"Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" by Daryl Hall & John Oates

Song#:  2252
Date:  03/16/1985
Debut:  55
Peak:  18
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Pop, Blue-Eyed Soul



Pop Bits:  The duo's twelfth studio LP, Big Bam Boom, reached #5 and went double-platinum thanks to two Top 10 hits including the #1 "Out of Touch." By this point, they were on a streak of seven consecutive Top 10's and were hoping this third single from the album would make it eight. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. The song stalled just inside the Top 20 and ended their streak. It did about the same at AC getting to #17 while nicking the R&B chart at #85.

ReduxReview:  While I like this song, I don't think it was a very good single. When I think of Hall & Oates, I think of concise, hooky, fun pop that leans toward R&B and soul. This song just meanders along and doesn't necessarily draw a listener in. In fact, I didn't really pay much attention to this song until many years later when I bought an H&O compilation. However, Big Bam Boom didn't have a lot of single contenders so this may have been the best of what was left. I didn't care for the album at all. I thought the writing wasn't up to par and the production was just kind of loud and, on occasion, obnoxious. Sadly, it was all pretty much downhill from here.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Although this song ended a Top 10 spree, they could take solace in the fact that twelve of their thirteen charting singles from 1981's "Kiss on My List" through to 1985's "Method of Modern Love" hit the Top 10. Five of those songs would go to the top of the chart. Combined with their previous hits from the late 70s, their fourteen Top 10's and six #1's would lead the RIAA to declare Hall & Oates the most successful rock duo in music history. It was also around this time that they took the title of the top charting duo on the Billboard Pop chart. They surpassed the previous top duo, The Everly Brothers, who had amassed fifteen Top 10's and four #1's in their career.

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