ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 189 HALL & OATES - PRIVATE EYES (1981)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Hall & Oates

Genre: Rock/Pop/Soul

Country Of Origin: United States

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: Yes (2014 Inductee)

Album: Private Eyes

Producer: Daryl Hall/John Oates/Neil Kernon/Alex Harrison

RJ's Top 5 Tunes: 1. Your Imagination...2. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)...3. Private Eyes...4. Unguarded Minute...5. Tell Me What You Want

Disclaimer:  All "facts" come from wikipedia.com unless otherwise noted.

Disclaimer #2:  I'm on an 80's kick for the next 10 weeks.  I'm covering an 80's album from each year of the 80's decade, though not in chronological order.  Some of these may be well known to me, some may not be.  But they were all pretty big sellers that left a mark. Out of these ten, I actually had to purchase two of them to feature them here.  I think Scott and Jon are along for the 80's ride as well, maybe.

We continue our march through the 80's with yet another pop offering.  You see, in 1981, pop music was cool.  I listened to it all the time.  Much of what we consider Classic Rock today was pop music in the late 70's and early 80's.  Maybe this era of Hall & Oates is more likely to be considered Classic Pop than Classic Rock.  But it's all the same to me.  With that being said, I give you Private Eyes by Hall & Oates.

I didn't own this back in the day.  I only knew their hits that were played on the radio.  And while some of this, I'm sure, would be considered filler, it's still an entertaining album.  These guys were masters of Soul/Pop.  They did it better than any other artist.  So if you've never given it a complete listen, do so now.  It's worth your time.  

• Private Eyes is certified Platinum by the RIAA.
• The album reached number 5 on the Billboard chart.
• Four singles were released from the album.  Two of those, Private Eyes and I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) hit number one.  Did It In A Minute reached number 9 and Your Imagination broke the Top 40 at number 33.
• In an unusual feat for a "white" artist, I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) was number one on the Pop, R&B and Dance charts.  It is one of the most heavily sampled songs in the history of Hip Hop (I'm not judging that as good or bad, just reporting the tidbits).  

And I almost forgot to say, I like the way they made the album a "side A" and a "side one".  My guess is that they were trying to say the flip side of the album is just as important as the front side.

Side A:

1. Private Eyes

2. Looking For A Good Sign

3. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)

4. Mano A Mano

5. Did It In A Minute

Side One:

6. Head Above Water

7. Tell Me What You Want

8. Friday Let Me Down

9. Unguarded Minute

10. Your Imagination

11. Some Men

[Jon]

Umm...is this the 23rd year anniversary?

[RJhog (Admin)]

The first is not until Sat.  I'll do an anniversary post on the "first Friday" of each month.  Maybe I should change it to "first Thursday"...

[Jon]

I used to be the first weekend of the new month, but whatever.

[RJhog (Admin)]

I guess we be on different pages.  I take it you have an anniversary album ready, so do that one,  I'll do it next week, we'll be off by a week and then I'll make sure from now on on these month splitting weekends.

[Scott]

I think I pulled the remastered edition of this out of the Best Buy $5 bin... Talk about a bargain!!!

[Jon]

This starts on track 6, which is no big deal since it's the first song on Side One!

Back in '81, there was no way I was buying a Hall & Oates album because they were Hall & Oates. The next year, I did buy H2O even though my listening pleasure was mostly metal then. Something about "Family Man" off that album really sucked me in.

Anyway, I didn't buy this album until March 2009 in a set that included "Voices" and "H2O", even though I already had the latter album. Cheaper buying the set than getting each album separately, the price for the set was $17.97 (I'm looking at the receipt so this is FACT!)

What's great about this album is that there's more than the hits, I personally don't think there's a dud song on the whole album. Even ths hits are pretty good, though I wouldn't have felt that way bafck in '81. Plenty of geetar too. Really like this album, haven't heard it since '09 and it's still quite a nice listen. 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Podsnack is getting on my nerves.  It changes the order every time, and I have to correct it.  Which I did this time, but undoubtedly it's still wrong.  Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.

And I agree about Family Man, that's a great song, one of my faves.

[Scott]

Yup, this is a good one.  I've always liked this band.  they're always trying something different and their catalog is really strong.

Much like Jon, I liked the bands lesser known work in the 70's (up to X-Static, Wait For Me is one of my favorites from these guys) and when they started hitting the charts big I didn't come along for the ride.  Until H2O then I had to pay attention again, that album was cool!  And Big Bam Boom, probably their most commercial, was not bad either!

For this one, all the hits songs still play well and nothing really falls off, its a great listen ...

For what its worth...  Marigold Sky is a more recent release and it gets air play around my house often.

Nice post boss!!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Thank you sir.  I think Wait For Me is a great song too, one of my favorites.

[Gordon Williams]

I'm very glad to have the CRB archives to go through and listen too, since its getting murky here at Classic POP Bottom... 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Just put on your goggles and wade through the pop bro.