By Chris Bavender
For more than 40 years Daryl Hall & John Oates have been entertaining fans with such hits as “Kiss on My Lips,” “Private Eyes” and “Maneater.”
And now the duo will bring their magic to Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. May 8 at the Old National Centre.
It’s been a big year for the musicians – who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – and are the number-one selling duo in music history. In 2008 Daryl Hall and John Oates were honored with the Icon Award during BMI’s 56th annual Pop Awards. The award has previously gone to such artists as the Bee Gees, Paul Simon, James Brown and Dolly Parton.
They recently released their first box set, Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates. It has four CDs containing 74 tracks – 16 of them previously unreleased.
Daryl Hall and John Oates met in 1967 at the Adelphi Ballroom in West Philadelphia where their respective bands were set to play. But a fight between members of rival high school fraternities ended the night early and had the two leaving the building in the same elevator. They discovered both attended Temple University – Hall was studying music while Oates was majoring in journalism. They would see each other around campus and eventually became roommates.
When two members of Oates’ band were drafted at the time of the Vietnam War, he joined Hall’s band as a guitar player. They signed in the 1970s with Atlantic and their 1973 debut album, Abandoned Luncheonette, yielded the Top 10 single, “She’s Gone,” which also went to number one on the R&B charts.
And, as the saying goes – the rest is history.
In the last few years they’ve concentrated on solo work – In April 2011, Oates released his solo album, Mississippi Mile, while Hall released his solo album, Laughing Down Crying in September 2011. Hall also is host of a monthly web series – Live from Daryl’s House.
The show is sold out but seats are still available through ticket outlets. More information is available at http://oldnationalcentre.com.
