While most band members first connect over a mutual love of music, Daryl Hall and John Oates were pulled together by something far more haphazard. Would you ever have guessed that Hall & Oates, kings of the smooth jam, met amid a gang fight?
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Both musicians hail from Philadelphia and went to Temple University. Hall studied music while Oates pursued journalism. While in school, both played in separate bands – Hall in the Temptones and Oates in the Masters.
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One night in 1967, both bands were booked to play at the Adelphi Ballroom in West Philadelphia with a slew of other R&B outfits.
Right before Hall’s Temptones were about to take the stage, two rival fraternities (which the vocalist has said were more like “gangs with Greek letters“) broke out in a fight, busting out chains and knives and firing off a few shots.
Hall ran for cover toward an elevator where Oates was also hiding from all the action.
“I said, ‘Oh, well, you didn’t get to go on, either. How ya doin’,’” Hall once told The Independent. “You go to Temple University, I go to Temple University. See you later, bye.’ And that was it, that’s how we met.”
It was a short and random meeting but, it was enough to prompt a one-in-a-lifetime musical partnership.
Early Days
After their elevator meeting, the duo began to run in the same circles around Temple. Oates eventually moved in with Hall after a busking trip around Europe got him padlocked out of his apartment unable to pay the rent.
“I had nowhere to go,” Oates told The Guardian. “Daryl took pity on me and invited me to move in with him.”
Despite their ever-growing relationship, it wasn’t until around 1971 that the pair attempted to make music together.
“He was very different from me, I knew that right away,” Hall continued in the same Independent interview. “I remember he was just a teenager but he had a mustache and short hair. He was a college wrestler, a sports jock, and I never really knew people who did that kind of stuff. He was pretty much a straight arrow, and I was the opposite of that, I was just what you’d imagine a musician to be.”
“Daryl and I are more like brothers than actual friends,” Oates once said of their key differences. “We’re very different as people, but we have this incredibly strong musical bond. He is creatively unsatisfied and that drives him forward. He’s very smart, and, in my opinion, has one of the greatest popular voices of all time.”
From there, each brought a unique sonic attribute to the band. Hall brought his love of soul and gospel music while Oates chipped in a folky flavor. The end result was the era-defining sound of Hall & Oates.
Today
Hall & Oates are still together today despite appearances – both members have taken on extensive solo projects. Despite decades in the music industry, the duo has said they have maintained a fairly easy relationship.
“John and I never fight,” Hall told the New York Post in 2020. “We’ve never had a real fight since we’ve known each other — and that’s since we were kids, teenagers. We just know to deal with each other. That’s why we’re still together.”
“The fact that Daryl and I are still friends, that he and I still get along — it’s a miracle,” Oates added.
Hall & Oates has been credited as the best-selling rock duo of all time. Their mammoth hits – “Rich Girl,” “Maneater,” and “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” to name a few – have earned them a dedicated legion of fans, despite rock purists slighting them at times.
“It’s probably because they had their own opinions about what constituted exceptional music in that period of time,” Hall once explained. “And it was based on a lot of things that I wasn’t really interested in. I have slightly different roots than most of the [rock] writers.”
Nevertheless, the duo was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. The pair were ushered into the hallowed Rock Hall by Questlove. The drummer/producer surmised the lulling power of Hall & Oates in just one sentence during his speech: “Hall & Oates can cure any known ailment.”
Photo by Monday Jr./ Mad Ink PR
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