Friday, September 10, 2010

Hall Had A Hold On Smokey

Photo Courtesy LFDH.com.
If you are a current H&O fan you are familiar with Live From Daryl's House...and you also know that Smokey Robinson was a guest on LFDH a few months back.   Smokey Robinson and The Miracles  brought us such tracks as "Tracks of My Tears", "Ooo Baby Baby" and "Tears of a Clown". 

The LFDH appearance isn't the first time Daryl has chosen to feature Smokey's music in a show, however.  Hall & Oates fans will recognize a number of Smokey & The Miracles songs from H&O shows in the late 70's and early 80's!  Daryl and John used a couple tracks as segues into their own newly crafted songs and a funky band medley.

One of my favorite examples of this uber-cool tactic is the use of "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" to build up into "Ennui On The Mountain".  The arrangement works so well with these two songs you'd think they were from the same album!  Take a listen:







Daryl and John continued to pay homage to Smokey through the 80's as well!  If you were lucky enough to rock out at a show in 1982 you would have been treated to "Going To A Go-Go" as a lead in to an oldies medley.  That medley included Daryl on lead vocals for "Going To A Go-Go", T-Bone Wolk on bass and lead vocals for "I Like It Like That", G.E. Smith's lead guitar on an instrumental version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", Mickey Curry's fierce drum solo on "Wipe Out" and last but not least, John Oates lead vocals on "Funky Broadway". 







For good measure I thought that I would add Daryl and Smokey singing "Sara Smile" and "Ooh Baby Baby".  I think Daryl's respect and admiration for Smokey are quite evident here.  This really puts the influence that Smokey had on Daryl's music into perspective.