Songoftheday 4/13/14 - You know there's something you need right here and now, to fill the space inside of yourself with money love or power...

Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Possession Obsession"
from the album Big Bam Boom (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is from the Philadelphia "blue-eyed" soul duo Hall & Oates, whose dance-inflected Big Bam Boom album had already spun off three top-40 hits with the #1 "Out Of Touch", "Method Of Modern Love", and "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid". For the fourth single John Oates took over the lead vocals for "Possession Obsession", the album's closing track. It's a welcome turn for John, since Daryl handles most of the leads - the last single featuring Oates was their "How Does It Feel To Be Back" in 1980, and his biggest as a co-lead was their classic "She's Gone" in 1976. The new song even had John front and center in the video...

"Possession Obsession" became the fourth top-40 pop hit from Big Bam Boom in July of 1985, while climbing all the way to #8 on the adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart in Billboard magazine. The record also crossed over to R&B, where it peaked at #69, and the club remix made it to #20 on the dance chart.

I can't say enough how great of an album BBB was, and how underrated Oates was to the H2O musical equation. Andrew Ridgeley he's not (though comparisons to Kix Brooks are welcome).

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's the boys in concert in 1988...

Daryl and John reunited for Hall's Live From Daryl's House series, and they would bring out "Possession Obsession" out. This tour of the building around his house is kind of funny to have this be a song choice (though this performance even surpasses the original), and goshdarnit I wince seeing Oates without his mustache....

...and as an added bonus, here's Martika (yes, where is she now?) on Kids Incorporated covering the song...

Up tomorrow: a Zep inches forward.