Hall & Oates “Daryl Hall & John Oates” 1975. Today, October 11th, is Daryl Hall’s 70th birthday (b. Daryl Franklin Hohl 1946). Disclaimer! I don’t like Hall & Oates and the only reason this is in the Vault is that we picked it up somewhere (thrift store? rummage sale?) for a friend and haven’t gotten around to getting it to him yet. Lucky for me I have a Hall & Oates LP to spin today and this will be the only time I listen to it. 70′s era smooth blue-eyed soul, Daryl Hall & John Oates is the duo’s 4th studio album and has the band capitalizing on the glam trend with the LP’s cover (they are so pretty!), designed by Pierre LaRoche, the makeup artist also responsible for creating David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust looks.

Being the first (and last!) time listening to Daryl Hall & John Oates, I realized I have heard a few of these songs. “Camellia” and “Alone Too Long” were both released as singles, the latter reaching #98 on the Billboard R&B charts and the former failed to chart at all. I have a special loathing for Hall & Oates’ breakthrough single “Sara Smile,” their first to reach the Top 10, hitting #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1976. That song, along with Starship’s “Sara,” are awful tunes that are inevitably sung to me, though thankfully not so much now as back in the 70′s and 80′s. Thank goodness Boss Hog redeemed the name with “Some Sara” in the 90′s.