Track #28 - “Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates (1982)

From the album H2O

Music and lyrics by Daryl Hall, John Oates and Sara Allen   

Performed by:

Daryl Hall – lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizer

John Oates – lead guitar, backing vocals

G.E. Smith – rhythm guitar, backing vocals

Tom Wolk – bass

Mickey Curry – drums

Charles DeChant - saxophone

US Billboard Hot 100 - #1; US Adult Contemporary - #14

US Billboard Mainstream Rock - #18; US Billboard Hot R&B - #78

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 - #7

She’ll only come out at night

The lean and hungry type

Nothing is new, I’ve seen her here before

Watching and waiting

Ooh, she’s sitting with you but here eyes are on the door

So many have paid to see

What you think you’re getting for free

The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar

Money’s the matter

If you’re in it for love

You ain’t gonna get too far

In the fall of 1982, probably sometime in late September or early October, I was making my way through the crowded halls of Seneca Junior High School to get to my next class. I was probably wearing husky-sized Levi’s with the bottoms cuffed, a ¾ sleeved t-shirt with a grey zip hooded sweatshirt over it, and my white Nike Bruins, the coolest wardrobe item I owned. I was in seventh grade. We were almost two months into the new school year but transitioning from elementary school to the mayhem of changing classrooms, hall lockers and ten times the number of students was proving challenging for this twelve-year old, and I looked at each day as a trial I just wanted to survive. Aside from not being in one classroom all day and having a different teacher for every subject, there were also the usual adjustments to being a preteen: worrying about one’s hair, clothes and sneakers being the major ones, and figuring out how to fit in and be cool strongly tied to the above. And that stupid hall locker; after almost two months I still could not figure out how to make it back to my locker to stow books and grab new ones for my next class in between each period without being late. I mentioned the crowded halls, but I can’t really begin to accurately describe what they were like; I’m talking crowded, like Rockefeller Center at Christmastime crowded. This is what truly made it impossible to get to my locker in between every period to make book exchanges or even take my jacket off and hang it in there if I wanted. I can recall looking at the school map in the evenings and trying to figure out the best routes to each class, and how I could manage to pass my locker. Hmmm, if I use this hallway instead of passing the gym where it’s usually crowded, I can grab my science book, and drop off my Math and English book, and then I can grab my lunch maybe if I walk really fast… But even careful planning didn’t move all those students any faster between classes, who by the way, were all trying to accomplish the same feat as me. They just seemed like they were having greater success, laughing, talking, carrying one textbook and looseleaf binder at a time, without a care in the world, while I was a sweaty, anxious mess lugging around all my worldly school possessions. I should mention here quickly that when we and the other junior high school in our district all moved on to the high school after eighth grade, passing time between classes increased from five minutes to SIX minutes because of the size of the school and all the students; SIX minutes! That’s like a song and a-half! Anyway, back to 1982…. So, planning, strategizing, and running my way around this new, intimidating place didn’t seem to be helping. I started to think, “I’m basically still a kid….what kid lives like this?!? Was this my childhood? Worrying about lockers and books?!?” I was probably having these thoughts as I hurried to get to class on this particular day; I remember I was carrying several books as I raced down the hallway. This was eighth period, my last class of the day, so I had to make sure I had everything I needed to go home with; there was no way I could make it to my locker and make the bus home. You might be asking at this point why I’m not using a knapsack to carry all my stuff, thus making all this easier. Well, back then knapsacks had not yet caught on as a school necessity, and in my mind, I was convinced it was considered baby-ish and decidedly uncool to use a knapsack to hold your books. All the cool kids just walked around with their books and supplies, and the less you held, the better. So, I had my stuff under my arm, and I kept making adjustments with my opposite hand so I wouldn’t drop them all over the hallway. That, seriously, would be the last thing I needed. I had one more hallway and turn to navigate, then I’d be at the classroom. As I was reaching across to make one last move to fight gravity, the worst possible thing that could happen in that situation happened. Someone, probably an 8th grader, saw an opportunity to make an uncool and clearly anxious 7th grader look like a fool in a crowded hallway and took a swipe at the unwieldy bundle under my arm. I didn’t feel it, so much as heard the whap! as the kid’s hand connected with my unsteady pile. My textbooks, Trapper Keeper, and notebooks spilled everywhere, but before I actually realized what had happened, there were peals of laughter echoing in the hallway. I looked around, noticed all my stuff on the floor, and realized the laughter was directed at me. I could feel my face turning red and getting hot and I willed myself not to start crying right there on the floor as I dropped to my hands and knees, and started picking everything up, now knowing I would be late to my next class. I managed to get everything off the floor and hustled down the hallway. I ducked into the classroom probably ten seconds after the bell rang, but the teacher still made it a point to call me out for being late. And what could I do? I was late because I still couldn’t figure out this junior high thing. I just wanted to be back in my one classroom for the school day, have all the same friends and not make any new ones, and not have a stupid hall locker. This all sucked, and I hated every minute of it. I was humiliated, and wished I didn’t have to come back the next day. I needed something familiar to make me feel like myself again, and to take me back to 6th grade when I had more confidence, before all this change made me feel like an adolescent mess. (Oh, and in case you’re wondering, this is a Trapper Keeper…man, I loved that thing.)

