Robbed hit of the week: Daryl Hall and John Oates' "Don't Hold Back Your Love"...

"Don't Hold Back Your Love" - Daryl Hall & John Oates
from the album Change Of Season (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the biggest pop duo of the 1980's, Daryl Hall and John Oates, who had just missed the top ten by a notch with their first single from the next decade, the Bon Jovi-produced "So Close". They followed it up with a softer adult contemporary rock-ish track, "Don't Hold Back Your Love". Co-written by Richard Page of 80's pop band Mr. Mister along with George O'Brien and producer David Tyson (who helmed Alannah Myles' #1 pop hit "Black Velvet"), it had a spacious feel in the production that reminded me of the acoustic rock-pop of the mid-80s of groups like Cock Robin and Bruce Hornsby and the Range...

While "Don't Hold Back Your Love" climbed all the way to #4 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, the single stalled one notch under the pop top 40 in February of 1991. The song did much better in Canada, reaching #10.

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Here's Hall and Oates performing the song live for a charity concert...

Later in 1991, Australian singer Daryl Braithwaite also released "Don't Hold Back Your Love" as a single, and reached #55 on his country's singles chart...