstoppable and basically from I would say from eighty to
eighty five. They had a number one hit every single year,
if not multiple.
Speaker 3: I've got a list of their hits which we'll go
through here in just a few minutes. Sure, but it's
like this song number one, this song number three, this
song number five, this song number one. I mean everyone
they released was just to the.
Speaker 2: Top of the bullet absolutely. You know, it's interesting. I
grew up with these guys just because of MTV, but
also my mom was a fan like I had that
they were LPs were in our LP collection and I
can remember wearing private Eyes out like specifically that song
and then another one. A couple songs later they were
forced to be reckoned with. One of the songs that
I was crazy about was family Man Okay, which I
think that came the album after this one Okay. That
was H two Oh it's h two oh okay, And
then when that one had man Eater on it too, right.
Speaker 3: It did have many Oh my God, which was written
about Do you remember this? We talked about at this
Oh was this was it?
Speaker 2: It wasn't Roseanna arcuat was it?
Speaker 3: It was not Roseanne arcad Was it? Was it?
Speaker 2: Weird science? What's her name?
Speaker 3: Uh? Whips? Chains. What was her name? We're not talking
candlewags on the nipples. Kelly Lebron, Yes, Kelly Brock, Yes,
that's exactly right.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Yeah. All right, man, Well, here we are in nineteen
eighty one. Let's dive in with the opening track.
Speaker 2: All right, forty five years of ago this year, guys,
here we go, track number one, the title track, This
is Private Eyes.
Speaker 5: Let's see you.
Speaker 3: This song is a freaking banger. I dare anybody not
to be tapping their toes while we played this song.
It's an absolute eighties classic hand clapper.
Speaker 2: Yes one. I ate this up when I was a
little kid. It just it's the perfect pop sensibility. Like
you said, the hand clapping going on. It's just you
can't you can't not get engaged with this song. I
can kind of remember this song. You remember DTV. You
remember when Disney had like like they did their music videos,
except it was like Disney cartoons. Yes, Private Eyes was
one of my favorites to watch of those like the
DTV videos with TV. I mean, keep it, keep in mind.
Speaker 3: Eighty one.
Speaker 2: I was five, yeah, you know, I was five going
on six and so so by you know, a couple
of years later, when Disney Channel is doing DTV, I was.
I was all in for my favorite song with my
favorite cartoons.
Speaker 3: I remember listening to this song driving to my dad's
church league softball games in the back of the station
wagon with Chris Alexander and Chad Alexander and we're back
there jamming out to private Eyes. This song was released
August of nineteen eighty one. This is the lead single.
Yeah it hits number one November seventh of nineteen eighty one.
I gotta give you the top five from that wave. Okay,
all right, so here we go, November seventh, nineteen eighty one.
Number five trying to Live My Life Without You, Bob
Seeger Okay, yeah, I mean I know it, but yeah,
all right. Number four for your Eyes Only Sheena Easton.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure, from James Bond.
Speaker 3: Go back to our Bond theme Songs episode Yep. I
don't remember who drafted that one, but it was a
pretty high pick.
Speaker 2: That's a good one.
Speaker 3: Number three the Arthur's theme Oh Christopher.
Speaker 2: Crosser cross which we talked about last year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which we attempted to watch Arthur and d fell asleep.
I did well.
Speaker 2: It was late and uh and yeah, when you're watching
somebody who's half drunk, you kind of get a little woozy.
Speaker 3: You were a little cozy. Number two Start Me Up
by the Stones, Oh dude, yeah, yep. And then Private
Eye number one, now I want to tell this to you.
Privatize was number one. Two weeks later, it got knocked
out of the number one spot by Olivia Newton John Physical.
I told you a couple of weeks ago that maybe
Physical is the most successful song of the eighties. It
was number one for ten weeks. Okay, it gets knocked
out by another hol of note song. We'll talk about
here in a minute, all right. So this song was
written by Warren Pash, Jana and Sarah Allen and Darryl Hall.
Speaker 2: Yes, and we're going to talk about Sarah and Jana
here in just a minute, not on the song, because
there's too much to talk about on this song in particular.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we will talk.
Speaker 2: About them in more detail and just a bit.
Speaker 3: Okay. I got a story. Warren Pash had a song
called I Need You to Need Me okay, and he
didn't really like the title, and he's this is it,
like this is the early iteration of this song. And
he's driving around and I need you to need me? Okay.
He's driving around on Ventura Boulevard in nineteen eighty all right,
and he sees a bill board. I kid you not
for the don knots Tim Conway Comedy, shut up the
private Eyes. I kid you not.
Speaker 5: I said when I died that i'd come back. If
you believe in ghosts, you're on the right track. I'm
out of the grave and roaming the moors. If you
want to be safe, you better lock all the windows
and screams.
Speaker 3: Are you out of your gord?
Speaker 2: Wow? That was we I mean, we have an interesting
story with that as well, because I remember watching that
all the time when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you had the Hunchback with the ners and
n and hoard nears.
Speaker 2: Yes, and the buckso yeah, yes, all of that. And
I remembered loving it as a kid. And you're like, oh,
I have it, I'll let you borrow it. And I
brought it home and I was excited to show my
family this comic genius. And I put it in and
like fifteen minutes in, I was like, what appeal did
this possibly have to me?
Speaker 3: It's so bad. She heard of me, so listen. Okay,
there are three movies that in the eighties that I
love that maybe nobody else loves in the entire planet. Okay,
hot Dog the movie Well Privatize with Don Natson, Tim Conway.
I freaking love that movie. Yeah, you gotta watch out
for wooolars when you're watching it, right, hot Dog the movie.
I don't care what anybody says. I freaking love that movie.
And then Secret Admirer, which, by the way, I told
Dave from Total the Eighties and nineties Recall to watch
Secret Admirer the other day. He's like, oh, man, an
eighties classic that I missed. Oh yah, And I was like,
what do you think.
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, yeah, it's hard to go back to
eighties movies that you didn't see in the eighties. I'm
just telling you, yeah, okay, speaking about going back to
movies that you haven't seen. John Oates. Every time I
look at him when he's clean shaven, I think had
they cast Lufarigno in Twins instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, he
would have been the perfect Danny de Vito character because
they have the same face he and he and Lou
have the same face.
Speaker 3: We you, we would know we met him up close.
We met Lufrigno up close. Don't meet your here.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I still want to be the Hawk, just not him.
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, By the way, I sent you last night.
I texted you and I said call this number.
Speaker 2: I didn't call. Yeah, so Jace Jason texted me last
night and said, have you tried calling this number yet?
Seven two six six two eight three seven. Trust me,
I have no idea what we're about to hear.
Speaker 7: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to call a note your emergency
halland does helpline to hear one on one, Please press
one to hear it, go, please press two to hear
many to please press three to hear privatize, please press four.
Speaker 3: I love it. This is fantastic your emerging and see
Hall of Notes hotline. That that is wonderful. It's called
callon Notes, Call of Notes. It's a Colorado Springs number.
