Hall and Oates made a number of memorable videos. Some were high concept, some amazingly low budget — but all of them helped frame the group’s look and feel for a generation of fans.
So, which one is John Oates’ favorite? Surprisingly enough, it’s not something like “Out of Touch,” which found Hall and Oates memorably performing from inside an enormous kick drum. No, this one goes further back. All the way back, in fact, to the duo’s initial chart success.
“My favorite one is ‘She’s Gone,'” Oates tells Steez. “It’s the one we did in 1973. The one that we did totally on our own. My sister directed it. She was a film major at Temple University. Sara Allen, from ‘Sara Smile,’ is the girl that walks through. This guy Randy Hoffman, who was our tour manager, is the Devil. That was our furniture from this apartment we shared. I rented a penguin suit for the guitar solo. To me, that’s the best video we ever made.”
As for the giant kit featured so prominently in the “Out of Touch” clip? Oates admits he has no idea what became of it, though he does shed some light on how Hall and Oates came to be there.
“The same director who did the ‘Out of Touch’ video with that giant drum set was the same guy who did the Tom Petty cop on Alice in Wonderland,” Oates says. “Remember that video? He had penchant for overly large scenic objects.”
If anybody knows where these odd items may have ended up, from the penguin suit to the living room furniture, Oates says it’s his longtime musical partner. “Daryl probably does,” Oates says. “He keeps everything.”
- Ernesto Cervini’s Turboprop, “When I Fall” (2024): Video premiere - March 15, 2024
- Disaster Pony,“Dead Neon & The Noon Sun” from ‘Disaster Pony’ (2024): Video premiere - February 27, 2024
- Christopher Hoffman, “Farewell Forever” from ‘Vision Is The Identity’ (2024): Streaming premiere - February 19, 2024
