-THE BORACAY ISLAND LIFE-
Born on this date, October 11, 1946 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, American singer/songwriter Daryl Hall (born Daryl Franklin Hohl) best known as half of mega successful pop duo Hall & Oates with John Oates.
Hall & Oates are one of the most successful duos in pop music selling in excess of 40 million records along with 34 chart hit singles, seven platinum albums, and six gold albums. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. Hall is the duo's principal writer and lead singer.
Hall came from a musical family. Both his parents were voice teachers who worked with choirs. He first met Oates at the Adelphi Ballroom in Philadelphia in 1967 when the tow were in competing groups. Both were attending Philadelphia's Temple University. Hall was by then a senior, while Oates was a freshman. Hall was already working sporadically at Gamble & Huff's recording studio and would soon join the short-lived band Gulliver. After that, Hall and Oates decided to pursue a career as a duo, signing with Atlantic Records in 1972.
Their debut album Whole Oats failed to garner much attention however their second album, Abandoned Luncheonette, produced by Arif Mardin and released in 1973, yielded the single, "She's Gone". The follow up, War Babies, bombed but in 1975 the scored a top 10 hit single with "Sara Smile" from their 1975 self-titled album. The next album, Bigger Than Both Of Us, gave them their first of six $1 singles with "Rich Girl". The group continued scoring an impressive list of albums and hit singles, along the way switching to RCA Records and crafting a distinctive "blue-eyed soul" style.
In the late 70s, the duo experienced a lean period before roaring back to the charts.
During that time, Hall recorded his first solo album. In 1977, RCA attempted to push Hall to the fore with his first solo effort Sacred Songs. However, after being presented with the highly experimental recording (produced by Robert Fripp of King Crimson), RCA became unwilling to release what was, in their view, a non-commercial album. "Sacred Songs" was eventually released in 1980. What the album revealed was an experimental side to Hall's career and a willingness to challenge his pop image.
Hall made an album with Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Three Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine, which yielded his #5 solo single "Dreamtime". He has recorded such solo works as Soul Alone in 1993 and Can't Stop Dreaming in 1996, both of which were received well internationally. In 1994 composed "Gloryland" that was the official song of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He continued to pursue collaborations and recordings while still maintaining his role in Hall & Oates. In addition, he created a company to restore old historic homes in the US and UK. Hall hosted the 2014 television show Daryl's Restoration Over-Hall on the DIY Network which showed him and a crew working on restoring one of his homes in Connecticut.
Since 2007, Hall has hosted the online show/webcast Live From Daryl's House which features live music acts in a podcast/videocast first from his home in Millertown, New York and more recently from his club Daryl's House in Pawling, New York. Live From Daryl's House has played host to a who's who of musical guests from a variety of genres and yielded some memorable collaborations.
Hall said of the webcast, "For me it was sort of an obvious thing. I've been touring my whole adult life really, and, you know, you can't be EVERYWHERE! Nor do I WANT to be everywhere at this point! I only like to spend so much time per year on the road. So I thought 'Why don't I just do something where anyone who wants to see me anywhere in the world CAN?! And, instead of doing the artist/audience performance-type thing, I wanted to deconstruct it and make the audience more of a fly-on-the-wall kind of observer... I mean, what I've always done onstage is very natural. I talk to the audience and it's a very sitting-roomy kind of thing. So I just thought I'd basically bring that to the web."
In November 2023, Hall filed a lawsuit against Oates and his trust due to contractual and financial disputes; the details of the case were initially confidential. Hall additionally issued a restraining order against Oates in the wake of the charges.
The following week, Hall filed a declaration accusing Oates of "the ultimate partnership betrayal" for planning to sell Oates' share of the duo's publishing to Primary Wave Music. Oates responded that Hall's statements were "inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate".
In April 2024, Oates said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he had "moved on" from Hall and Oates and that the duo would never perform together again, with Hall confirming the same a month later in an interview with Variety. The case was ultimately settled through mediation.
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