Beauty on a Back Street

Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall & John Oates | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1977
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002WZN
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,652 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Years of sensational albums and singles, and stellar musicianship are what you can count on with Daryl Hall and John Oates. This award- winning Philly duo has been such a mainstay in popular music for years now, that it s hard to believe that it has been three decades since the vinyl release of their 1977 Top 30 hit album, Beauty On A Back Street. As an amazing follow-up to their previous smash albums - Daryl Hall and John Oates (The Silver Album) and Bigger than Both of Us (Friday Music 1976) Beauty had the reputation of a transitional album with more of a harder edged sonic quality, while maintaining the rock and soul approach, making their trademark sound the much emulated style it is to this day.

1977 was one of the greatest years for rock, soul and popular music. You had breakout albums hitting from almost everyone in those days. Before the theft of music, you would see albums that would normally hit 4 or 5 million units....platinum was part of our culture at the time, and Hall and Oates weren t foreign to the culture either. They had just completed a nice chart run of singles with She s Gone, Sara Smile, Rich Girl, and Do What You Want, Be What You Are.

With the punk rock influence hitting the shores with new albums, as well as bombastic soul efforts, plus arena rock achievements from mega superstar bands., this hit-making duo from Philadelphia knew they had to keep the fans satisfied. So, they reached back to the some of their recognizable star formula and created one of the most enduring and artistically pleasing efforts in their large catalog of albums.

Utilizing the studio wizardry of their past platinum efforts with Christopher Bond, Hall and Oates along with lyricist Sara Allen combined their musical talents and crafted nine new tracks for the sessions at The Sounds Labs from April to May of 1977.

With clever arrangements and natural players like Scotty Edwards and Leland Sklar on bass, the late great Jeff Porcaro on drums and the jazz legend Tom Scott on sax, this album hits its stride with the first hit single Why Do Lovers Break Each Other s Heart? With the correct balance of Philly soul, 50 s doo-wop, and crunchy almost Mick Ronson style guitar riffs, this tune was just the beginning of what was happening in the studio as the album was being caught on tape. A little departure from their previous hit singles, Hall s lead vocal truly captures the lyric with a tonal quality that is reserved only for pros.

As another successful follow-up at radio, Don t Change again relies on some heavier guitar patterns in just the right places, while Daryl belts out another incredible vocal performance. Truly, this was one of the most memorable tunes on this project.

To gravitate towards a more familiar space, their rock n soul trademark sound comes home once more with Bigger Than Both Of Us. The beat of the string arrangement, the horns, the mighty drum sound, the strong vocals.... it just worked out to be another high-point track and album clincher for the duo.

John Oates unleashed some very fine material on this album as well including the soulful Love Hurts (Love Heals) with a memorable sax break from Tom Scott, as well as the l.p. closer The Girl Who Used To Be. With a great story line, chilling guitar work and harmonies, this song is one of his strongest writings ever.

It s difficult to think that this wonderful album has been unavailable for quite some time, until now....Friday Music is proud to re-release this fine album, presented now as a pristine remaster, the first cd in an extensive HALL & OATES REMASTERS SERIES, directly from the original session tapes, with the all of the courtesy, respect & quality that you have come to know and deserve from the Friday Music label. Thoughtfully and painstakingly remastered by the award winning Joe Reagoso (Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, Deep Purple, America) --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back Street Rocks!, June 22, 2001

By 

TomAzon (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beauty on a Back Street (Audio CD)

In 1977, Daryl and John were riding high on the success of the "Bigger Than Both of Us" album and it's #1 single "Rich Girl" and in August of that year put out "Beauty on A Back Street" which has a much more electric presence than its predecessor. Daryl and John both stated that they didn't like the production of this album (an artist is usually his own biggest critic) and they never really were until they started producing themselves in 1980 with "Voices".

There are a lot of signature songs here, plenty that would have been hits. The first release "Don't Change" was released as a remix on 7" vinyl (strings were added at the intro) and others like "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart?", "Love Hurts (Love Heals)" "Bigger Than Both of Us" and "You Must Be Good For Something" all defined the sound that differentiates this album from their two prior RCA releases. This album features Tom Scott on saxaphone.

The only criticism I have is that there's not a lot of upbeat John Oates material. I can give or take "The Girl Who Used To Be" and "The Emptyness".

Another song called "How Could You Survive" was also intended for this album. It was listed on the back of the songbook that goes with this. It later appeared on Daryl Hall's "Sacred Songs" album as "Survive".

Add this and "Along The Red Ledge" to your collection and play them back-to-back. You'll wonder why disco lasted as long as it did.

Update: The "Don't Change" remix is now available on Legacy's "Eco-Friendly" album called "The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates"... but be careful, there are two albums with this same title.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars beauty anywhere, July 29, 2002

By 

Justin R. Juelich "jjuelich" (BALDWIN, WISCONSIN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beauty on a Back Street (Audio CD)

"WHY DO LOVERS BREAK EACH OTHERS HEARTS?" Why-N-L doesn't SOMEBODY put this great song on one of the GREATEST HITS packages? This song was being played on every FM station around, and would of been huge if one of the "boy wonder" producers would of pulled his head out of the labels arse and promoted it,and the album. Of course it didn't help that H&O dismissed it because they weren't crazy about the production, but the album was unlike anything else-it wasn't "chock fulla' hits." Still, it was a nice change for H&O, and, I think there were several songs that could of been hits. Having Tom Scott on board, I thought, was a big plussoposi. All said, this may not be H&O's best release, (that would be "ABANDONED LUNCHEONETTE" in my opinion.), but it's still worth your money and time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Only rock and roll, and I like it, August 4, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beauty on a Back Street (Audio CD)

"Beauty On A Back Street" found Darryl Hall and John Oates veering way far away from the blue eyed soul that gave them their first handful of hits, and it took everyone by surprise. Radio stations shunned it upon release in 1977, and it became one of the very few H&O albums to not produce a Top 40 single. Not like there weren't any contenders here. "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts" and "Love Hurts/Love Heals" had hooks for days. It also contains one of John Oates' best (and saddest) ballads, "The Girl Who Used To Be." But the focus seemed to be on the fact that a couple of the songs on "Beauty" sounded more like the Rolling Stones or Led Zepplin than what was expected from Hall and Oates!

In particular, the lyrically mythic "Winged Bull" was a direct rip from "Kashmir," right down to the quirky strings and time signature. "You Must Be Good For Something" was Mick Jagger misogynist, and the six minute rocking opus "Bad Habits and Infections" was the hardest song the duo had recorded since the Todd Rundgren experiment (and inexplicably out of print) "War Babies." This wasn't your big sister's blue eyed soul pin-up record, and sales slumped accordingly. As for me, it remains one of my three favorite H&O CDs, and I snatched it up when it was reissued in 1996. If you wonder where that "Rock and Soul" tagline that got applied to Hall and Oates' career came from, this is an overlooked album to check out.