John Oates and Daryl Hall's First Jam Session Went Horribly

"It was Ray Charles's Greatest Hits.It was probably the early '60s. I started buying singles way before I bought an album. I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania. There was only one record store in the adjacent town. In fact, it might have not even been a record store, it might've been part of a Woolworths."

"The first live music I ever heard was Bill Haley and the Comets in 1955 at Willow Grove Amusement Park, outside Philadelphia. My family had just moved us from New York, where I was born. As a little kid, we went to this amusement park and there was a band shell and they were playing. I had never heard live music before. I remember running down to the stage. It was life changing. The musician who was playing the big, upright bass rode it like a horse. He put it on the ground and it was like a rockabilly thing. I'll never forget that."

"A guitar made by the company Sears Roebuck, which doesn't exist anymore. I still have it. It was an acoustic guitar. It wasn't very expensive. I only used it for a little while because I was really serious about music. My folks took me up to New York City and we went to 48th Street where all the music stores were back in the day, and we ended up buying another guitar."

John Oates has released 18 studio albums as one half of Hall & Oates and now issues his seventh solo album, Oates. He has accumulated many No. 1 songs with Daryl Hall, although "You Make My Dreams" did not reach No. 1. Oates is noted for his distinctive mustache. His earliest record purchase was Ray Charles's Greatest Hits in the early 1960s after collecting singles. His first live show was Bill Haley and the Comets in 1955 at Willow Grove Amusement Park, a formative childhood moment. His first guitar was an inexpensive Sears Roebuck acoustic that he still owns, and he later bought another on 48th Street in New York City.

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