Hall & Oates - Beauty on a Back Street (Original Recording Remastered)

Years of sensational albums and singles, and stellar musicianship are what you can count on with Daryl Hall and John Oates. This award- winning Philly duo has been such a mainstay in popular music for years now, that it s hard to believe that it has been three decades since the vinyl release of their 1977 Top 30 hit album, Beauty On A Back Street. As an amazing follow-up to their previous smash albums - Daryl Hall and John Oates (The Silver Album) and Bigger than Both of Us (Friday Music 1976) Beauty had the reputation of a transitional album with more of a harder edged sonic quality, while maintaining the rock and soul approach, making their trademark sound the much emulated style it is to this day.

1977 was one of the greatest years for rock, soul and popular music. You had breakout albums hitting from almost everyone in those days. Before the theft of music, you would see albums that would normally hit 4 or 5 million units....platinum was part of our culture at the time, and Hall and Oates weren t foreign to the culture either. They had just completed a nice chart run of singles with She s Gone, Sara Smile, Rich Girl, and Do What You Want, Be What You Are.

With the punk rock influence hitting the shores with new albums, as well as bombastic soul efforts, plus arena rock achievements from mega superstar bands., this hit-making duo from Philadelphia knew they had to keep the fans satisfied. So, they reached back to the some of their recognizable star formula and created one of the most enduring and artistically pleasing efforts in their large catalog of albums.

Utilizing the studio wizardry of their past platinum efforts with Christopher Bond, Hall and Oates along with lyricist Sara Allen combined their musical talents and crafted nine new tracks for the sessions at The Sounds Labs from April to May of 1977.

With clever arrangements and natural players like Scotty Edwards and Leland Sklar on bass, the late great Jeff Porcaro on drums and the jazz legend Tom Scott on sax, this album hits its stride with the first hit single Why Do Lovers Break Each Other s Heart? With the correct balance of Philly soul, 50 s doo-wop, and crunchy almost Mick Ronson style guitar riffs, this tune was just the beginning of what was happening in the studio as the album was being caught on tape. A little departure from their previous hit singles, Hall s lead vocal truly captures the lyric with a tonal quality that is reserved only for pros.

As another successful follow-up at radio, Don t Change again relies on some heavier guitar patterns in just the right places, while Daryl belts out another incredible vocal performance. Truly, this was one of the most memorable tunes on this project.

To gravitate towards a more familiar space, their rock n soul trademark sound comes home once more with Bigger Than Both Of Us. The beat of the string arrangement, the horns, the mighty drum sound, the strong vocals.... it just worked out to be another high-point track and album clincher for the duo.

John Oates unleashed some very fine material on this album as well including the soulful Love Hurts (Love Heals) with a memorable sax break from Tom Scott, as well as the l.p. closer The Girl Who Used To Be. With a great story line, chilling guitar work and harmonies, this song is one of his strongest writings ever.

It s difficult to think that this wonderful album has been unavailable for quite some time, until now....Friday Music is proud to re-release this fine album, presented now as a pristine remaster, the first cd in an extensive HALL & OATES REMASTERS SERIES, directly from the original session tapes, with the all of the courtesy, respect & quality that you have come to know and deserve from the Friday Music label. Thoughtfully and painstakingly remastered by the award winning Joe Reagoso (Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, Deep Purple, America) Product Description

a fun misfire

This is the one where the then-rising stars of R&B/pop decided to "rock out," with very mixed results. This one is for Daryl Hall & John Oates complete collectionists only.

Why didn't the "rock" experiment work? They hired a crack band. Daryl Hall's powerful tenor should have been a natural fit for harder-edged rock. The production was polished to 1970s shimmering perfection. Yet the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Biggest reason? Weak songs. Hall & Oates can write pop hooks and soulful R&B, but their talents deserted them when they went rock.

Case in point: the best track on the CD, by far, is "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts." Why? It's the one pure R&B track on the record. It could be dropped onto "Voices" or "Private Eyes" and fit perfectly. R&B/rock hybrids "Don't Change" and "The Emptyness" are worthy tracks, albeit less successful, perhaps because they are a more adulterated form of the Hall & Oates pop-soul sound.

