John Oates has revealed the Hall & Oates album he hates more than any other.
During an appearance on the Rockonteurs podcast, the singer reminisced about various parts of his career. While much of the conversation focused on Hall & Oates’ many successes, Oates noted a period in the late ‘70s which was especially difficult.
“What happened was we had these hits,” the rocker noted. “We had ‘Sara Smile,’ then we had ‘Rich Girl’ and then ‘She’s Gone,’ the re-release of ‘She’s Gone,’ which gave us essentially three hits in a row and put us way up there in terms of live shows, bigger venues and things like that.”
READ MORE: When Hall & Oates Notched Their First No. 1 With ‘Rich Girl’
The problem, Oates explained, came with their next album, 1977’s Beauty on a Back Street, an LP on which he wrote or co-wrote six of the nine tracks.
“I hate that record,” Oates confessed. “Of all the records we ever did, to me, that’s my least favorite.”
Why Does John Oates Hate ‘Beauty on a Back Street’?
“It was because of our relationship with Chris Bond, who had produced the [previous] two, the Silver Album (1975’s Daryl Hall & John Oates) and Bigger Than Both of Us,” the singer continued. “He was in our band in Philadelphia. He went to California and established himself as a producer and he had all the good studios, all the good studio musicians. So it was a good move for us to go there.”
While Bond had helped Hall & Oates score their previous trio of hit songs, the working relationship was falling apart by the time they came together for Beauty on a Back Street.
READ MORE: Top 10 Hall & Oates Songs From the ’70s
“He was a flawed individual. He had problems and the drugs and everything really took him down,” Oates recalled. “So during the making of Beauty on a Back Street, I mean, there was one day where he literally collapsed on the control board. And we had to call the EMTs and they rushed him to the hospital.”
The situation with Bond negatively affected the album, and Beauty on a Back Street was unable to continue the momentum of Hall & Oates’ two previous LPs. Even now, Oates admits the experience “colors my whole” memory of the time.
