On April 10th, the Philadelphia duo Hall & Oates added an exalted position in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to their growing list of accolades. The induction has been long awaited by fans of the pair, which has been eligible for nomination since 1997. Their crowning moment finally occurred at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center, featuring a lively induction by Roots drummer Questlove, who mentioned a list of duos more popular than Hall & Oates (“Zero.”), as well as a joint acceptance speech by both members of the band. “We’ve been doing things together for forty years,” said John Oates in reply to his partner’s question of whether they could make the speech together. “Why should we stop now?”
With beginnings in Philadelphia and Oates hailing from North Penn High School, the band undoubtedly has local roots. The pair met in 1967 at a band competition in Philadelphia, where they escaped through the same service elevator when gunfire rang out between rivaling gangs. In the process, they discovered that they both attended Temple University and were interested in the same type of music. Two years later, they finally formed a band together, calling it Hall & Oates after the names painted on the mailbox of one of their shared apartments.
Forty years and millions of sold records later, the duo had churned out a list of hits including titles like “Rich Girl,” “Kiss on my List,” and “Maneater,” earned induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and were named No. 1 on Billboard Magazine’s list of the greatest duos of all time. Their popularity crested in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, as they combined elements of rock and rhythm & blues into a fusion that they called “rock and soul,” earning them respect to this day for their ability to transcend the boundaries of a their genres.
But Hall and Oates have not forgotten their roots along the road to stardom. In their speech on the night of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Oates said, “I owe so much to my parents and my sister Diane, and – Philadelphia, I think I was born at the right time. It was a great time to be in Philadelphia…it was a hotbed of incredible music happening in the ‘60s…it really defined the way I think about music and the way I write songs and the way I play.”
Oates even went so far as to revisit his high school alma mater, Lansdale’s own North Penn High School, in 2008, entertaining students with an acoustic concert and assuring students that he is “living proof that you can go to North Penn High School and go somewhere after that.”
And go somewhere he did: Oates co-wrote seven RIAA platinum albums and six RIAA gold albums, topped Top 40 charts countless times, and toured around the world. Inducted alongside such big musical names as Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, and Kiss, Hall & Oates have undeniably earned their place in the prestigious ranks of the Hall of Fame, all while keeping their origins close to heart.