Hall & Oates -- One on One

 

Welcome again to the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth episode. The last time I wrote about Hall & Oates was almost a couple of years ago when I took care of their soulful ballad "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" from 1981. A friend of mine was driving me home a couple of weeks ago and we wondered whether Daryl and John had patched things up.

Here then is another ballad from the guys, "One on One" which was released as a single in January 1983. If anything, it's even dreamier-sounding than "No Can Do" and I think it would be another welcome entry on that fantasy all-night radio show that I'd waxed about several weeks ago. As Wikipedia put it, it does occupy that space between soul and AOR, and I have to say that it's quite the laidback midnight sort of ballad considering that there are a lot of sports expressions in there including the title. I doubt that it would ever be put on the speakers during a game at an arena, though. But that's OK. It sounds perfectly appropriate for those fans to chill out to while in bed, especially when that sax solo purrs in.

"One on One" reached No. 6 on Canada's RPM and No. 7 on US Billboard. There was no exact date on the release of the single during that January, so why don't we go with which three songs were up on the Oricon chart on January 10th 1983?

1. Hiroshi & Kibo -- San Nen-me no Uwaki （３年目の浮気）

2. Akina Nakamori -- Second Love （セカンド・ラブ）

3. Toshihiko Tahara -- Love Spoor（ラブ・シュプール）