Hall & Oates Albums Ranked

Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly referred to as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in 1970 in Philadelphia. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two write most of the songs they perform, separately or in collaboration. They achieved their greatest fame from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s with a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues.
Hall and Oates have sold an estimated 40 million records. They are best known for their six No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100: “Rich Girl”, “Kiss on My List”, “Private Eyes”, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”, “Maneater”, and “Out of Touch”, as well as many other songs which charted in the Top 40 including the singles “You Make My Dreams”, “She’s Gone”, “Say It Isn’t So” and “Sara Smile”. In total, they had 34 chart hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, seven RIAA platinum albums, and six RIAA gold albums. Billboard magazine named them the most successful duo of the rock era, surpassing Simon & Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers. They have achieved moderate success in the United Kingdom with two UK top ten albums, spending a total of 117 weeks in the UK top 75 album charts and 84 weeks in the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart. Here are all of Hall & Oats albums ranked.

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10. War Babies (1974)

”War Babies’ may be anything but your typical Hall & Oates fare, but then, after releasing two folk/r & b albums to very moderate success, the duo seemed a little lost for direction and were thus looking for sonic inspiration. Enter notorious production wiz kid Todd Rundgren, who relegates Oates to the background and employs his own live band Utopia. As can be expected, the results sound highly spaced out and psychedelic, like a 70s Rundgren album, with the added bonus of Hall’s lead vocals and some superior tunes. I would rate this even higher if it wasn’t for Runt’s wanky guitar solos, which are littered all over side two. Unsurprisingly this uncategorisable pop folly lost Hall & Oates their recording contract.”

9. Do It for Love (2003)

“While nearly every track is highly listenable, there are a couple I admit I hit the “skip” button on. With 14 tracks overall, this disc is loaded with great material! The best tracks are “Do It For Love”, “Forever For You”, “She Got Me Bad”, “Breath Of Your Life”, and my favorite “Miss DJ”! This is great soft rock/adult contemporary and features some very nice harmonies from Daryl and John. Another album I would highly recommend to any soft rock or Hall & Oates fan, as this album is surely one of the best you will find for this genre!”

8. Along the Red Ledge (1978)

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“Along the Red Ledge flipped the script. As we now know, of course, the 1980s were the era when Hall and Oates really plugged into the zeitgeist, simultaneously reflecting and directing it, and here’s the point where they started to really jack in. Picking up a new producer with David Foster, making a few well-judged guest appearances from friends with a genuinely useful contribution to make to the album (in particular, Robert Fripp contributes both intoxicating guitar and a strangely appropriate Frippertronic introduction to Don’t Blame It On Love), and adding a little new wave dynamism to their sound, the Red Ledge turned out to be their best release since their self-titled “silver album”.”

7. Bigger Than Both of Us (1976)

When I listen to Bigger Than Both of Us, I said to myself “not that pretty bad.” But when I listen to Rich Girl, I was amazed at the performance of the vocals of Daryl. But that wasn’t it, it was the lyrics that brought me to claim it one of my favorites by the duo. Back Together Again proves to me that John Oates shows more feeling after what I said on the previous album. But Bigger Than Both of Us is one of the very feel-good albums of the 1970’s.”

6. Big Bam Boom (1984)

“The good news is that this seems better than the one 70’s album I have from them. The bad news is that this is pretty vacuous. I count three songs that I remember from pop radio, though apparently there were four top 40 hits. Of course I think “Bank On Your Love” is probably the best track, and that wasn’t even a single, so I guess I’ll keep my day job. The thing about this record is that it is almost all production, which serves to disguise the rather thin tunes. You know they know it too. I mean – a nearly 6 minute innuendo-laden syndrums-to-nowhere track called “Going Thru The Motions”? Come on guys.”

5. Daryl Hall and John Oates (Silver Album) (1975)

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“By looking at their cover, I can tell that the album shows their feminine sides. But don’t get me wrong, it is one of the great albums ever made by the duo. Daryl Hall & John Oates (or The Silver Album by fans) plays the songs a little bit slower to the duo’s perspective point of view. Sara Smile is the most representative song on the album, next to Camillia, because it brings Daryl to the feminine side of him and his long-time girlfriend Sara Allen. John got some shots on the album, but John should need some more feeling to it. Nevertheless, The Silver Album is one of the coolest albums I have ever listen to.”

4. H2O (1982)

“Hall & Oates’ H20 is one my favourite albums from the duo’s extensive catalogue (Big Bam Boom is numero uno followed by Abandoned Luncheonette and Voices). There are so many great songs on this album – Maneater, One On One, Family Man – and some very good ones as well (Open All Night, At Tension, Go Solo, Art of Heartbreak). For mine this is a four-star album but I’m giving it 5 stars simply for how good this Mobile Fidelity remaster is. It sounds absolutely sensational. “

3. Voices (1980)

“At the close of the ’70s, Hall & Oates began inching toward a sleek, modern sound, partially inspired by the thriving punk and new wave scene and partially inspired by Daryl Hall’s solo debut, Sacred Songs, a surprising and successful collaboration with art rock legend Robert Fripp. While 1979’s X-Static found the duo sketching out this pop/soul/new wave fusion, it didn’t come into fruition until 1980’s Voices, which was their creative and commercial breakthrough. Essentially, Voices unveils the version of Hall & Oates that made them the most successful duo in pop history, the version that ruled the charts for the first half of the ’80s.”

2. Private Eyes (1981)

“Continuing their comeback from a late 70’s slump/rut, the duo follows up the success of Voices with this smash LP, their highest charting album to date (#5 on the Hot 100). Private Eyes yields two #1’s (the title track and “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”), plus the top ten “Did It In A Minute”. While the title song sounds similar to “Kiss On My List” from the previous album, “I Can’t Go for That” has a unique R&B flavor to it and would become a hallmark track for H2O (get it…”Hall”-mark!). The album (what we used to call it) does have several weak tracks, as most do, but with the full-length version of “Can’t Go For That”, two other bonifide hits, plus the catchy “Your Imagination”, it’s basically a solid album overall.”

1.Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)

‘Talk about a lost classic! “ABANDONED LUNCHEONETTE” was only Hall and Oates’ second recording; and yet they deliver a most satisfying round of R&B-styled pop songs, folk-ish excursions, and audacious set pieces that keeps getting better and better with each passing year. The belated hit single “She’s Gone” has itself gone on to become an oft-recorded soul standard while the lovely title track forms the centerpiece of an album that is musically invigorating and lyrically deft at bringing to life the lingering emotional after-effects of a romantic breakup. Although those two tracks are the backbone of this LP: it is the trio of songs that climax the album (“Lady Rain”, “Laughing Boy”, and “Everytime I Look At You”) that cement its status as a major work of art. “Everytime” in particular defies categorization as it moves from a hard-edged funk groove to a breathtaking vocal coda and then shifts gears into a wild bluegrass/rockabilly jam complete with dueling banjo and fiddle. I’ve never heard anything quite like it.”