Longtime Hall and Oates fans can still find a treasured favorite buried inside John Oates’ blues-focused solo sets these days: “Las Vegas Turnaround” from Abandoned Luncheonette, released on November 3, 1973.
In fact, like many who came to discovered it much later, Oates often returns to that project. “I have a great affinity for the Abandoned Luncheonette album,” Oates told Paul Cashmere of Noise11. “For me, I think it’s the best album we ever made. That, Along the Red Ledge and Voices are my three favorite albums.”
It’ no surprise then that Abandoned Luncheonette — like its most recognizable hit single — has grown in stature over the years. “She’s Gone,” the familiar Oates collaboration with Daryl Hall, didn’t get to its chart peak of No. 7 until almost three years later in 1976. Similarly, Hall and Oates’ Abandoned Luncheonette eventually went platinum, but it took some 29 years.
By the way, “Las Vegas Turnaround” isn’t the old deep cut from that album that’s been included in Oates’ concert sets. Such is John Oates’ passion for the period.
“I just think there’s something about the Abandoned Luncheonette that captures the spirit of what Daryl and I were when we really first bonded,” Oates adds. “So, even in my solo shows, I tend to do a lot of Abandoned Luncheonette songs. I bring out ‘Lady Rain,’ and do some other things like that. It’s just one of those records that has stood the rest of time, I think.”
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