That's great. How about that?
Speaker 2: That's amazing. I'm sorry that I didn't call it earlier.
It was worth exactly right, trust me. That is fantastic.
Speaker 3: All right, let's talk about the music video.
Speaker 2: Okay, they're walking around trench grots, right.
Speaker 3: Trench coats, sunglasses, kind of the film thing. Yeah, it's
very very basic. Right. So I heard a story that
the director for this music video I think his name
is Jay Dubin, he called him at like eleven am, like,
what are you doing, guys? Nothing thinking about lunch? Yeah, exactly,
come on over, We're gonna shoot a music video. Really,
what are we doing? I don't know. We'll figure it
out when you get here. Like this is what music
videos were back in the day. Right, Yes, they went
over to the studio, took about two hours.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: You know, they just banged out a little video.
Speaker 2: So they didn't have to go a record studio. We
need you to give us two hundred thousand dollars, and
we need to be flying across the stage, and we
need hot girls and bikinis. They had a guy who
called them up and said, hey, let's I'm gonna make
your music video.
Speaker 3: And they were like okay, sure what I literally called
them that morning said come on over, here's your sunglasses,
here's your fedora. Right now. We said that.
Speaker 2: This came out September first of nineteen eighty one, that's.
Speaker 3: Right, one month prior on August first, nineteen eighty one
was the debut of MTV. Yeah, perfect timing.
Speaker 2: Whole different world, man, gosh. I mean it's been on
a month and somebody's smart enough to go. I know,
I know the phone number for Haul and Oates and
they're gonna need a video because this looks awesome. I've
got a video camera.
Speaker 3: Do the hand collapse, well, put it all over MTV.
It'll be a massive hit.
Speaker 2: I've got five trench coats.
Speaker 3: That's great. Honestly, this is a really great pop song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3: And the music video and the timing of everything, and
let's be honest. Daryl Hall has a wonderful singing voice.
Speaker 2: Wonderful singing voice, tall, blonde, good looking guy, yep, and
he's got somebody that looks different than him.
Speaker 3: And John Oas has got an incredibly killer mustache. He
has an incredibly lucky life, is what he is. I
do want to be a John Oates defender, but I
wasn't able to figure how to do that, so we'll
just keep her.
Speaker 2: I mean, he he has co writing on zhits, he does.
Speaker 3: And he sings on a couple of these tracks. Uh huh,
we'll talk about that, okay, all right, Yeah, all right,
last tidbit. Okay, I saw this on the liner notes
for like their greatest hits, Private Eyes was originally titled
head above Water with H two to oh as the
water put a pin in that it'll come back.
Speaker 2: Up well, and I mean the album after this.
Speaker 3: The album after this, and then I'm gonna make a
case that it should have come back up later in
this album.
Speaker 2: Interesting, okay, all right, all right, next song on the album,
this one is called looking for a Good Sign.
Speaker 8: Days Gone Down, looking for sime from you, what you
find gone?
Speaker 5: What you thinking about? A lot of goody?
Speaker 8: It will do while you find you find me, while
you tease me?
Speaker 5: Why you geez?
Speaker 2: All right in West Philadelphia, born and raised, So this
is this is a great example of the music style
that these guys grew up on. They were huge fans
of the Temptations, like the Temptations were their Beatles. They
were not Beatles fans until much later. Even on the album.
They had a guitarist that was a big Beatles fan,
and he put that influence in on the second side
of the album and they're like, yeah, we wouldn't have
done that, we would have just kicked it out. But anyway,
So they grew up West Philadelphia, went to school at Temple.
John Oates actually was a wrestler and had gotten a
wrestling scholarship really, but yeah, gave it up to because
he wanted to go to Temple. He wrestled for Temple
for like one semester and he's like, I'm just tired
of losing weight all the time. Just kind of try
to make music. And so he had a band called
the Masters, and Daryl Hall, who was also going to Temple,
who was a senior while John Oates was a freshman,
he had a band called the Temptones Timptones timp Tones,
very I mean obvious connection to the Temptations, right, And
so one night they're playing at I think it's the
al Delphi. Al Delphi, yes, the name of the theater
that they're playing at. And it's a big as I
understand it. It was for a high school, but like
the high schools had fraternity, so it must have been
some kind of college prep thing or whatever. But I
mean in Philly, if you don't like the other fraternity,
you might pull out your knife or your gun. And
that is exactly what happened at this show that these
two bands were supposed to play at and so when
warfare broke out on the concert floor, John and Darryl
headed out the back and made their way.
Speaker 3: To their lives.
Speaker 2: Get on the elevator at the same time. Have never
met before, so they find out they're both going to
the same school, right, and they hit it off. They
become roommates. Eventually like they move apart, but they end
up getting back together again in sixty nine and forming
this band called their last names Hall and Oates.
Speaker 3: Now, okay, I'm gonna crrect you on one thing, Okay,
number one. They do not like to be called Hall
and Oates. Oh yeah, like never on any of their
albums or anything, it's always Daryl Hall and John Oates.
Speaker 2: But the name of the band is Hollow Oats.
Speaker 3: They push back on that. They have made it clear
they want to be referred to as Daryl Hall and
John Oates. Okay, I'm telling you, well, I'm calling them
how all of notes. Okay, I've called them all. MoMA
named him Clay.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call him Clay, Okay with me.
Speaker 3: Okay, I want to back up though, because you said something.
We kind of breathed past it. But these guys were
at a talent show Battle of the bands. They're in
different bands. Gunplate occurs, they go scrambling, they end up
on the same elevator. They meet on an elevator while
ducking for cover, and we get the most successful musical
duo of all time.
Speaker 2: Just like I said, one of many fortuitous events that
occurs in this band's history.
Speaker 3: Fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 3: So we talked about how this song is a temptation, Temptation, Temptation.
So Daryl Hall talked about how this song came to
him in a dream. You know, we've several times, I
think we've talked about how certain artists feel like they've
downloaded this song from God. Right now, Daryl didn't go
that far, but he did have it in a dream.
He says, this is a dream song. It like came
to him in his brain while he was sleeping. Yeah,
he woke up, had a song perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now, the Temptations they went on to play. They had
a whole album live at the Apollo in nineteen eighty
five with the Temptations. Yeah, However, I dug this up.
They played first with the Temptations in Live Aid in
Philadelphia in nineteen eighty five. Here's the set list. Do
you want to hear the set list? Out of Touch banger,
Yes Man, Eater Banger Banger, And then you had a
medley with David Ruffin and Eddie Kendrick of the Temptations
get Ready, Ain't Too Proud to beg the way you do,
the thing you do and my Girl. These guys love
the Temptations.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they definitely do. Yeah, Okay, next one, Yeah,
let's do it. This is this is one that it's
it's kind of a deep track. You may not have
heard of this one.
Speaker 3: The song is called I Can't go for That? Oh, no,
can do? I can't go for that?
