Do What You Want, Be What You Are:The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I would say this set is almost a definitive career overview of H&O's 40-years plus in music. It covers every era, has most of the hits, choice rarities, fan faves, H&O faves, live tracks from over the years, and great commentary by H&O themselves, their producers and peers in music, old and new, from Smokey and David Foster, Rick Neilsen from Cheap Trick & Todd Rundgren, to Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie and Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. The notes are well-written and the remastering is top notch, with release and label details.
The fact that not every chart single is here doesn't matter...for that, buy "The Essential 3.0"...sometimes, the liver versions are better. BUT certain albums and eras are not represented at all...no mention or tracks from Daryl's pre H&O group Gulliver, but there are Temptones and Masters rare singles...and nothing from "Beauty On A Back Street" or "Marigold Sky" or "Livetime" (no pics of those albums in the booklet either), no rare 12" versions or certain soundtrack cuts or Daryl's solo work...although Dave Stewart commented on his fun with Daryl producing that album. I am happy that a fave track "Head Above Water" from "Private Eyes" got its due tho.
All in all, well-done, but if you were to include everything, even with a DVD, it had to be 5 or 6 CDs, but for 4 full discs and the price, you can't beat the value and quality...well-manufactured too. Thumbs up from me, a longtime fan for 30+ years.

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They are the most successful pop music duo of all time. Daryl Hall and John Oates have long since surpassed Simon and Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers in the annals of pop pairings, having scored no less than 22 Billboard Top 20 singles, including six number ones, six platinum albums (sales of more than one million copies) plus another six gold LPs (sales of more than 500,000 units). Spanning the years 1966-2009, DO WHAT YOU WANT, BE WHAT YOU ARE: THE MUSIC OF DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES, the definitive Hall & Oates anthology, collects 74 sublime tracks, culled from seven different labels on its four discs. The set showcases 16 previously unreleased cuts including a host of wonderful live performances, as well as never before heard studio tracks and remixes. This set is enhanced with an eloquent introductory essay penned by pop critic Roy Trakin, plus invaluable track-by-track annotation and commentary regarding each track by Daryl Hall and John Oates, drawn from extensive interviews by Ken Sharp.

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