Daryl Hall and John Oates met when they were students at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1967 and began performing together in various bands until 1968. At that time, they went their separate ways; Oates, a guitarist and vocalist, transferred schools, and Hall, a vocalist and keyboard player, formed a soft rock group and they recorded one album. In 1969, Oates returned to Philadelphia, and he and Hall began writing songs and performing together once again. Now managed by legendary producer Tommy Mottola, they recorded several unsuccessful albums, managing one hit single, “She’s Gone”, in 1974. The duo moved from Atlantic Records to RCA in 1975, and began to hone the soul, pop, and rock sound they would become known for in the late 1970s and 1980s. “Sara Smile”, released during this time, became their first Top 10 single, and they re-released “She’s Gone” which also went straight into the Top 10. In early 1977, they finally scored their first #1 single, the classic rock radio staple, “Rich Girl”. Despite the massive success of these songs, Hall & Oates still had not managed to find a consistent audience or have a breakthrough album, so they decided to hire their own band to back them in the studio as well as on the road, and to produce their own records. They also began to collaborate with Hall’s girlfriend Sara Allen, and her sister Janna as songwriting partners; they would be partly responsible for several of Hall and Oates’ most successful singles. Now permanent residents of New York City, the duo made the decision to record their next album at famed Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. The result was Voices, released in July of 1980. Hall & Oates would finally capture the soul and pop sound they had sought on earlier albums, and Voices was the breakthrough they needed. In addition to a faithful cover of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, and Hall’s tremendous vocal performance on “Every Time You Go Away”, Voices contained the Top 5 hit “You Make My Dreams Come True”, and “Kiss on My List”, which remained at #1 for three weeks in the spring of 1981. To capitalize on the success of Voices, the duo quickly released Private Eyes in September of 1981, and the album would go on to sell over 1 million copies. The title track, “Private Eyes”, and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” were both consecutive #1 hits, with the latter topping the R&B and dance charts, one of the few songs by a white act to accomplish that feat. It remains one of the most sampled tracks in the history of hip-hop and rap. Private Eyes would later be considered one of the most influential pop albums of the 1980s and represent Hall & Oates’ creative peak. This is also around the time they became MTV favorites, their quirky performance videos played every hour. However, their follow-up album in the fall of 1982 would prove to be their most successful commercial release, and one track in particular would provide a musical outlet that a certain twelve-year-old so desperately needed.