Speaker 2: Okay. So it was interesting to listen to this album
track version because when the song starts off and you
have this drum machine playing and a bassline come in,
and I keep waiting and I'm like, I don't remember
this beginning of the song, because I think every time
that I've heard this song, it begins with no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: And it's magical that you're talking about chime No.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, perfect, like the perfect sound, the perfect three notes,
just what it's just captivating, you know what?
Speaker 3: That chime reminds me of all right, tell me I'm crazy,
But this is what that little musical riff reminds me of.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's funny, I mean I could yes, yeah, Allen Sevestri.
It's the wind chimes. I looked it up to see
who was playing the wind chimes, and there is no
win wind chime listed on the instruments in this one,
so it must be a synthesizer. Yeah, yeah, this is
this is interesting And do you know like this this
apparently like for my whole life, I thought this was
about a guy and a girl and like, you know,
like listen, I like you a lot, but I'm just
not going for that. It's not it's about the it's
about them dealing with the record industry.
Speaker 3: I heard that. I heard that. I'm not sure I
totally buy that. I do know that there's what John
Oates said, Well, they had some rough goings with the
record industry. I do know that. And Darryl Hall even
continues to like I saw an interview with him and
he's like, it's they're all snakes and they're not to
be trusted and we got screwed out of so much money.
So I hit definitely some hard Feelings. Lyrically, though, this
song is very similar to this song what You just Said. Look,
I like you a lot, but I'm not just gonna
I just can't go there.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Literally, I would do anything for love, but I won't
do that.
Speaker 2: So both of those songs, I mean, both the Back
to the Future and Beat Love released their things after
this album. So if anybody's taken borrowing anything, it's them
from p from Darryl Hall and John Oates, which is
the last time I'm going to say both of their names.
Speaker 3: That's fine, you call it Hall and Oates, That's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3: This was the second single released late nineteen eighty one.
It knocks Physical out of the number one spot. Yeah,
goes all the way to number one.
Speaker 2: Here's your top five, all right, all right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, number five Hard in My Heart by quarter Flash,
great song. Yep, they knocked Physical down to number four.
Deep track Centerfold number three band Jay Guiles Band, which
Centerfold goes on to knock this one out of the
number one spot. Indeed, Waiting for a Girl Like You
is number two.
Speaker 2: Yep, that would be Foreigner And of course Mick Jones
was a producer for fifty one to fifty absolutely talked
about a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Yes, awesome, I'm gonna make the case that this song
is maybe one of the most sampled songs in music history.
One of those people who took from this song, Yeah,
confronted Daryl Hall at the USA for Africa recording of
We Are the World Okay, and said, I really liked
your song. I can't go for that. I took the
bassline to make my song. Billy Jean Michael Jackson went
up to Daryl Hollans what yes, what Andy? He said that,
he said, I took the bassline from this song to
make maybe the most famous bassline song of all time.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And you know what Daryl Hall said, Good for you man,
We all do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, it's good for him that he can admit that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was fine. You know, it's probably that the
table of sub sandwiches that was sitting there he and
Billy Joel and Bruce Preestey were partaking. Yeah. Okay, Now
I've got a couple of songs I want to play
for you, just just for our younger listeners. Okay, if
we have any younger listeners out there, we do.
Speaker 2: People listening with their parents, with their dad.
Speaker 3: Probably Okay, I'm gonna play this song Sunrise. I simply read.
Speaker 9: Okay, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: All right. Just a few of the samples, including Billy Jean,
a little song you may have heard of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what do you got on the music video
on this one?
Speaker 3: So not much going on in the music video. Again,
it's one of those where they spent more on pizza
than they did the music video. It's just kind of
darkly lit. It has that top light, a lot of
keyboard stuff. Nothing really happened just then for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 3: It was nineteen eighty one. I love the song. It's
a freakin' banger.
Speaker 2: You're and I mean, I can't tell you how many
times that somebody said suggested something that I was.
Speaker 3: Like, no way, I'm doing that. That way. I can't go
over that. No, no can do all right. Next song
on the album is a song called Bno Amano Around.
I love this song. It's great. I think this could
have easily been a hit.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was a I mean yeah, this could have
been a single. This one is just John Oates as
the writer and singing, and obviously Daryl's doing backing vocals
on this one, right, Yeah, No, this is a This
is a good song.
Speaker 3: It's a good song. Chorus is great. My question to
you is not that it's a bad song, but if
Daryl Hall sings this, is it a better song?
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like when they ask Glenn Fry in
the Eagles, He's like, well, of course we've got Don Henley, right.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if you noticed I started
singing fewer songs, right we had Don Henley right, right,
But you.
Speaker 3: Know, Daryl Hall is pretty much always going to be
the best singer in the room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's I got to imagine that it's kind
of hard to be John Oates and in that shadow
all of the time. And so yeah, I mean, if
you've written one by yourself, that's actually a pretty decent,
stung good song. The hopes that maybe one that you
sing might get some MTV play or get released as
a single off, of course I can see that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right. By the way, this song means my
wife's a Spanish teacher, So I'm gonna try and nail this, Okay.
It's pretty tough, mano Amano is hand to hand in Spanish.
Speaker 2: It's not man to man.
Speaker 3: It is not man span so motto a mono makes
me think Tommy Mattol, Tommy Mottola, Tommy Mottola.
Speaker 2: By the way, guys, don't let this dissuade you from
joining our Patreon page. There was one, you know, black
mark on our history and our.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 2: I'm I went out of my way to make it
not about Mariah Carey, but it was about her Christmas
song which reappears every year.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a number one hit.
Speaker 2: This slashes every other Christmas song.
Speaker 3: It's guaranteed to be a number one hit. It basically
basically is.
Speaker 2: And Tommy Mottolek was a big part of her story
right now.
Speaker 3: He loved her the way Phil Spector loved running Running Spector.
It's yeah, it's a little creepy, a little creepy.
Speaker 2: But Tommy Mattola, I mean, he's been the president of
CBS Records, he's been the president of Sony. I mean
some big any music, some pretty big, pretty impressive stuff.
But at one time he was just a schlep. He
was just a gopher. And at that time when he
was just a nobody doing errands for other big people,
he came across these two guys and he.
Speaker 3: Was like, you look at him.
Speaker 2: And they both got hair down to their shoulders and
one of them is tall and one of them's not,
and one of them's blonde and the other one's brunette,
and it's just like this striking image. And then he
heard him play and he was like, I can manage
you guys, and they said he can sell anything. And
he sold them like he went out and hit the
road for them, did everything he could to get them
in front of every record label that he could find.
Was just a masterful marketer, and ultimately he gets them
in front of Atlantic and it's like, this is it.
This is the do or die And they got in
there and they did it and they walked out and they're like,
well we blew that. Oh, and then they got the
offer from Atlantic Records?
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: What year was this?
