There are albums that capture a band finding its sound.
Then there are albums that catch artists actively trying to escape one. 😈🎶
Hall & Oates’ 1976 album Bigger Than Both of Us falls firmly into the second camp.
By the time Daryl Hall and John Oates entered this period of their career, the duo had already started tasting proper commercial success thanks to “Sara Smile”. Plenty of artists would have looked at that breakthrough, rubbed their hands together and said, “Right lads, more of that then.”
Hall & Oates?
Nah, mun.
They got restless. 🔥
Instead of simply cloning what had worked, they pushed deeper into soul, pop, rock, blues and increasingly adventurous songwriting. The result was an album that sounded like two musicians refusing to be shoved into one tidy little box.
And hidden amongst all that musical wandering was a song called “Rich Girl.”
That one did rather well.
🎤 Hall & Oates Were Never Just One Thing
One of the easiest mistakes to make when looking back at Hall & Oates is to remember only the massive glossy hits of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
You know the ones.
“Maneater.”
“You Make My Dreams.”
“Private Eyes.”
“I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).”
Absolute weapons. 🎶🔥
But Hall & Oates’ musical roots were far messier and much more interesting than the polished pop machine people sometimes remember.
Across their early career, the pair bounced between folk, singer-songwriter material, Philadelphia soul, R&B, rock, experimental sounds and straight-up pop.
They weren’t walking into the studio with one rigid blueprint.
They were poking everything with a stick to see what made a noise.
That spirit is all over Bigger Than Both of Us.
💿 The Album Where Everything Was Still Up for Grabs
Released in 1976, Bigger Than Both of Us arrived at an important point in the duo’s career.
Hall & Oates had already scored serious attention with “Sara Smile”, which had become their first major American hit.
Suddenly there was pressure.
Not necessarily from the band themselves, but from the industry.
When you’ve had a breakthrough single, record labels tend to develop a mysterious medical condition known as:
“Can you do exactly that again?”
Hall & Oates clearly weren’t interested.
Instead, Bigger Than Both of Us became a playground.
There are slick moments.
There are soulful moments.
There are tougher rock flavours.
There are songs that stretch themselves far beyond tidy radio-friendly structures.
It feels like a duo still working out exactly where they belonged.
And perhaps more importantly, realising they didn’t actually have to belong anywhere.
🎺 “Back Together Again” Brings the Soul
One of the album’s standout moments is “Back Together Again.”
Written and sung by John Oates, the track leans heavily into the duo’s R&B and soul influences.
There are horns.
There is groove.
There is that unmistakable Philadelphia flavour running through the thing.
It’s the sort of song that reminds you Hall & Oates weren’t just pop writers.
These were musicians steeped in soul music.
That foundation would become crucial later when they started combining R&B rhythms with rock production and increasingly modern pop arrangements.
In many ways, you can already hear pieces of the future being assembled.
They just hadn’t finished reading the instructions yet. 😂
🎸 “Room to Breathe” Turns Up the Guitars
Then you’ve got “Room to Breathe.”
And suddenly things get considerably dirtier.
The track carries a bluesier, tougher rock edge compared with some of the duo’s more polished material.
It is another perfect example of just how unwilling Hall & Oates were to remain in one musical lane.
Soul song?
Yep.
Pop tune?
Yep.
Blues-rock?
Chuck that in as well.
Why not?
There is a restless energy underneath the whole album, almost as though every song is asking:
“What else can we get away with?”
🖤 “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” Says It All
Few titles sum up the Hall & Oates philosophy of this era quite as perfectly as:
“Do What You Want, Be What You Are.”
You could practically stick that on the studio door.
The song is soulful, atmospheric and considerably more introspective than the giant pop singles that would later make Hall & Oates household names.
But its title feels almost like a mission statement.
Don’t chase trends.
Don’t repeat yourself.
Don’t become whatever somebody else thinks Hall & Oates should sound like.
Do what you want.
Be what you are.
Tidy philosophy, that. 🤘
🌌 “Falling” Shows Their Ambitious Side
Then comes “Falling.”
Clocking in at around six minutes, it isn’t exactly built like a conventional smash-hit single.
And that’s precisely why it’s interesting.
The song develops through multiple sections and shows the duo stretching their songwriting ambitions.
This is Hall & Oates experimenting with structure rather than simply chasing an immediate hook.
Again, it reinforces the feeling that Bigger Than Both of Us was not created by two blokes desperately trying to crack a commercial formula.
Ironically, of course, they were about to stumble onto one of the biggest songs of their career.
💰 Then “Rich Girl” Happened
And here comes the monster.
“Rich Girl.”
Short.
Sharp.
Ridiculously catchy.
Built around one of those choruses that takes roughly three seconds to permanently lodge itself inside your skull.
The song became Hall & Oates’ first No. 1 hit in the United States.
And suddenly the pair who had spent much of Bigger Than Both of Us wandering happily around the musical wilderness had a gigantic pop smash on their hands.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
You spend an album avoiding formulas…
…and accidentally write a massive hit anyway. 😂🔥
“Rich Girl” proved that Hall & Oates could make something immediately accessible without completely abandoning their soul background.
That balance would eventually become one of their greatest strengths.
🎶 The Restlessness Was the Secret Ingredient
The important thing about Bigger Than Both of Us isn’t simply that it contained a No. 1 single.
It’s what surrounded that hit.
Hall & Oates were still searching.
Still experimenting.
Still figuring out how soul, rock and pop could exist inside the same musical universe.
John Oates has reflected on this period as one where the duo were still trying to discover themselves musically.
And that makes sense when you listen back now.
There isn’t one rigid sound dominating the record.
There are ideas everywhere.
Some point backwards towards their roots.
Others point directly towards what Hall & Oates would become.
🚀 The Road to the Massive ’80s Sound
Hall & Oates’ commercial peak didn’t arrive fully formed in 1976.
It developed gradually.
Throughout the remainder of the decade, the duo kept refining the combination of influences that had always been there.
Soul.
Rock.
Pop.
R&B.
Then, as the musical landscape changed around them, elements of New Wave and increasingly modern studio production started creeping into the mix.
By the early ’80s, everything clicked.
Albums including Voices, Private Eyes and H2O turned Hall & Oates into one of the biggest musical acts on the planet.
But the roots of that success can be heard years earlier.
Including right here.
🤘 The Riff Report Verdict
Bigger Than Both of Us is fascinating because it captures Hall & Oates halfway through becoming Hall & Oates.
They’d already found success.
They just hadn’t settled.
And thank goodness for that.
Rather than hammering the same musical nail until the record label was happy, Daryl Hall and John Oates continued experimenting.
Soul one minute.
Rock the next.
Pop melodies everywhere.
Longer arrangements when they fancied them.
And sitting right in the middle of the chaos was “Rich Girl,” waiting to become their first US chart-topper.
That’s the beautiful contradiction of the album.
Hall & Oates were trying not to become predictable…
…and in the process discovered just how powerful their songwriting could be.
Basically, Bigger Than Both of Us wasn’t the sound of Hall & Oates reaching the finish line.
It was the sound of them realising there wasn’t one. 🎹🔥🤘
And sometimes, butt, that’s where the best records come from.
🎸 What do you reckon?
Is Bigger Than Both of Us an underrated chapter in the Hall & Oates story?
Or are you heading straight for the huge ’80s classics?
Stick your favourite Hall & Oates track on loud and let the debate begin.
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies. 🤘🏴🔥
