The wild-looking album cover on the right, (make-up and cover concept by Pierre LaRoche), was my first "concept" album project. Nicknamed the "Silver Album" and entitled "Daryl Hall and John Oates", it was both a social and studio experiment. Producer, arranger, guitar-player Christopher Bond grew up with and played in Daryl and John's band in Philadelphia. I had been working with Chris doing song publishing demos for him when he was signed to 20th Century Music Publishing. Chris told me that Daryl and John wanted to do a new record but they had no band (at least nobody they wanted on their record). Chris utilized a studio band for this album and arranged and wrote all the music out for the players. Daryl and John also played on the tracking sessions; imparting their own artistry to what could have turned out to be a sterile recording situation. Both Daryl and Chris had lots of studio session experience as they both played on numerous Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff sessions in Philly.

Vocals with Daryl and John were great fun because they knew exactly what they wanted, where to do it and most importantly, how to do it. John once told me that he wanted a tall music stand to hide behind while he sang on a song called "Gino". The song is about their manager at the time, Tommy Mottola. He said he did not want anybody seeing his face while he sang because he was going to make hideous expressions that would make everyone laugh and disturb the whole atmosphere and feeling of the song. Daryl sang the lead vocal on "Sara Smile" live with the band when it was tracked. We fixed only one word; the word "Sara" at the beginning of the second chorus. The backing vocals were sung in 30 minutes and Daryl said he wanted them to sound like the Dells when it was mixed.

Check out this Hall & Oates story: The Daryl Hall & John Oates Album And The $300 Drum sound

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