On the other hand, "Winged Bull," a misguided foray into prog rock (complete with mythical creature name-check!) is among the worst things they've ever done. And it's not even the worst track on the CD! That would be: "Bad Habits and Infections." When, as the song fades, Daryl breathily sings, "I need a doctor," any Hall & Oates fan would nod in total agreement.

The remastering is nice, but a few bonus tracks -- especially if there were something in the vaults with a heavy R&B tilt -- would've increased the "must-own factor." August 10, 2008

Somewhat Darker and Daring

The 70s were underway and while everyone was going disco around them - Hall and Oates resolutely marched onwards to their own beat. This is actually a brave album balancing commercial pop with a rawer sound. Experimentation wasn't dead yet. Why I like this album is the mix of edge and soul behind the songs. "Don't Change"; "Why Do Lovers.."; "You Must Be Good For Something" and "The Emptiness" are just some of the most compelling tracks Hall and Oates have recorded. Hall had at this point, enough talent to write any pop ditty he wanted, but caught between the bubblegum pop and rockers of their time - Hall and Oates fit somewhere in between.

It sounds like the duo needed to get some stuff out of their system. I like the abandon of "You Must Be Good for Something" and the soul searching of "Bigger than Both of Us." Not everything on this is imminently listenable, but the tracks that are, definitely stand out.

This may be one of the duo's forgotten albums (unfortunately), but has some of their most memorable tracks. Worth searching out if you need a H & O fix... December 12, 2006

About This Hard To Find Album

I must admit, when I first heard Beauty on a Backstreet, my first reaction was: "No wonder it's out of print." The Girl Who Use To Be and The Emptiness seem lackluster for what I had come to expect out of John Oates. Love Hurts and especially Bad Habbits almost sound silly. So I wasn't surprised when I read this is the one album the Duo wasn't happy with. That said, here are the albums strong points. This is the most underrepresented album you'll find on any greatest hits album, no matter how complete. And, there are at least four good songs, you are unlikely to find anywhere else. The opening song Don't Change is excellent despite it's harder edge feel for the time. Why Do Lovers [which was released as a single that never charted] is also excellent and comes closest to their roots despite the first time hearing thinking, "isn't that the bass piano part in Chopsticks?" Bigger Than Both of Us, a more subtle relationship song, is the title of their previous album. My guess is it was left off the album of the same title. Despite how many reviewers have criticized Winged Bull, it is my favorite track of the album. September 24, 2006

An OK album

I'm sorry to say that this album spawned no Top 40 hits. That's why none of these tracks appeared on 2004's ULTIMATE DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES. What's hard to believe is there's a track entitled BIGGER THAN THE BOTH OF US and that was the title of the album preceding this one. That was probably an outtake. Like H&O's 1972 debut WHOLE OATS,this album had a very low sales record. But it's an OK album. May 4, 2005

It's Only rock and roll, and I like it

"Beauty On A Back Street" found Darryl Hall and John Oates veering way far away from the blue eyed soul that gave them their first handful of hits, and it took everyone by surprise. Radio stations shunned it upon release in 1977, and it became one of the very few H&O albums to not produce a Top 40 single. Not like there weren't any contenders here. "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts" and "Love Hurts/Love Heals" had hooks for days. It also contains one of John Oates' best (and saddest) ballads, "The Girl Who Used To Be." But the focus seemed to be on the fact that a couple of the songs on "Beauty" sounded more like the Rolling Stones or Led Zepplin than what was expected from Hall and Oates!

In particular, the lyrically mythic "Winged Bull" was a direct rip from "Kashmir," right down to the quirky strings and time signature. "You Must Be Good For Something" was Mick Jagger misogynist, and the six minute rocking opus "Bad Habits and Infections" was the hardest song the duo had recorded since the Todd Rundgren experiment (and inexplicably out of print) "War Babies." This wasn't your big sister's blue eyed soul pin-up record, and sales slumped accordingly. As for me, it remains one of my three favorite H&O CDs, and I snatched it up when it was reissued in 1996. If you wonder where that "Rock and Soul" tagline that got applied to Hall and Oates' career came from, this is an overlooked album to check out. August 4, 2004

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