I love the song and just ordered the CD. This is the second of his solo albums produced by Dave Stewart. Sad to see the lawsuit between Daryl Hall and John Oates, though.
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After listening to the brilliant Goldfinger score I now listening to the Eyes Only score, which is a bit more variable, some pieces are pure muzak, or micky mousey (if you know what I mean), other pieces are for me among the best in the series.
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“Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine” is really one great Daryl Hall album, so I’m looking forward to their new collaboration here, too.
The lawsuit seems to be directed at Oates selling rights which Hall did not want to - and it appears that Hall always has been the creative force of the duo, so I understand his horror.
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Yup, I get that. I just read an interview with John Oates in which he said that he was getting tired of all the legal wrangling with the business. But I wonder if that was a veiled way of saying that he was getting tired of dealing with Hall. However, the fact that Oates did this apparently without Hall’s consent does seem to have crossed a line.
Oates has always struck me as a classy guy. Hall, supremely talented though he is, often comes off like a diva. And, as he gets older, a certain bitterness seems to be creeping in. I watched a Bill Maher Club Random episode in which Hall did not come off in a good way:
Yes, I understand that he was always the primary songwriter with Hall and Oates, and he seems to feel that he got short shrift by being part of a duo. But I think people always recognized that. It’s part of why he was the “star” of the act. But maybe he feels he got shortchanged. Financially? Critically? Both? Dunno. As much as I love Daryl’s solo work, his body of work with John remains my favorite.
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I always saw Oates as “The other guy” of the duo, I never really understood what his contribution was exactly, I always thought it was the Hall show anyway.
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For the first decade of their career, Oates played a strong role within the duo. He was, and is, a songwriter, singer and solid rhythm guitarist. You only have to listen to the shared lead vocals on “She’s Gone” to hear what a great complementary talent he was with Hall.
My favorite album of theirs is 1978’s Along the Red Ledge. That was the last album on which Oates played a visible creative partnership role with Hall. (The exception during that period was 1974’s War Babies, produced by Todd Rundgren, which was almost a Daryl Hall solo album.) After that, Hall really took over as the dominant force in the duo. Which, for people who became familiar with them in their MTV heyday, that’s all they would know. But there was a decade’s worth of work that preceded it.
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You’re right ofcourse, I only know them from the eighties and so on and MTV, not from the seventies.
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Thanks for the link! There seems to have been a major rift between them, and while he acknowledges that they share history together, he also makes it clear that he was responsible for a lot of the music that was released under both their names, just for PR reasons.
Frankly, while there are some songs credited to Oates I enjoy a lot (“Possession Obsession”, “Love in a dangerous time”) I always preferred the Hall songs - and judging from his solo work I definitely consider him to be the genius.
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Yes, the rift is not a new thing. They toured together, but had done nothing creatively together for quite some time.
John Oates has also maintained a solo career, though not as stellar as Daryl Hall’s. Oates has settled in Nashville, and his music reflects that style. My favorite album of his is Good Road to Follow from 2014.
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Bond moment on my morning dog walk:
Walking along Prospect Park West (Prospect Park being Brooklyn’s riposte to Central Park. Both were designed by Olmsted and Vaux, but the duo felt they got it right in Brooklyn), I passed a man sitting on bench, with his transistor radio on.
And what should I hear, but Dame Shirley singing “Diamonds are Forever.” A lovely start to my day and work week.
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And than some red-haired lady walket up to you and ask: “Are you Peter Franks?” 
But…you were on your way to work, so they don’t celebrate the second day of Pentecost in America?
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Naw. Just a regular work day here. In the South, there is the tradition of Easter Monday. My husband (from South Carolina) still misses it.
We get the Fourth of July as a holiday though, which is not one in Europe, so I guess it all works out.
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Cyclone
Currently listening to “Old Souls” - Hans Zimmer from “Inception” 
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Now listen to the new Katy Perry 143 cd.
I always say that I listen only to The Stones, but secretly I love Katy too!
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David Arnold’s soundtrack to Sherlock.
Only just noticed that the track “Addicted to a certain lifestyle” has a bit of “Only Myself To Blame” from the TWINE soundtrack. I knew Arnold put bits of his Bond soundtrack in the Sherlock score because Mark Gatiss asked him to be as close to Bond as possible, but it’s the first time I’ve noticed he puts in huge motifs from his lesser known tracks, almost note for note.
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Just came across this…
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I get the feeling they tried to „happy“ it: faster, some more upbeat chord changes, the strings less melancholic.
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Definitely. It is basically an upbeat song that largely gets its melancholy meaning for those in-the-know. But here Porter is turning it into a full scale feel good hymn (with odd Christmas allusions you’ll only get if you know ON HER MAJESTY’S).
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