Speaker 2: This would have been seventy one seventy two, And there's
this really ridiculous picture of them signing their contract and
the pin is like about this big, it's gigantic, a
pencil maybe even, but anyway, you know, the standard rich
and famous contract, right, So immediately out of the gate,
they blow it out of the water with their album
called Whole Oats.
Speaker 3: Whole Oats, Why that's a.
Speaker 2: Horror Why why would you do that? And it was
a picture of a can of oats, not a particularly
flattering picture of the can at that, Like it's even
the picture of the can is bad.
Speaker 3: Their their cover art is not really that good.
Speaker 2: It's not many of their albums have. Yeah, they lack
some artistic appeal to them. So that one I was joking,
did nothing got like no singles, didn't chart nothing, all right,
but they that's all right, Freshman attempt wasn't so good.
Let's see what happens with album number two. So album
number two is abandoned Luncheonette and it is literally a
picture of a diner car that's like broken down with
weeds around it on their album cover.
Speaker 3: That makes me want to buy records.
Speaker 2: They went out like they had their photographer friend and
we're like, oh, this is the perfect picture for our album,
and they go they got chased off by the owner
like they they were not supposed to go inside. And
I guess like it got confrontational or whatever.
Speaker 3: But don't take a picture of my right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so whole Loots came out in seventy two.
Abandoned Luncheonette came out in seventy three. It had a
song that charted, but it only got to number sixty. Okay,
but there's more to the story than that, right Okay, yep,
all right, So they that's seventy three. Seventy four, they
come out with an album called war Babies. This is
their third album for Atlantic. Still no top forty hits.
Right now, these guys we've talked about, they're they're the
blue eyed soul, right, that's the Temptations influence, all that stuff.
We know them as that, but apparently with this one
they were really they got kind of ziggy stardust ideals
and they did some weird, strange stuff. Now, the producer
on this one we've talked about a couple of times now.
His name's Todd Rudgren. Yeah to talk, Yeah, I do,
so tell me Todd's.
Speaker 3: So here's what I remember about Todd Rundgren. He was
I think married to Baby Buell for a little bit.
Baby Buell, Baby Buell playmate Slash Groupie had a baby
with Stephen Tyler.
Speaker 2: Yes you might remember.
Speaker 3: Her name is liv Tyler.
Speaker 2: Yes, she was in a few things.
Speaker 3: Yes, liv Tyler was actually raised by Todd Rudgren stepdad. Yeah,
but she thought he was her dad. Well she looked
exactly like Steven Tyler. But Todd Rudgren he invented something
we've talked about what well, I.
Speaker 2: Mean number one, he's a prolific musician, right, he has
a unique style to his stuff. He's been involved in
a countless things that we've talked about before. But yeah,
he invented the first color graphics tablet. So like back
in the back in the eighties, I think, so, you know,
like the precursor to iPad and iPhones. It was invented
by Tddrenerd And so he was supposed to be the
guy that kind of kept Hall and Daryl Hall and
John Oates in check and made sure that they were
doing something good because this is their last shot, like
this third album called war Babies, which is about the
baby boomers War Babies, maybe it makes sense right right,
And instead he just lets them go wild and Atlantic
is like you're fired, They're dropped, They're done. Hall and
Oates is done.
Speaker 3: They dead in the water.
Speaker 2: Chances like this was yeah, War Babies came out in
seventy four. It cracked the top one hundred and at
eighty six for the album, right, not good enough for
Atlantic records. Right now, I've said bunch of weird events
that happened, right, yeah, yeah, okay, So back on Abandoned Luncheonette,
I said that there was a song that got to
number sixty. Right, that's still not super impressive, right, but
it kind of they kind of had an underground or
an overseas really following They were very popular in the
UK and some a couple of people decided to cover
this song that only got to number sixty. Lou Rawls
was one of them. The other band that covered him
was a band called Tavares. Do you remember talking about Tavares.
Speaker 3: On the Saturday Night Fever soundtracks? Exactly right? Did they
do like more than a woman? More than a woman?
That's right? Yes?
Speaker 2: Who good job man, good memory?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So before they did that nineteen seventy six, So
three years after Abandoned Luncheonette came out, they covered this
song by Holland Oates and the name of that song
is She's Gone.
Speaker 8: She is Gone, Gone.
Speaker 3: Gone, like childhood comes crashing in right now.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I mean this is a song that John
Oates wrote, like he got stood up by a girl
and he's just like, well.
Speaker 3: She's gone, he's gone, She's gone. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It starts playing the guitar and like, oh hey, this
is pretty good.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: It got to number sixty when they released it the
first time, but when Tavares covers it in seventy six,
they also happened to have just come out with their
first album with their new record label RCA. Okay, and
that one is called Daryl Hall and John Oates.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I don't know why that wasn't their first album, but anyway,
so they have a song on that album that is
also getting some popularity. This one is called Sarah Smile
And when I.
Speaker 6: Feel I can't come on, you comment, oh me, it's
you and me forever, Sarah.
Speaker 3: Oh well, Sarah, I love this one. Love.
Speaker 2: So you have this beautiful moment where Tavares is covering
one of your old songs that never really did that
much for you, but you've got a new song which
ultimately hit number four in nineteen seventy six. Right, and
so at this exact same time, nineteen seventy six, they
are they've got that song and this song that this
other band has covered, and so what does Atlantic do.
They're like, oh, crap, the song's doing well, let's re
release it.
Speaker 3: Dust it off.
Speaker 2: They dusted it off. They re released it in seventy
six and it goes all the way up to number seven.
Speaker 10: Gone, how about that?
Speaker 2: All the way up to number seven. That album, the album,
the original one that hadn't been out.
Speaker 3: For three years, goes up to number thirty three. It's
incredible the patience that the record companies were having at
this time. Now, even two albums, you don't make it
in two albums, you're dropped, You're gone exactly.
Speaker 2: Now here's the rest. Here's where they here's where they
turned a home run into a grand slam.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: For their seventy five album, they had Sarah Smile. Now
that's about Sarah Allen. Yes, we'll talk more about her
in a second. Now, Sarah Allen had an old boyfriend
she was dating Daryl Hall newly dating him. They ended
up being together for thirty years. Oh really, Okay, And
one of her old boyfriends shows up and I guess
he's like the son of some sort of restaurant franchise.
Mogul or something like that, and Daryl's just watching this
guy just be a complete idiot, douche jackass, jackass, and
he's like, well, I guess it doesn't matter because Daddy's
gonna make him okay, a good, good, good thing. He's
a rich guy.
Speaker 3: He's a rich guy.
Speaker 2: And so he starts writing a song called You're a
rich guy, right, and then he's like, guy, doesn't sound right.
Let's change that to she's a rich girl.
Speaker 4: You're a rich girl, and you're gone too far cause
you know it don't matter anyway.
Speaker 5: You can rely on the old man's money. You can
rely on the old man.
Speaker 4: It's a bitch, girl, but it don't too far cause
you know it don't matter anyway, said mine, and money
won't get your new bargain too far.
