rockofallages81-tvgda

Hell yeah, we get to talk about Hall & Oates. Or “Daryl Hall & John Oates,” as they were credited.
I saw them very soon before they broke up, and let me tell you, that breakup should have happened a lot sooner.
In 1976, the duo from Philadelphia scored a massive breakthrough hit with “Sara Smile.” In the wake of its success, their label, Atlantic, re-released an earlier Hall & Oates single called “She’s Gone.” It was originally a flop, but became a hit upon re-release. With the wind at their backs, the duo released their fifth studio album, Bigger Than Both Of Us, in August 1976. The first and third singles – “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” and “Back Together Again” – did enter the top 40 on the Hot 100, but the second single would be the first of the duo’s six #1 hits: “Rich Girl.”
Daryl Hall wrote “Rich Girl” about his girlfriend Sara Allen’s ex-boyfriend. That guy was Victor Walker, Jr., the heir to the Chicago-based Walker Bros. chain of pancake houses. According to Daryl, when he and Sara were living together, she was still friends with Victor. He came to their apartment one day and acted “sort of strange.” Daryl told her Victory was crazy, but he didn’t have any worries because whatever trouble he might get into, his father could bail him out. Then Daryl started writing “Rich Guy,” but it didn’t sound right so he changed it to “Rich Girl.” However, Daryl claims that Victor still knew the song was about him.
I do not want to know how it feels to have a diss track written about me hit #1 on the charts, but anyway, how’s the rest of the album?
It’s okay. “Rich Girl” is unsurprisingly the catchiest song by a significant margin. The other singles were decent songs but they were bad picks to be singles, if that makes sense. If I picked the singles from the album, I would obviously put “Rich Girl” first. And then, broadly speaking, the second half of the album is stronger than the first, so that’s where I would’ve picked the other singles. “Room To Breathe” and “You’ll Never Learn” are both really good. The album closer “Falling” is great, but at a length of over six minutes, it would definitely need a radio edit.
In summary, my recommendation is to check out the songs I just listed and then, optionally, proceed with the rest of the album.