Quick quiz: who is my favorite male duo act ever? Whose hair and overall style did I die trying to emulate throughout the entire decade of the eighties? Whose song, Kiss On My List, beat out Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart as my favorite song of all time? Yep, that’s correct. Daryl Hall & John Oates. Their catalog is endless. Their seventies music is timeless and their eighties music is classic nostalgia. There is no disputing that Daryl Hall’s voice is quite possibly one of the most beautiful male voices ever to be recorded, but at the start of their career, it was John Oates whose voice led the hits. Case in point, today’s masterpiece retelling of the Righteous Brothers’ classic, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling. From the first few beats of bass, I am in eyes-closed swooning mode. It might be the first song I ever recorded off the radio (by holding my tape recorder against the radio and pressing record as the song began) so I could play it over and over and over again, as I did/still do. Fourteen year old me wasn’t much different than nearly-53-me in that we both love this song so much and the blending of both their voices still gives me chills. There’s something entirely masculine (I know, weird descriptor to use, but…) about Oates’ voice in contrast to the beautiful high voice of Hall that blends them to perfection in a song that demands to be played loud. So many of their hits still leave me speechless. Maneater. Private Eyes. Say It Isn’t So. Out Of Touch. I could go on and on. But today, let’s play the shit out of this 'Intro to 80’s' instant classic that turned the original on its ear with boss vocals and a modern bass. Thank you, Daryl and John, for everything.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: December 8, 2018. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.