Speaker 3: Heck yeah, man, heck yeah.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy six, this band that had gotten dropped
by their record label because of a couple of covers
of an basically unknown song that they did a couple
of inspirations by Sarah Allen, Yes, and all of a
sudden they explode.
Speaker 3: It's incredible, man, I love it. Next song on the
album is called did It in a.
Speaker 8: Minute I was coming home This dogbody waiting.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 3: This is the third single released in March of nineteen
eighty two. This goes all the way to number nine.
This is a top ten hit. Nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I honestly don't have a strong memory of this song.
I don't like either. It's vague in my memory. But
there was a lot going on in nineteen eighty two
for it to be contending with as well.
Speaker 3: That's true. Yeah. Can I tell you about the origins
of this song please? All right? So this song was
inspired by the nineteen seventy seven hit she Did It
by Eric Carmen.
Speaker 2: Remember the last time we talked about him. Eric Carmen
was big on the dirty dance already.
Speaker 3: Dancing very good. Yeah, he got his inspiration for the
song she Did It. Deff Dave? Are you listening from
a Beach Boys song called do It Again? How about that? Okay?
Speaker 2: Very interesting?
Speaker 3: Now that leads me to something.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: On our Patreon we cover one hit wonders and musical
novelties like Mariah Carey, like Kokomo by the Beach Boys.
Speaker 2: Right that you did with deaf Dave?
Speaker 3: Okay, So let me just roll to the top ten
in nineteen eighty two. I want to hit these real quick. Okay,
number nine, did it in a minute?
Speaker 2: What happened at number ten?
Speaker 3: We're starting at number nine, so the top nine, Top nine? Okay,
number eight, don't you want me? Human League? Oh? Great one.
Go to our patreon. Go to our patreon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, guys, that's a patreon dot com
slash shirly podcast where little is five bucks a month.
You get access to all of our one hit, wonder
and novelty episodes. And if you've been bugged by the
ads in this episode so far, you get a sneak preview.
You don't get a sneak preview, you get a sneak
whole episode, the entire episode ad free before we drop
it to the rest of the world with ads. Sorry, guys,
we do have to make money somehow just to justify
this to our families. But if you if you want
to throw in five bucks, you don't have to listen
to any ads at all.
Speaker 3: There you get all the other stuff. By the way,
I'm going to give a shout out to our good
friend Chris Holland. Yes, that was his idea, great idea.
He's like, dude, you're commercials. I'm like, maybe I could
just drop it on Patreon commercial freeze, Like that is
a great idea, So Chris, thank you. Yep. By the way,
we've had two people join at the Billy Ray Valentine level.
Excellent Alex Croblin, who is the executive producer for this
particular episode. Alex, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We appreciate him.
Speaker 3: And then also my former college roommate Cameron Deckert.
Speaker 2: You just saw him, I did.
Speaker 3: I just got back from Canada visited him, surprising him
for his birthday. Nice, and so he joined as a
Billy Ray Valentine.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Cameron campushit you bro.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 2: I know that you always think that I'm right and
Jason's wrong, and I appreciate that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't appreciate that so much. So back to
my candown number eight, Don't You Want Me? By the
Human League, Number seven, Chariots of Fire. This is where
we are in eighty two, right Van Gelis Van Gelis
Number six sixty five Love Affair by Paul Davis. I
got nothing crickets on that one for me too, Okay.
Number five The Other Woman by Ray Parker Jr. Huh
Number six eight six seven, five, three oh nine.
Speaker 2: I know somebody with that number. He name's Jenny. Her
name is Jenny Jenny.
Speaker 3: We did a Patrion episode with Chris Webber on that one.
We did. You want to hear the rest of the
story on that check us out on Patreon. Number three
I've Never Been to Me by Charlene Nothing, I Got Nothing.
Number two Don't Talk to Strangers by Rick Springfield, Oh sure.
And number one Ebony and Ivory. Maybe the worst song
of the nineteen eighties. It is terrible.
Speaker 2: You are black, can I am white? You are blind
as a bat, and I have sight.
Speaker 3: I believe Paul vakarn is associated. All right, hit stop
on your tape deck, kick it out, flip it over
for side two, start off side too with the song
head above Water. We think let's start off side two
with a banger while we're at it. I didn't have
any problem with this song at all. I love the
chorus on this. This is great. Yeah, this is good standard.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is just they're they're kind of formulaic
and what they are doing, but this is the formula
hits on this one they getting They get a catchy hook.
They repeated a bunch but it and Darryl's got his
amazing voice. I think that this is a disquality song.
Speaker 3: I told you before that they have a style. Yeah,
and if you like that style, you love the song,
you love this album. Yeah right, yeah, I want to
point out you mentioned before they added a little more
guitar on side too. That guitar is played by G. E.
Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band.
Speaker 2: That's right, follows that name, right, yes, yeah, the guys,
several of the guys from their band became the Saturday
Night Live Band after they kind of split up in
nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like every commercial you saw the guy with the
ponytail playing guitar, that's him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So they had G Smith playing their lead guitar.
They had T Bone Woke Tom Woke, who was also
the bassis for the Saturday Night Lab Band as their
bassis genius. He passed away back in twenty ten. But
great music on this one. I mean it's just a
very catchy, poppy song.
Speaker 3: This song, this is where I thought they should call
it head above h two.
Speaker 2: Oh ah yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I see we're going with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, all right, so now I kind of like
I teased it all up and said that they were
this big explosion, which I mean in seventy six, they
did explode. They had the reissue She's Gone, They had
Sarah Smile, and they rich Girl, right, And at some
point Tommy Patola hands of a check for a million dollars.
So that's not bad.
Speaker 3: That's not bad. But I'd take a check for a
million dollars.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me one single that they had between
nineteen seventy six and nineteen.
Speaker 3: Eighty Are you ready for this? Yeah? Brace yourself. There
was an album every year. In nineteen seventy seven, there
was an album called Beauty on a Backstreet. Okay, I
didn't recognize any song from that.
Speaker 2: I don't think there was a single on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Nineteen seventy eight they come out with the album Along
the Red Ledge. I didn't know any songs from that album, right,
Tommy Ptola, Those people are starting to get nervous, right
a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's a good thing they made a million dollars because
so far, if I had to coast a couple of.
Speaker 3: Years, right, Yeah, nineteen seventy nine they have an album
called Ecstatic, Uh huh. Nothing on that album nothing.
Speaker 2: Okay, So they're not I mean for Hall and Oates fans.
They may love the songs, of course, but there's not
anything that's bringing in a bunch of income for him. So,
so far as I can tell, that's right. Yeah, I
hope your concerts are selling out, right.
Speaker 3: And so in nineteen eighty they released an album called Voices.
