‘We did that in ’74’: For Hall and Oates, a surprising reaction to concert deep cut

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Hall and Oates has a number of songs, huge era-defining hits, that must be played at every concert. But with a Hall of Fame career stretching all the way back to the early 1970s, there are plenty of deep cuts to sprinkle in, as well.

“I feel we have a lot of music that we can get out there,” John Oates tells SiriusXM. “It’s just a matter of staying alive long enough to do it all.”

That said, their lengthy tenure as a hitmaking concert draw has also meant a new generation of fans is now coming to Hall and Oates’ shows — meaning they weren’t necessarily there when platinum-smash albums like Abandoned Luncheonette and Private Eyes were originally released. For them, these lesser-known songs seem to arrive out of the blue.

“We always put some album tracks in,” Oates says, “and a young girl came up to me after the show, and she said: ‘I love that new song that you played during the show!’ And I said: ‘Oh, yeah. We did that in ’74.’ [Laughs.] To the younger audiences, these are new songs — because they weren’t hits.”

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