Late last year, it was widely reported that all was not well between Daryl Hall and John Oates, whose musical partnership produced scores of hit records in the '70s, '80s and '90s, including 12 Billboard Top 10 singles and five #1s. It seems the two had some kind of falling out over ownership rights to their various songs, Mr. Hall sued Mr. Oates and now the whole matter is in court. You can read more about the gory details HERE.
I liked a lot of the material Hall & Oates created, including some of their lesser known releases. I especially liked their 1977 album Beauty on a Back Street and the songs "Do What You Want, Be What You Are," "Sarah Smile" and the 1973 song "I'm Just a Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like a Man)." which was the B side of their 1976 single "She's Gone." More recently, I've enjoyed a bunch of episodes from the Daryl Hall series Live from Daryl's House, which features a range of artists playing informally in Hall's living room. I'm less fond of the slicker pop the duo put out in the 1980s, which may be why I only recently tripped over a pair of music videos they released in 1983 to hype their two nearly identical versions of the holiday classic "Jingle Bell Rock." I couldn't find many differences between Hall's version and Oates', though frankly I didn't invest more than a minute trying to distinguish them.
Here's "Daryl's version" of the tune:
And here's "John's version":
Hard to believe these two characters are now facing off in court, although I suppose no partnership is ever truly safe from falling on hard times. It would be nice if they could work things out, right? Perhaps they could then give us a new unified version of their 1976 classic "Back Together Again."
