Songoftheday 7/9/12 - I remember when I used to be the jealous kind....

Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Your Imagination"

from the album Private Eyes (1981)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (two weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 5

Today's Song of the Day is by the Philadelphia blue-eyed soul/pop duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates. Releasing their first album of singer/songwriter fare in 1972, the pair didn't hit big until their self-titled fourth studio set in 1975 (the gray one where they both are made up like girls on the cover). That album produced  a top-5 hit, "Sara Smile", and even spawned interest in their earlier work, with a re-release of "She's Gone", their first minor hit from their second album Abandoned Luncheonette, following it into the top-10. Their next album, Bigger Than The Both Of Us, was an even bigger hit, giving the boys their first #1 hit, "Rich Girl".

However, as disco and dance music dominated the pop airwaves, Hall & Oates went through a comparably dry stint for nearly five years. But as that genre flipped coming into the 80's, it was just happening to be the right time for their more-focused new-wave-ish rock edge with more of an R&B feel . 1981's Voices was the first of back-to-back albums churning out four top-40 records apiece, with the third single from that set,   "Kiss On My List", becoming their second charttopper.

Private Eyes, released in 1981, was the apex of their creative and sales careers. With two #1 pop hits under their belt from it, the title track and "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", as well as a third awesome top-10 hit with "Did It In A Minute" in the spring of 1982, Hall and Oates were coasting, and the third single from the set, "Your Imagination", buffed up with a new single mix for radio, stayed on the top-40 for over a month.

The song, like "I Can't Go For That", also climbed the R&B chart, where it nearly missed the top-40 (#45). The album also was their first top-10 effort, peaking at #5. They would go even better when their followup record, H2O, would be released later that year, along with their next #1, "Maneater".

Up tomorrow: Former cop goes vampire when it wasn't cool.