Nothing against Hall & Oates as a musical group; I've enjoyed many of their hits. I just wonder how accurate it is to call them a duo. I remember hearing a DJ calling them one of the most successful duos of all time, which puts them alongside favorites of mine such as the Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel.
Now, I don't own any Hall & Oates albums. Perhaps most of their songs really do feature only the two of them harmonizing, or otherwise performing sans band. Heck, even Simon & Garfunkel had only one of the them singing on the occasional song. But Hall & Oates looked like the two frontmen of a band. Another favorite band of mine is Heart. What makes Hall & Oates any more of a duo than Heart? Ann Wilson sings most of the leads, as does Daryl Hall (unless I am mistaken - again, I don't own any of their albums). Nancy Wilson often sings harmonies with occasional lead vocals, as does John Oates. Could Heart have reclassified themselves as a duo had they called themselves The Wilson Sisters or Ann & Nancy Wilson?
Other examples might include Difford & Tilbrook instead of Squeeze (during a hiatus from Squeeze, there actually was a Difford and Tilbrook); Bono & the Edge instead of U2; Partridge & Moulding instead of XTC; and with apologies to George Harrison, even Lennon & McCartney instead of the Beatles. The list goes on...
One of my favorite songs by Hall & Oates is Sara Smile... now that sounds like the work of a duo. But for the most part, they sound less like a duo than they do a band. When I've seen them perform, they look like a band, although for the vast majority of people, Daryl Hall and John Oates are really the only members that they could list. But still, it seems to me that Hall & Oates are a duo in name only.
Here's a thought: One of the most successful duos of the 1980's was...
The Thompson Twins!
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I think what made Heart more of a band then a duo (at least originally) was that when they first formed it was a more "equal footing" band - the guitarist (Roger Fisher, or something like that) was involved with Ann and doing a lot of the writing I think too. Of course, by the end of the 70's most if not all of the other band members were gone and they were more a duo - though their bands weren't as constantly changing as were Hall and Oates.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me, Abandoned Luncheonette, by Hall & Oates is a great album and worth owning (before they got a little too slick for thier own good)....