Ooh Yeah!

Performer: Hall & Oates
Engineer: Mike Scott
Producer: Hall & Oates; T-Bone Wolk
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Hall & Oates: Darryl Hall (vocals, guitar, keyboards, vibraphone); John Oates (vocals, guitar, synthesizers, programming). Additional personnel includes: Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (various instruments); Pat Buchanan (guitar); Mark Rivera, Lenny Pickett, Danny Wolensky (saxophone); Phillippe Saisse (keyboards); Tony Beard (drums); Sammy Figueroa (percussion); Joanna Allen (background vocals). Hall and Oates' early '80s albums, from VOICES to BIG BAM BOOM, represented a fusion of their soul and R&B roots with the energy of contemporary post-punk New Wave rock. OOH YEAH!, their last studio effort of the decade after a four-year layoff, leaned far more toward the R&B side of the equation, with only the occasional track rocking out, and then usually not for long. For example, the opening "Downtown Life" begins as disco-ish dance/funk before sliding in and out of a big, anthemic rock bridge. Meanwhile "Keep on Pushin' Love" begins with a deadpan Lou Reed rap before climaxing with a big, wave-your-lighter inspirational chorus. Elsewhere, the album sounds like variations on the white-boy funk of David Bowie in his LET'S DANCE period, particularly on "Rockability," which matches scratchy rhythm guitar with a big synthesized bass line.

The pre-eminent white soul duo of the 1970s and '80s, Daryl Hall and John Oates ruled pop radio for years with their hook-ridden hits. The pair eventually moved beyond their initial inspirations--primarily Motown groups like the Temptations and Philly soul artists like Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes--and incorporated pop, rock and disco into a sound that managed to be both commercial and soulful.

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