Speaker 2: Okay, that was the album that I can remember seeing
the LP and my mom's collection of records. Okay, there's
a couple of amazing things that happened with that album, right,
all right, Now, we talked about Sarah smile. We talked
about Sarah Allen being involved in the writing process, and
we also mentioned Jay Allen. That's her sister, Jana Jana. Okay,
So as they were going through this five years, Darryl
and Sarah had been together, right, and so she said
that as she watched them plug away at the songs,
song after song after song for these five years, that
they're having not much success, it was like watching your
kid practice violin, where it's just like eventually, just like
just move your finger a little bit and she spits
out some some She's like, why don't you say this?
And they're like, oh, yeah, that is that's a good line.
And from that moment they're like, hey, come help us, right,
And so Sarah Allen starts Sarah Sarah smile, Sarah Alan
starts helping them write their songs. Now, Sarah has a sister.
Her name's Janna, and Jane can play music a little
bit and but has never been a songwriter before. But
she comes out and is hanging out with the guys
as well. And Darryl has this song that he's like,
I got this, this and this I just not you know,
And she's like, how about kisses on my List? How
about that?
Speaker 3: That is divine intervention right there.
Speaker 2: So Janna Allen, Sarah's sisters gives them Kisses on My
List and that is one of the songs on Voices.
And then the other song that's on Voices is their
remake of the Righteous Brothers song.
Speaker 3: You've Lost that Love and Feeling.
Speaker 2: Let's listen to that.
Speaker 3: Okay, did you know the song from hallan Oates or
did you know it from Top Gun?
Speaker 2: I knew it from hallan Oates because yes, we had
this album.
Speaker 3: I knew that.
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was a Righteous brother song until
Top Gun and then I was like, oh wait, I
thought this was Hall and Oates.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't know about the Righteous Brothers until Top Gun.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: So that hallan Oates remake of You Lost That eleven
Feeling goes to number twelve. The third single off of
Voices is Kisses on My List that goes all the
way to number one number one one yeah, and then
they follow that one up with the song called You
Make My Dreams.
Speaker 2: Come True.
Speaker 3: Number five fantastic, So Voices gets them back on track. Yeap.
Speaker 2: So, as we noted Jana Allen, she helped them write
did It In a Minute, which was a single right
that charted yes, and she helped them write Private Eyes.
She also helped Joan Jet several other artists. She became
a go to songwriter in her own right and probably
would have had years more success, but tragically, in I
believe it was ninety one, called her sister and said,
you're gonna this is gonna make you upset that I'm
going to tell you this, but I have leukemia and
didn't make get much longer past that. Daryl Hall said,
you know this, I lost one of the people I
love most in the whole world.
Speaker 3: You know it's basically he's.
Speaker 2: He said, Sarah said, And they had been together many
years at this point, but that moment when she passed
and they both lost somebody that they love, it was
kind of like losing a child. And when you lose
a child, you either grow closer together or you drift apart.
And she said, they drifted apart too, And I mean
think I think they made it last another ten years
or something like that, but it was a hard point
in their relationship and then ultimately early two thousands, they
split up for good.
Speaker 3: It's too bad, Yeah, it's too bad, all right. Next
song on the album, Yes, this song is called tell
Me what You Want A time.
Speaker 2: Will tell me?
Speaker 5: What do you want to know?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 8: Do tell me what you know?
Speaker 5: You tell me what do you want to know?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 5: To tell me? Tell me?
Speaker 3: All right, d we're both stunned by this song.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, So obviously this was not a song that
they released as a single, and you know, you pointed
out that at the beginning of it has a similarity
to this song by Billy Joel My Life I think
so biz Buddies, right, Bus and Buddies. That's the intro
to the song. Right, But and I hear that and
I'm immediately like, h that's rush.
Speaker 3: It's like, is that actually rush? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Like that's that. It's so spot on. It's just a
little faster. And if you don't what I'm talking about,
go back to our top five songs of nineteen eighty
because this is off of Russia's Permanent Waves. The song
is called the Spirit of Radio. It's the same song,
it's the same thread all, it is the same riff. Yeah, crazy,
I can see how he was very forgiving of Michael jacksonline. Yeah,
that's what we do, man.
Speaker 3: You steal stuff. I steal stuff. We all steal.
Speaker 2: That's it's like Picasso, man. Good artists create, great artists steal.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: I'm not a big fan of this one. It's just
shocking how similar it is.
Speaker 2: It is very similar to the Yeah, very similar to
those other songs, but just not as good. It doesn't
capture what they I don't know. I just it was
a swing and amiss for me for sure. Okay.
Speaker 3: Next song on the album is called Friday, Let Me Down.
Speaker 2: If I can write some good songs, and I got
Daryl Hall on the bank, I want Daryl Hall to
sing my song.
Speaker 3: I get it. I get it. I mean he's.
Speaker 2: Sharing the title Ball and Oates. Oates has got his
name on the record.
Speaker 3: He wrote the song.
Speaker 2: Let the guy with the pipes sing the song.
Speaker 3: I agree. He's getting songwriting credit on most of these hits,
some of them, some of them. But when you've got
Daryl Hall in the you know, you let him sing.
When you have Don Henley, you let him sing. Yeah, exactly,
That's just how it works. Yeah, Okay, I got a
pop quiz for you. I have not told you any
of this. Okay. I'm going to give you famous songs
from our generation that have days of the week in
the title. Okay, I'm going to give you the name
of the band, and I want you to come.
Speaker 2: Up with the name of the song. Okay, Man Monday,
Bengals number one, Yes, man Monday, all right?
Speaker 3: How about Jimmy Buffett? Okay, so come Monday, Come Monday.
All right. Now we're shifting to Tuesday. Tuesday's gone by
Leonard Skinner, Yes, all right, how about Rolling Stones Ruby Tuesday? Tuesday?
All right? A little harder. We're onto Wednesday now, Simon
and Garfunkle. Oh I don't know.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: They have a song called Wednesday morning three am. Yes,
I know it, all right? Well, yes, all right, another
tricky one David Bowie for Thursday, all right, Thursday's Child
that was hard? Yeah, no, I know that one too. Shoot,
all right, Friday the cure Manageanic is screaming at the radio,
screaming at the radio. Yes, it always Friday. What is it?
I don't It's called Friday. I'm in love of course.
Saturday Elton John.
Speaker 2: Uh, Saturday night, all right for fight?
Speaker 3: Saturday night's all right for fighting? Last one Saturday in
the Park, Chicago. I did. I didn't have that one.
Sunday you two bloody Sunday. Sunday bloody Sunday. Yeah you
did good?
Speaker 2: Well I did? Okay, I should have known this other one?
Speaker 3: Do I need to pull that out of Okay? Oh
it's great.
Speaker 2: It's a good idea.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: On to the next song on the album, A t
U R A night Sorry.
Speaker 3: All right. Next song on the album is Monday month.
I'm want to be doing this for like the next
three there's a I mean Duran. Duran had a song
that had what was a new moon on Monday. Okay,
so all right, Unguarded Minute is the next song on
this Okay, Yeah.
Speaker 11: This is a good one. I dig this song.
