Hall & Oates

The duo's second album from 1973 is a blue-eyed soul delight with fragments of genius. The LP fuses together laid-back folk, analog synths and Philly-style soul harmonies. The big hit here is "She's Gone," but check out the knockout opening track, "When The Morning Comes," as well as "Had I Known You Better Then."

Daryl Hall and John Oates, two young white Philadelphians, have recycled the essence of
that city's good R&B music while retaining a white sound. Their arrangement of "When the
Morning Comes" has turned this basically three-chord song into AM chart material. The
rhythm guitar pervades the chords of all the verses, playing in a constant open-G tuning
(instead of letting the acoustic guitar dominate the track, as so many soft-rock gr... More >