Starting All over Again: The Best of Hall and Oates Disc 1 1997 Playlist: The Very Best Of Daryl Hall & John Oates 2008 Starting All over Again: The Best of Hall and Oates Disc 2 1997. X-Static is the eighth studio album by American pop music duo Daryl Hall & John Oates. The album was released in October of 1979, by RCA Records. Buddah Records re-released the album with two bonus tracks in 2000. 'Wait for Me' reached #18 on the Billboard charts and won a BMI airplay award. Hall & Oates-Starting All Over Again-The Best Of-1997-CD1.rar.
Voices | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 29, 1980 | |||
Recorded | November 1979 – April 1980 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 43:55 | |||
Label | RCA Records | |||
Producer | ||||
Hall & Oates chronology | ||||
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Singles from Voices | ||||
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Voices is the ninth studio album by American pop music duo Hall & Oates. The album was released on July 29, 1980, by RCA Records. It spent 100 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 17.[1] In 2020, the album was ranked number 80 on The Greatest 80 Albums of 1980 by Rolling Stone magazine.[2]
Background[edit]
The album slowly became a massive hit, spinning off four singles into the top 40 of the American pop charts: 'How Does It Feel to Be Back' (number 30 in summer, 1980), 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (number 12 in fall, 1980), 'Kiss on My List' (number 1 for three weeks in spring, 1981), and 'You Make My Dreams' (number 5 in summer, 1981). 'Everytime You Go Away' was not released as a single but was covered by Paul Young in 1985, when it went to number 1 on the Hot 100 on 27 July 1985. Singers Elisa Chan and Danny Summer covered this song in Cantonese in 1985 and 1986.
Voices was the first album that Hall & Oates produced by themselves, working in conjunction with renowned engineer Neil Kernon.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
Rolling Stone | (favorable)[5] |
Robert Christgau | C+[6] |
Track listing[edit]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | 'How Does It Feel to Be Back' | John Oates | 4:35 |
2. | 'Big Kids' | 3:40 | |
3. | 'United State' |
| 3:08 |
4. | 'Hard to Be in Love with You' | 3:38 | |
5. | 'Kiss on My List' |
| 4:25 |
6. | 'Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect)' | 3:37 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
7. | 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' | 4:37 | |
8. | 'You Make My Dreams' | 3:11 | |
9. | 'Everytime You Go Away' | Hall | 5:23 |
10. | 'Africa' | Oates | 3:39 |
11. | 'Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices)' |
| 3:43 |
Personnel[edit]
- Daryl Hall – lead vocals (2-9, 11), backing vocals, mando-guitar, keyboards, synthesizers (including ARP String Ensemble), vocoder, percussion
- John Oates – lead vocals (1, 4, 7, 10), backing vocals, 6 and 12-string guitars, percussion, Roland CR-78 drum machine
- G.E. Smith – lead guitars
- John Siegler – bass guitar
- Jerry Marotta – drums
- Chuck Burgi – drums, percussion
- Charlie DeChant – saxophone
Additional musicians[edit]
- Jeff Southworth – lead guitar on 'Kiss On My List'
- Ralph Schuckett – organ on 'Everytime You Go Away'
- Mike Klvana – synthesizers on 'Africa'
Production and design[edit]
- Produced by Daryl Hall and John Oates
- Engineered by Neil Kernon and Bruce Tergeson
- Assistant Engineers – Jon Smith and John Palermo
- Mixed by Neil Kernon
- Recorded at The Hit Factory and Electric Lady Studio, New York City.
- Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York City.
- Album Cover Design – Sara Allen
- Art Direction – J.J. Stelmach
- Photography – Ebet Roberts
- Equipment Technician – Mike Klvana
Charts and certifications[edit]
The album debuted at number 75 on the Billboard 200 the week of August 16, 1980 as the highest debut of the week.[7] After ten months since its debut on the chart, it reached and peaked at number 17 on June 13, 1981, making it their highest charting album since 1975 when Daryl Hall & John Oates peaked at number 17 too.[8][9] It remained on the chart for one hundred weeks, more than any other album by the duo.[8][9] It was certified gold by the RIAA on May 6, 1981 for shipments of 500,000 units, it reached platinum status on January 22, 1982 denoting shipments of one million.[10]
Weekly charts[edit]
Chart (1980) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[11] | 19 |
US Billboard 200[8] | 17 |
Certifications[edit]
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada)[12] | 1× Gold | 50,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[10] | 1× Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^shipments figures based on certification alone |
Singles[edit]
Release Date | Title | Hot 100 | UK singles |
---|---|---|---|
July 1980 | 'How Does It Feel to Be Back' | 30 | - |
September 1980 | 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' | 12 | 55 |
January 1981 | 'Kiss on My List' | 1 | 33 |
April 1981 | 'You Make My Dreams' | 5 | - |
Bibliography[edit]
- Oates, John (2017), Change of Seasons: A Memoir, St. Martin's Press, ISBN978-1-250-08266-4
References[edit]
- ^Oates, John (2017). 'I Hear The Voices'. Change of Seasons: A Memoir.
