Songoftheday 12/31/14 - I saw you standing and I felt your rage, like a dark cloud on a crowded stage...

"Dreamtime" - Daryl Hall
from the album Three Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

The final Song of the Day for 2014 belongs to singer/songwriter Daryl Hall, who with musical partner John Oates had become one of the biggest pop hitmakers of the 80s, as well as duos of the rock era, with fifteen top-10 hits in America by the middle of that decade. After a contract-fulfilling live set with Temptations members Eddie Kendrick and David Ruffin gave them another top-20 single with the medley of "The Way You Do The Things You Do/My Girl", they took a break as a duo for the next few years. In the meantime, Daryl recorded and released his second solo album (and first since their 80s success), Three Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine. Produced by the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, the album was a little "trippier" than his H&O work, but didn't stray too far from his mainstream pop wheelhouse. The first single, "Dreamtime", co-written with John Beebe, even had the trademark back-up vocals that their duo records usually sported, making me look for Oates in the shadows, while the late movie score composer Michael Kamen arranged the string accompaniment...

"Dreamtime" became Daryl's first solo pop hit in October of 1986. The single also crossed over to the Adult Contemporary (#24) and Dance Club Play (#36) charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the record was a top-40 hit in England, Australia, and the Netherlands, and a minor hit in Germany.

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...and here's Daryl from his awesome Live At Daryl's House series...

Tomorrow, I'm gonna take a break for New Years, but on Friday: a Q-tsie singer has a pair.