Hall and Oates

One thing here I do talk about is about music and what is termed "Blue-eyed soul", soul as performed by 'white' people is something I've always liked as much as I find categorizing music by race of  its artists and performers disagreeable as a blind friend of mine said once "How'd you tell by listening anyway?" and like Jay Kay of funksters Jamiroiquai put it when questioned why he should perform in a black style got pretty angry, I object strongly to being racially stereotyped too.

Getting back to the subject, one of most popular and  best artists in this genre for much of the 70's and 80's were Hall and Oates who originate from Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania  and like much of my music collection what were my  lp records and tapes by them became shiny new compact discs.

As I'm getting back to playing more vinyl for enjoyment, I was looking for a good compilation covering those essential singles as Sara Smile, Private Eyes, I Can't Go For That and Out Of Touch and a few minor hits.

One obvious starting point was 1983's Rock 'n' Soul Part 1 but that's short at 47 odd minutes and features a live recording of Wait For Me rather than the single.
This set coming on originally on cd seemed to fit the bill and as issued on double lp by RCA Legacy this year was available new quite cheaply so I bought that.

 This covers everything including the Say It Isn't So and Adult Education  45's from Rock 'n' Soul part 1 and three 45's from 1984's Big Bam Boom album.
This new European pressed lp sounds really good and is very quiet.

 For licensing reasons that compilation album has nothing from their short early 70's period on Atlantic records not least the hit 45 She's Gone so to fill the gap I picked up used the original UK lp version of 1974's Abandoned Luncheonette album that mixes more country influences with then then prevalent PhillySoul as in She's Gone which sold well on reissue in 1976

l did get on super audio cd also playable on regular players Rock and Soul Part 1 which does sound much better than the original cd ever did and transferred it to my Fiio music player.