Speaker 2: It's good like this was. This is one of those
undiscovered gems for me. When I got to the song,
this one and another one on side one that's I
can't remember at the moment, both struck me as very
similar to Billy Joel's style, which makes sense because they
both the R and B was a big influence no rock. Yeah, yeah,
and so yeah, I could definitely see I could see
Billy Joel singing this song. But it's as good.
Speaker 3: It's good. Yeah, I agree. Looking ahead past the album
of Private Eyes, you have H two.
Speaker 8: Oh.
Speaker 3: We talked earlier about how I mean, you've got some
absolute killers on that album. Sure, you've got Family Man,
you've got Man Eater, and you've got one on one
all top ten hits yep. Then in between you've got
the greatest album that has a song called say it
isn't so great song, great song. And then in nineteen
eighty four you have Big Bamboom. Maybe Deff Dave will
cover this.
Speaker 2: On his Yeah, nineteen eighty four it's a great album.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Out of Touch is one of the great songs
of the eighties. I absolutely love that one.
Speaker 5: Touch.
Speaker 3: Okay, next song on the album, this song is called
your Imagination. So this one's a little different. It's different.
Speaker 2: It's almost got a talking heads to it, kind of weird, vibrating, yeah,
sound to the music.
Speaker 11: Now.
Speaker 2: Talked a few times about how big and influenced the
Temptations were on these guys. And when I heard this
and I'm listening to the lyrics and kind of getting
the idea, I feel like it's like the flip side
of a song called it was just my Imagination.
Speaker 3: I can see that.
Speaker 2: And that song is of course by the Temptations. Of course,
so yeah, this isn't really as big a fans as
they are. I have to think that that was probably
the inspiration for the Anatomy.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You talked about they had several albums after this, they
were ruling the airwaves for the next five years. Right,
And then you we talked a little bit about them
playing with the Temptations, right, right, And you said that
they played with the Temptations when they did Live Aid.
Speaker 3: Was that Live Aid in nineteen eighty five?
Speaker 2: What were the songs that they did on that one?
Speaker 3: Okay, the songs they did on Live Aid. They opened
up with out of Touch YEP, then they did Man Eater,
Then they did the medley with David Ruff and Eddie
Kendrick get Ready, Ain't too Proud to beg the way
you do, the thing you do and my.
Speaker 2: Girl Okay, my good. So they get to sing with
their idols. Yes at Live Age, Yes now, as we said,
ruling the airwaves from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty five.
In nineteen eighty five, they don't want to get to
play with Rufkin and Kendrick again. They play at the
Apollo Theater, right, and they release an album Live at
the Apollo Theater. It is the last album that they
release for another three years. They don't really have a
conversation about it. They just kind of both come to
the conclusion we're on top and we want to stop
on top. We don't want to we don't want to
fall down, And probably a wise choice because music really
began to change in nineteen eighty five. As far as
the eighties music is concerned, pre eighty five and post
eighty five are very very different, right, But they didn't
write it out. They got back together three years later.
They did an album called Yeah. I mean it was
still Hall and Oates. They still sold a bunch of albums,
but it was about half of what they sold before.
Speaker 3: So I told you so. In nineteen eighty six, the
summer of eighty six, Yeah, same summer as Top Gun
and Karate Kid two and all these others. Yeah, Darryl
Hall released a single Dreamtime, dream Time. Yeah. It was
a good song. It was on IMTV. But it wasn't
that Hall of Oates grand slam.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well in nineteen eighty eight, I think I told
you this. They had one song that played every third
song that summer of eighty eight, and it was called
Everything Your Heart Desires. Great song, chart topper, but for me,
I mean that summer he had poured some sugar on
me and sweet.
Speaker 2: Ch out of mine, and you know it was taken
over right right, glam metal, but still it was taking
over right. That's right, by the way, just this side
thought on that of all of the mullets in all
of history, Darryl Hall may have had the best mullet
of anybody I've ever seen, because not only did he
have party in the back and business up front, but
the business up front was Elvis like, he had the
Elvis Pumpador swoop sidehurn shops that were so chiseled. Yeah,
and he was freaking blonde like. I mean, I can
remember in nineteen eighty four going, I want my hair
to look like that guy.
Speaker 3: It's cool.
Speaker 2: That is the coolest haircut I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 3: I've got one more thing I want to add. Yeah,
people may not know this, Okay. In nineteen eighty five,
there was a big hit song by a guy named
Paul Young and that song is called every Time You
Go Away.
Speaker 2: I remember that, yeah right.
Speaker 3: That song also features Real prominently at the end of Plane,
Strains and Amobiles, which we have yet to cover Crazy,
which we will. Yep. That song was written by Holland
John Notes.
Speaker 12: There you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 3: Okay. Last song on the album Let's do It this one.
Speaker 2: It's called Some Men.
Speaker 5: Way Around the World, undream Man.
Speaker 3: Orpiana Rock.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's a formula and it works well.
And you know on that note, they literally have a
slew of hits like I can't imagine trying to cover
the greatest hits album. Oh yeah, great, Yeah, I mean
it's air supply quality but the formula works and Randon Flowers,
lead singer for The Killers. The Killers miss bright Side.
Somebody told me, he said, she's gone. Their kind of
first big hit is like everything you need to know
about writing a song is in that song.
Speaker 3: Oh. Interesting.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting because I think a lot of people
look at them as great songwriters, which I think they were,
and they've got this sound, and I mean there's uniqueness
in this one. I would say there's more variety in
the music that we have on this album than say
Back in Black. But again, it's like, if you like
this kind of music, you're going to like this album.
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, these guys came along at a time
we talked about how fortunate they were. This album dropped
basically with enough runway to get on MTV. They had
some great pop hooks that produce hits. They just ramped
right into MTV and we're all over the radio and
all over our TV. It was. It was perfect timing
for this album, It really was.
Speaker 2: They rode that wave eighty five, They take their hiatus
three years to come back. It's not so great. It changed,
and they do another few albums and this the magic
is not there. Anymore, like they've lost a dear songwriting friend.
They've moved on with their lives. They're doing their own
personal projects. And then, gosh, what was it seven eight
years ago? Yeah, you make a whole lot of money,
and you got a choice. You can save that money
or you can spend it on things. And I heard
John's talking and he was like, well, you know, and
the money was drying up, and I had to sell
my six cars, and I had to sell my boat,
and I had to sell my plane. And I'm like,
maybe you shouldn't have bought all that stuff now, man,
And so ultimately then he gets to the point that
he's like, maybe I'll just sell my interest in all
of these songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is where things get really really sad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean they were they were a good match.
They did make great music together, but.
Speaker 3: They were the most successful music making duo of all time.
Speaker 2: Of all time. And he decides I'm going to sell
all of my interest in those songs to this company
that had owned some of the interests in the other
of their songs before, and he doesn't ask Darryl about it.
