Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees Hall and Oates are known for 34 charting hits, making them the most successful duo ever. John Oates says they may have made another kind of history, too.
Oates, in a talk with Vice, says Hall and Oates were likely also the first to top the charts with a song utilizing a drum machine. He’s referencing “Kiss On My List,” the 1981 smash that would end up as the second of Hall and Oates’ six No. 1 songs.
“I may be going out on a limb by saying this, but we may have had the first ever recorded with a drum machine, ‘Kiss on My List,'” Oates says, noting that it’s the “exact same drum machine” used on “I Can’t Go for That” — which was Hall and Oates’ fourth No. 1, from later in 1981.
“It was a Roland CompuRhythm,” Oates adds. “You can’t even call it a drum machine — it was a wooden box. It had presets: Rock 1, Rock 2, Samba, and Calypso. And you had a rotary dial that gave you tempo, and there was no indication what that number was. And that box used to sit on Daryl’s piano, set on Rock 1.”
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