Hall & Oates - Bigger Than Both of Us (Original Recording Remastered)

1976 was a banner year for Philly s finest Hall & Oates, which was the year of their #1 smash Rich Girl and their platinum smash album Bigger Than Both Of Us.

This incredible album also culled two other hit singles with Back Together Again and Do What You Want, Be What You Are, which helped make this one of their most ground breaking albums of their long and successful career.

Amazingly, this smash has been out of print for a quite some time, but never fear...the good folks at Friday Music are now here to the rescue!

Friday Music will re-release Bigger Than Both Of Us as the definitive remaster from this duo, as part of their continuing Hall and Oates Remaster series. Complete with original graphics, lyrics, and a pristine remaster by Joe Reagoso (Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, America) from the original RCA source tapes.

Wait until you hear the new definition in the voices and the solid contrast in instrumentation that makes this new remaster the definitive version of this platinum-plus album from 1976.

This compact disc will be available in late September, and it will sell quickly, so reserve your copy today! Product Description

Rediscover a masterpiece

This was the first Hall and Oates Album I ever owned and it has remained one of my favorite all time listening pleasures. From the sharp cool album cover to the clean and crisp production by Christopher Bond, "Bigger than Both of Us" established the duo as a pop/soul/rock hybrid of the highest quality. The album still sounds fresh even to this day. From the innovative string and guitar arrangement of "Back together Again" through the smoldering soul of "Do what you wanna Be what you are" and climaxing in the cascading electronica of "Falling", Daryl and John set the bar so high on this record that they had a hard time eclipsing this record even though subsequent albums all had their high points. From beginning to end this is a masterpiece. That is why, in lieu of finding the album intact I had to order a compilation that had this entire album mixed up in it (Rich Girl a UK import). Thankfully the good folks at Friday music have done the musical universe a great favor by remastering and rereleasing this and other H & O albums to be enjoyed by maybe a new generation of listeners who recognize that cool and quality can be found in the same package! October 7, 2008

Bigger Than the Both Of Us

(4.5 Stars)

This is criminally out of print..criminal because there's a lot more to be found on here than the pop hit "Rich Girl".

Oates pens two of H&O's prettiest hooks on the ELO-ish "Back Together Again", as well as "Crazy Eyes". He also turns in another fantastic song with the mysterious "You'll Never Learn". Oates was definetely on his A-Game here.

And Daryl's tunes are as good as you'd expect from him. The aforementioned "Rich Girl" is a great pop/soul number with an instantly catchy chorus. He's hauntingly beautiful on the minor-key ballad "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" (which may have been a minor hit, I'm not sure), and he even rocks it out on the stomping, guitar-driven "Room To Breathe" (which has some great bluesey riffs).

There's more, though. "Kerry" is a fantastic mid-tempo pop/rocker; brooding, but really catchy at the same time. He also works some mandolin into the uptempo "London Luck and Love", which has some cool droning guitar effects throughout..

And "Falling" alone justifies paying $20 for an out of print CD. It starts off quiet (electric piano + voice), and dynamically reaches a memorable guitar solo at the end. They diddle around with a synthesizer for the lengthy outro (which probably sounded super futuristic and spacey at the time, though a bit dated now). But the actual song is phenomenal, with chord changes and lush production that would make their buddy Todd Rundgren smile with glee..

(As a somewhat useless factoid, there's a title track to this album..only it's one of those "Houses of the Holy" situations where the band finished the album before the song, so you have to buy their next album, "Beauty on a Back Street" to find it)

Not sure why this hasn't been remastered. It's one of my favorite Hall & Oates albums, and there's really no filler to be found. June 22, 2006

The Second Masterpiece from Hall & Oates in the 70s

When Daryl Hall and John Oates did Bigger Than Both of Us, they once more fashoned a true Masterpice, and although Abandoned Lunchonette was a failure, that album was a very poorly overlooked Masterpiece, with this one being accepted and successful.
Rich Girl is a song that not only was the Duo's first mass Hit, but it was also a song that showed how Daryl was such a great songwriter, to create something at the spir of a moment. He wrote the song as a protest to the attitude of a former Boyfriend of Daryl's dear Girlfriend and co songwriter with John Oates, who was Miss Sara Allen; of which this guy was a spoiled brat who demanded that everything be his way, so Daryl did a song about his attitude, but instaid of saying " Rich Guy, Now Your Going to Far" and then " Its a Bitch" and Bitch Guy, he said Girl in all those phraises.
Back Together Again was both Daryl and John's look at the reunion of Frankie Vale and the 4 Seasons, of whom they admired alongside the Idols of MOTOWN. Do What You Want, Be What You Are is an amazing ballad of deep feeling, as well as it being a song of acception for various feelings at the time of sorts. The song was defenitly accepted by many Gays in America and Britain as well as Continental Europe, for so many points in the song reflect on one accepting one's self, as well as others accepting that person's image.
Crazy Eyes is a Love song that begins with a beautiful Guitar intro in acoustic form, while You'll Never Learn is another love ballad but different as it has no acustic Guitar in the full force that Crazy Eyes has; in which John Oates sang those two songs.
London-Luck and Love is a song that is dedicated to London as a city, where I believe that it was influenced by some Tour that they must have had previously, which included a few British Gigs.
All that is this album I enjoy, and the album cover is amazing as it has the two guys in a futuristic Jetsons like Apartment. John is using a Home Computer as Daryl is writing down his lyrics, while John also has his Fender Strat, in which one must remember that this album was made in 1976, and Private Home Computers were only being developed at the time, and there was no such thing as Apple or Dell and Microsoft at the time. It is also to mention that the Apartments outside of the window are Amps and the balconies and gardens are Amp dials, when the Amp sound Gadges are the windows.
I recomend this one 100 per cent
March 18, 2006

4 and 1/2 stars actually but still a great follow-up!

This, their 2nd RCA album and the follow up to the "Silver" album, has many things going for it. First of all, the breakthrough mainstream hit "Rich Girl" which you can still find among many best of the 70's compilation albums that are out there and secondly, the main personnel that were involved with their previous effort were still involved here. The great Chris Bond guitar work and the good jazz-drumming that made the "Silver" album such a classic is still present here albeit not as well done here but still noteworthy.

The not so good points though is that here is where we start discovering the H&O bad habit of intermingling great tracks with the odd, weak clanger tracks. Where there were no weak tracks on the "Silver" album where every track is a soul classic, "Room to Breathe" should really have been left out as it really stinks up the place. Otherwise, the other tracks are real gems especially the great "Do What You Want, Be What You Are", "Back Together Again", "Kerry" and "You'll Never Learn".

This version has been brilliantly remastered and the mini-lp sleeve is a work of art which also includes all the lyrics in English and Japanese. Highly recommended for all H&O lovers out there and this is THE version of the album to get. November 12, 2005

Cool album!

This album spawned three Top 40 hits. BACK TOGETHER AGAIN sounds great. DO WHAT YOU WANT,BE WHAT YOU ARE is another great-sounding "blue-eyed soul" track. RICH GIRL was the only #1 hit. The other songs are great. May 4, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...