The thing I realized early on about Daryl Hall and John Oates was that they were radio mainstays long before I ever picked up one of their cassettes. I can’t overstate how popular and how much their first three big hits were played on the radio, before they had the mainstream success that most people associate them with; “Sara Smile”, “She’s Gone” and “Rich Girl” are all 70s classics and are still played heavily on adult contemporary and classic rock stations on both SiriusXM and terrestrial radio. They even turn up on “yacht rock” themed stations, although I’m not sure Hall & Oates belong with all that “smooooooth rock” being played on those stations. I was well aware of those songs in the 1970s, hearing them in the background in our Brooklyn apartment or in the car while driving with my parents. But it wasn’t until I heard “Kiss on My List” in the spring of 1981 that the music of Hall & Oates began to make an impact on me. In fact, it was hard not to hear “Kiss on My List” that spring. The most popular radio station back then in Suffolk County was WBLI 106.1, based in Patchogue, and my mom and everyone else had it tuned in all the time. It was where I first heard 80s classics like “Jessie’s Girl”, “Bette Davis Eyes”, “Physical”, and it was also where I first heard the solo music of Beatle John Lennon (more on this down the road). WBLI had “Kiss on My List” on constant rotation, so I heard it a lot, and it grew on me quickly. The bouncy piano and Daryl Hall’s fawning lyrics were hard not to tap your foot to, and it made me want to go out and buy the 45 single. Then I picked up a K-Tel compilation that summer, High Voltage, that contained “Kiss on My List”, as well as songs by Styx, The Police and Loverboy, all bands that would play a huge part in my final year in elementary school. By the end of the summer, I decided I wanted Voices, so while I was doing back to school shopping with my mom at Modell’s, I wandered over to the cassettes and used some of my birthday money to buy it. It was the first entire album by one artist that I listened to in its entirety in quite some time. I had not done this since The Game by Queen; my collection, if you could even call it that, was all compilations and 45s. There were the songs I recognized from the radio on Voices, but I loved the whole album; I was too young at the time to know that “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” was a cover, but I think that made the track all the more magical back then. I entered sixth grade in the fall of 1981, and when Hall & Oates released Private Eyes in September, I bought a vinyl copy. The video for the title track was the epitome of early 80s videos; Hall and Oates and their band dressed in fedoras and “private eye” garb, playing the song in shadow, and accenting the “clap clap” after the chorus was brilliant in its simplicity, and helped push the single to #1. That school year, sixth grade, was a coming-of-age of sorts for me in terms of music, and I continued to add albums to my growing collection: Freeze-Frame by the J Geils Band, Get Lucky by Loverboy, Paradise Theatre by Styx and the monster album Escape by Journey. By the end of that school year, I also had Shake It Up by the Cars, and because I literally saw their videos every day, I could not help but buy Ghost in the Machine by The Police. This would begin a lifelong obsession with the trio from the UK, one of the few bands whose catalog I can listen to from beginning to end and not skip a song. Then that summer, there was the graduation party and Def Leppard, (more on that here), and then in the fall, there was AC/DC and Judas Priest, and before 1982 was over, I would become acquainted with a Canadian power trio that would change me forever. But in between, I still had to conquer 7th grade, and recover from the hallway humiliation I had suffered, and the familiar sounds of Hall & Oates needed to make one more appearance.

 Hall & Oates released the follow up to Private Eyes, titled H2O, in October of 1982. I had heard they were putting out a new record, so I was eager to hear the new songs. Plus, I needed something to look forward to; I hated going to school, and the local hockey league I played in didn’t seem to be holding my interest from week to week. MTV premiered the video for their new single, “Maneater”, around the time of the album’s release. If there was a “world premiere” event, I must have missed it, but soon enough I did catch the video, and it was the first time I heard the song. As 80s videos go, it’s fairly typical for the subject matter; dim, moody shots of the band lip-syncing, and a woman in a low-cut dress that morphs into a jaguar, hence the “Maneater.” Years later, John Oates would clarify that it’s not actually about a woman, but rather about New York City in the 1980s, and how gritty it was back then; “it’s about greed, avarice, and spoiled riches,” he said. The song had a great bassline intro, and just bounced along this catchy R&B groove, and right in the middle, there was this amazing saxophone solo; it totally captured the mood of the whole song. I loved it; it was perfect, and I knew I would probably run right out and get the album as soon as I could get a ride to the mall. But best of all, the song was quiet. It was the total opposite of my hectic school days, filled with so much uncertainty, chaos, and anxiety. “Maneater” had, and still has, an amazing, understated brilliance about it. Of course, at twelve years old I didn’t see this, but I hear a certain sexiness in that song when I hear it now. It might be about New York City, and even invoke images of dark alleys and shadowy strangers, but one can’t help but think about the beautiful woman in the corner that Daryl Hall is singing about. So, of course I bought the album, and played it over and over, and sometimes re-started it just to listen to “Maneater” again. During that fall of 1982, “Maneater” was an important song for me, grounding me when I needed it, and the familiar voices and grooves of Hall & Oates providing the outlet to make me feel like myself again. Things eventually got better. I figured out how to navigate those junior high school hallways and how to use my hall locker, and pretty soon I wasn’t carrying all my possessions around school. And I never had my books knocked to the floor again. I did catch a little grief from a couple of 8th graders over a Donkey Kong t-shirt I liked to wear, but I paid no attention; I loved Donkey Kong, and I was not about to stop wearing that t-shirt. By the spring of 1983, as 7th grade was winding down, my taste in music had changed in a profound way, and I listened to Hall & Oates less and less, and it would be many decades before they found a place in my musical heart again.