Yeah that's a problem. Yeah, I mean, this is a partnership.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It is something that you owe a duty to your
partner to go. This is what I'm even if you're
in this circumstance where like, hey, bad things have happened.
Whatever my fault, your fault, nobody's fault. That I need money.
I've got to sell this stuff. You don't just go
do it without talking to your partner.
Speaker 3: Absolutely not, Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: And so I think justifiably so. So Daryl Hall was like, nope,
no good, come here, you can't do that, right, but
by all the lawsuit make him stop. And yeah, So
that went on for several years, just until last year. Actually,
I think it was August of twenty five. They finally
got it resolved. Didn't say what the resolution was. I
don't know what the resolution is. I know that Daryl
Hall like looking at his when he was very successful,
it was upsetting to him because he didn't like the
celebrity status of things. He was like, I can't go
out and buy Christmas presents from my family because we
recognized and so he didn't like being a celebrity. He
didn't like people knowing his face everywhere he went because
he's a private person and so I can understand him going,
I'm a private guy. I'm watching you.
Speaker 3: I see your every movie. That's right.
Speaker 2: You can't sell our music.
Speaker 3: Sir, that's right. I heard Della Hall describe it as
the ultimate betrayal, the ultimate betrayal. Pretty bad, it really is.
And I saw an interview with John Oates and he said, no,
we are not friends any longer. Right, we will probably
never play together again. We have no interest in seeing
each other and burn it all down. It is tragic.
But they did give us a slew of hits in
the eighties.
Speaker 2: At some point, I really would like to do the
greatest hits with them. I would love to do that.
Speaker 3: I'd love to do it. Yeah, we are finally at
our three part final judgment.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So okay, guys, So if you if you've missed
the prior to episodes, we've covered the Jay Giles band,
freeze frame, we've covered minute work, business as usual, and
then of course we've just covered Private Eyes by hauling Oats. Now,
the question is how are we going to rank those three?
Do you want to go first? You would you let
me go first?
Speaker 3: Why don't we let James Buckley give us his opinion?
Speaker 12: Okay, here's James, I've I've heard all three of these
coming up in the ear. I could not help but
hear him every time you turn on the radio. I
was never really a haul on those fan. Their music
never really struck me, so right away Private Eye falls
to the bottom of the pack.
Speaker 7: Yew.
Speaker 12: Jay Giles band was fun. I remember my high school
band used to play Centerfold. Looking back, I'm not sure
that was our band director's wisest choice, but that's really
my only memory from that album is playing that song
with the band, So that's probably gonna be the number
two slot, number one minute work for the reasons we discussed.
That album still stands up to me decade even decades later, geez,
and I think the songs are still strong. Songwriting's there,
the playing. I think he gets the training Champion.
Speaker 3: Not surprise, James, Yeah, was on a minute work with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, a great job. Makes sense that he
would rank them like that. Yeah, yeah, okay, so me
or you.
Speaker 3: I'll go okay, So I really have no idea where
you are on this. You really can't lose you got
you got some major hits on all three of these albums, yep,
and they are eighties party bangers, pop gold, I love them.
Doesn't really matter. If you put them three behind your
back and I grabbed one, I'd be happy with whatever
I pulled out. But if you're asking me which one
I'm grabbing last, the last one I grab is Private Eye.
I love some of the songs on Private Eyes, a
little long, maybe some filler in there. Daryl Hall's voice
is great. I'd rather have the greatest HiT's Hall of Notes.
The second one I grab or second to last one
I grab is man It Work, And the first one
I grab if I'm walking out the door. My number
one selection, my overall draft pick is the Jake os
Man Sure.
Speaker 2: I mean you've been a Jakeiles guy since we've first started,
Like you kept mentioning them, and I'm like, right, right,
so I kind of I you know, I have it
in my head the way things are going to go,
this is going to be a count for me, is
going to be a competition between Hall of Oates and
Men at Work, Right, And I started thinking, I'm like, man,
I know a lot of Hall and Oates albums. I'm
almost certainly going to be picking them, and then it'll
probably be Gonta Work. And then it'll probably be Jay
Giles Band, because I don't really never sure had them
as something, right, but things happened when we revisit these albums,
right Sure. I mentioned that Mint at Work was one
of those first three tapes that I had, and I've
mentioned that Private Eye was in the LP election and
one that I wore out. But after listening to the
Jay Giles Band, I was genuinely impressed and actually went
and started listening to other music outside of Freeze Frame.
I really kind of dug the bluesy stuff that they
were doing before the pop influences happened, which I enjoyed
the pop influence as well right of Freeze Frame, but
I really dug like the harmonica and the kind of
blues dick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, magic dick is magic stick, that's right.
Speaker 2: So interestingly the way that it's kind of played out,
like you, I listened to Private Eyes and I'm like,
I love this song. I remember liking this song, okay,
and anticipating the next song, and I love this song,
and then it was just kind of like, Okay, yeah,
it's kind of the same sound, sure, but it didn't
make me want to go dig up a bunch more
stuff like I know all their hits and the stuff
that's not their hit.
Speaker 3: It's just been kind of okay, Right, it's been just okay.
Speaker 2: And so the way that it's turned out for me
is that the last one that I'm picking up, like
you is Private Eyes. Okay, Jay Giles Band is in
the number two spot very clearly and is very close
to the number one spot with Men at Work because
because I freaking I grew up with that one. That's
that's iconic for me, and so yeah, that's the way
it goes for me. Number three is Private Eyes. Number
two is Freeze Frame, followed very closely by number one
of business is usually excellent.
Speaker 3: Okay, very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited to go check out more of the
Jay guys.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that we moved the needle for you,
absolutely did, And we want to know where are you
guys with this? What's your favorite? How do you rank these?
Did we move the needle for you on any of these? Yeah?
You know what, I think moved the needle too on you.
Peter Wolf had those incredible stories. Oh dude, that those
were great stories. If you haven't listened to our Jay
Gills Band episode, there's a lot of cool stuff.
Speaker 2: Truthfully, I mean, just very truthfully. I listened to the
album before I listened to his autobiography, and the album
did it for me. It was their music, not just
his fantastic stories.
Speaker 3: Awesome. Okay, well that does it for our three way
of nineteen eighty one. Come back next week we have
a matchup. It's kind of a mismatch, but still we're
gonna do it anyway. Okay, but it's one of the
great movies of the eighties versus a very good movie.
Uh huh. Right, So we are doing Adventures in babysitting,
which is young kids out on the town one twenty
four hour period, trying to get back home, trying to
get back before they're busted by parents. Yep, versus barriers, spuelers,
stay off, come back. That will be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a lot of fun. Guys, look
forward to seeing you then. Thank you so much for listening.
Don't forget to hit your subscribe button or follow button.
We love that you've listened to this episode. Please check
out our other episodes for the last several seasons, we're
up to something like nearly four hundred episodes now and
there's lots of gold out there to mine, I tell you, Okay,
thanks guys, by
Speaker 3: Yeah,