- ^[1]
- ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. 'Daryl Hall & John Oates: Voices'. AllMusic. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- ^Berger, Arion (2004). 'Daryl Hall & John Oates'. In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. pp. 358. ISBN0743201698.
- ^[2]
- ^'Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 555'. www.robertchristgau.com. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^'Top LPs & Tape'. Billboard - August 16, 1980. Billboard Magazine. August 16, 1980. p. 70. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- ^ abc'Daryl Hall John Oates Chart History (Billboard 200)'. Billboard. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- ^ ab'Daryl Hall & John Oates – Chart history'. Billboard. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
- ^ ab'American album certifications – Hall & Oates – Voices'. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved August 24, 2017.If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH.
- ^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
- ^'Canadian album certifications – Hall & Oates – Voices'. Music Canada. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voices_(Hall_%26_Oates_album)&oldid=993611759'
Popular success has a way of skewing the assessment of any artist. For highly popular performers, less popular albums tend to be viewed as intrinsically less worthy, regardless of the artistic significance. This phenomenon manifests itself most obviously on compilations, which default to more popular songs even when it gives an incomplete picture of their work. With a trio of strong albums under-represented on — or sometimes completely absent from — most collections, Daryl Hall and John Oates are among the most prominent examples of this. Considering the volume of hit singles the duo achieved, this disconnect is unsurprising but also unfortunate for the way it shortchanges some of their best fusions of rock and soul.
Related: “Hall & Oates: 5 Songs That Should Have Been Hit Singles”
If the platinum-selling albums Voices, Private Eyes, and H2O represent Hall & Oates’ commercial apex, the three studio albums that preceded them live somewhere on the other end of the spectrum. After reaching the Top 40 with three songs from 1976’s Bigger Than Both of Us — including their first number one, “Rich Girl” — neither of the singles from 1977’s Beauty on a Back Streetcame close to becoming a hit. Singles from the albums Along the Red Ledge and X-Static performed better, with “It’s a Laugh” and “Wait for Me” each making the Top 20. They’re also the only songs from this period that consistently feature on compilations.
Both songs appear on the 2001 release The Very Best of Daryl Hall and John Oates, and 2004’s Ultimate Daryl Hall & John Oates (later reissued as The Essential Daryl Hall & John Oates) included those two and added the infectious “I Don’t Wanna Lose You.” Both releases, however, completely ignore Beauty on a Back Street. In comparison, the 2001 collection contains three songs from H2O and the later one features five from Voices.
Related: “A Quick Look At Blue-Eyed Soul”
X-static Speakers
Seen through a purely commercial lens, this makes sense. Voices, Private Eyes, and H2O were undeniably popular. Each of them featured multiple hits, with four #1 singles between them. However, the collections that draw so heavily from these albums aren’t billed as “greatest hits” but rather the “very best” and “essential,” suggesting that criteria beyond chart rankings factored into the song selection.
Personal feelings may have been a factor with Beauty on a Back Street, which John Oates reputedly hated. If that was the case, it says less about the album’s quality and more about the way artists are sometimes the worst judges of their work, since “Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Heart?” and “Bigger Than Both of Us” (weirdly not included on the album of the same name) are as appealing as many of the duo’s hits.
Oates felt very differently about Along the Red Ledge, citing it as his favorite among the duo’s “under the radar” records in a 2009 interview, a sentiment with which Daryl Hall concurred. In a later interview, Hall rightly observed that “It’s a Laugh” and “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” should have been bigger hits, but Oates’ “Melody for a Memory” had more passion and musical inventiveness than either of those songs. Likewise Hall’s “Have I Been Away Too Long” is one of his very best performances.
From a songwriting standpoint, 1979’s X-Static is the most uneven of the three albums but is also closest in sound to the records that made Hall & Oates major stars. “Wait for Me” is the song they still play in concert, but “The Woman Comes and Goes” is the one that could easily fit on Voices or Private Eyes. On the former point, it would be nice if more songs from these albums appeared in their current set lists. While the focus on crowdpleasers is understandable, they only paint a partial picture of the artistry that attracted those crowds in the first place.
Fans wanting to explore this period but not prepared to commit to the full albums (though all three remain available) may enjoy the box-set retrospective Do What You Want, Be What You Are. While it still ignores Beauty on a Back Street, the set puts Along the Red Ledge and X-Static on a more equal footing with the better-known albums. The Ballads Collection, one of their few compilations to forgo a chronological approach, is likewise an excellent showcase of their work. Its mix of signature hits and more obscure tracks, including Beauty on a Back Street‘s “Bigger Than Both of Us,” and “Melody for a Memory” from Along the Red Ledge, makes as strong a case for the duo’s talent as any hits-based collection. If only they’d play more of these songs in concert…
–Don Klees
Photo Credit: CIRCA 1970: Photo of Hall & Oates Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images