Here is the video for “Maneater”; and in case I didn’t mention this before, Daryl Hall & John Oates are NOT “yacht rock” despite how “smooth” they sound….enjoy! 😊

 Thank you again for reading! Sign up for email updates to get weekly posts delivered to your inbox and if you’re enjoying the posts, please feel free to share the link with your friends!

Next time…a cover song, and the one of the final performances of the most influential band of my generation.

P.S.

Daryl Hall and John Oates officially became the most successful duo in music history in 1984, when they surpassed the Everly Brothers with 19 gold and platinum records. After H2O, they continued to have success into the mid-1980s, including “Say It Isn’t So” (#2, kept from the #1 spot by Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney’s “Say Say Say”) from Rock ‘n’ Soul Part 1, “Adult Education” (#8) from the same album, and their sixth #1 single, “Out of Touch”, from the album Big Bam Boom in 1984. In 1985, they recorded Live at the Apollo with Temptations singers David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, and then collaborated on the USA for Africa project, with Daryl Hall singing lead on one of the verses. The duo also performed at Live Aid in Philadelphia in the summer of 1985. Since the 80s, Hall & Oates have continued to tour together, make new music and release solo albums, as well as collaborate with other artists. In 2003, they were inducted to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and in 2014, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Questlove. “Maneater” remains their most successful single, and my favorite Hall & Oates song. As I mentioned, I did stop buying their records after H2O, but I still turned them up when they were played on the radio and watched their videos. If you’re just getting into their music, their greatest hits collection Rock ‘n’ Soul Part I is a great place to start, but that three album run of Voices, Private Eyes and H2O is about as good as it gets when it comes to 1980s pop, so they are definitely worth checking out. “Maneater” still takes me back to those confusing early days of junior high school; I can almost feel the crisp fall air and smell the leaves on the ground when I hear the familiar bassline intro and it makes me remember the din of those school hallways. It’s a very special song for me. On July 16th, 2016, my wife and I and our friends got to see Hall & Oates live at Xfinity Center in Massachusetts. When they stepped onstage and opened the show with “Maneater”, I couldn’t believe my seventh grade heroes were right there in front of me, after all these years, playing one of my favorite songs. And they sounded amazing, like they hadn’t aged at all. I probably have my wife to thank for re-discovering their music. Christine is a huge Hall & Oates fan, and I think she enjoyed the show more than I did. In fact, I think if Daryl Hall showed up at our door, with his leather jacket and white scarf draped around his neck and said, “Christine, I’ve written a song for you,” she might think about running off for a bit. Maybe… 😊

In 2007, Daryl Hall launched his web series, Live From Daryl’s House, featuring him playing with various artists including Cheap Trick, CeeLo Green, KT Tunstall, and Smokey Robinson. In 2014, he opened Daryl’s House in Pawling, New York, a rock club and restaurant that features live acts and a full bar and dinner menu. The stage was built to resemble Hall’s home in Millerton, where he filmed the web series. We’ve been there several times and I highly recommend checking it out. Here’s the website where you can find the scheduled acts.

Guitarist G.E. Smith and bassist Tom Wolk from Hall & Oates’ band would go on to lead the Saturday Night Live band for ten years, from 1985 to 1995. I actually remember vividly seeing them on SNL and remembering them from the Hall & Oates videos. Their performances were parodied on The Simpsons in 1993.

On the subject of “yacht rock”, which I’ve mentioned a few times….To be fair, the SiriusXM Yacht Rock station is on a lot in our house and car; my wife loves it, and truthfully so do I. It’s very easy to listen to, so it plays as advertised. However, bands like Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac get lumped into that genre because a lot of their music was released in the 1970s and early 1980s, and is on the mellow side, right in the yacht rock bullseye. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but that’s just an opinion. Once again, I defer to my podcast hero Chris Molanphy here, who did an amazing episode of Hit Parade all about yacht rock, and the origins of the genre and who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s one of his best episodes so, check it out when you can.

Finally, I’m going to leave you with the video for “Private Eyes”; it’s just so tongue-in-cheek and fun. I dare you not to clap along….

See you next time…

JS

9/11/2023