Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Monday Music "Say it isn't so." by Hall and Oats

  I got this version of Monday Music out early Tuesday Morning,  We had a scoutleaders meeting that ran real late so by the time I got home, my time for blogging was gone and I was 2 hours past my "go to sleep time".  Well I had my act together...I was kinda surprised actually and had a few minutes time to put this one together.  I already had the song in mind so that helped.  
     I decided to roll with Hall and Oats "Say it isn't so.."   I liked the song when it came out.  The song got a lot of airplay on MTV along with their earlier offerings.  I first heard of Hall and Oats in the Mid 70's with "Rich Girl".  That song got a lot of airplay on AFN in Germany.  But in the early 80's Hall and Oats were on fire, they had a string of songs on MTV from their"Man Eater.."  they also had "Kiss on my List", "You make my Dreams",  "One on One" and many others.  They are still performing, I saw them in concert in 2008 Here in Atlanta at Chastain. 
Hall and Oats in 2008

By the fall of 1983, Hall & Oates were one of the biggest pop music acts in the United States. They had five Number 1 singles to their credit, two consecutive Top 10 albums and were one of the biggest names on MTV. A cover of the 1957 Bobby Helms classic "Jingle Bell Rock" was recorded and released in time for Christmas 1983, complete with a humorous video of the band, that received extensive airplay on MTV. In 1983, they released their first greatest hits album entitled Rock 'n Soul Part 1. The album peaked at Number 7, and the two new songs that were written and recorded for that LP also became Top 10 hits as well.
     "Say It Isn't So" was written by Daryl Hall during the duo's supporting tour for H2O. It was the first of two songs recorded during the sessions for Rock 'n Soul Part 1. The sessions took place in September 1983 at Electric Lady studio a in New York City. The song was produced by Daryl Hall and John Oates, with recording by Bob Clearmountain, who co-produced the recordings. The backing musicians on the song were bassist Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, saxophonist Charles DeChant, guitarist G. E. Smith, drummer Mickey Curry, and percussionist Jimmy Brawlower. The song's arrangement was developed in the studio with backing vocals inspired by the Flamingos' version of "I Only Have Eyes for You" and a problem with a break in the song solved by Jimmy Brawlower.
   
 The first single released from this album "Say It Isn't So" battled six weeks for the Number 1 spot with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's "Say Say Say" at the peak of Thriller mania. "Say It Isn't So" remained at Number 2 for an impressive four weeks from December 1983 to January 1984. The battle with the McCartney/Jackson single led disc jockey Peter Bush of New York's WPLJ Radio, which had just switched from rock to Top 40 the previous June, to intro the Hall & Oates entry "Say, Say, Say It Isn't, Isn't, Isn't So, So, So".
Rock 'n Soul Part 1 (also titled Greatest Hits – Rock 'n Soul Part 1) is a greatest hits album by American musical duo Hall & Oates, credited as "Daryl Hall John Oates" on the album cover. Released by RCA Records in October 1983, the album featured mostly hit singles recorded by the duo and released by RCA, as well as one single from the duo's period with Atlantic Records and two previously unreleased songs recorded earlier in the year (see 1983 in music).


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