PRIVATE EYES FOCUS ON HALL & OATES CATALOG
By PETER LAURIA


February 1, 2007 -- Primary Wave Music Publishing, led by former Arista and Virgin Records executive Larry Mestel, is expected to announce today that it is acquiring a "significant interest" in the song catalog of '80s pop icons Daryl Hall and John Oates.
Mestel made waves last year when he struck a $50 million deal with Courtney Love for a 25 percent stake in dead grunge rocker Kurt Cobain's song catalog, which is essentially Nirvana's song catalog since Cobain wrote most of the material himself.

Though terms of the Hall & Oates deal weren't disclosed, industry experts said that Primary Wave was likely acquiring a more than 50 percent interest and put the price tag for such a stake between $25 million and $50 million.

With hits like "Maneater," "Private Eyes" and "Rich Girl," Hall & Oates was a staple of '80s pop music, selling more than 60 million albums and charting 34 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 list - eight times at No. 1.

"Hall & Oates were the band of the '80s, and the '80s are back in style in a big way," Mestel said.

Not unlike the deal he struck to use a Nirvana song in a recent episode of "CSI: Miami," Mestel added that he sees a lot of opportunities to market the duo's music to film and television.

The blonde half of the duo said in an interview with The Post that part of the reason for striking a deal with Mestel was because, "I didn't feel my catalog was being addressed properly by BMG," which previously held the rights. "Most publishing companies are administrative rather than creative in nature. Larry's got a lot of creative ideas about what to do with my material."




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Private Eyes is one of the best albums of the 1980's. It'ssuch a listenable hook filled album I still pull it out from time to time.

I just got H2O and Private Eyes on remastered, expanded CDs. They have extended 12" versions as bonus cuts and were issued in 2004. Very cool! (Agree about Private Eyes - so many good songs).

H2O isn't bad either. I really liked Crime pays,Art Of Heartbreak, One On One and At Tension.

Big Bam Boom is also a great album as is Voices apart from the cover of You lost that loving feeling, I hate that song.

My Favorite album is War Babies produced by Todd Rundgren.

To bad there considered uncool. They made some cracking pop music in the 1970's and 1980's.

Romeoblu said:

And the thing is Hall and Oates are more about RB and Soul than any artist in RB and SOUL today. Its funny how the 70's and 80's are considered uncool and yet everyone out now wants to Sample it,cover it,dress like it,imitate it,watch tv shows about it, anything but create their own thing.

lastdecember said:

Unless we're talking Lennon/McCartney, no one can mess with Hall/Oates.

I love Hall & Oates. "Say it isn't So" and "Adult Education" were my favorites, but I liked most of their singles.

"Method Of Modern Love" (1984)

NorthernLad said:

I pretty much like all of their singles too.In their heyday,they never released a bad single.If I had to pick my top 5,it would be:

"I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)"
"Sara Smile"
"Private Eyes"
"Method Of Modern Love"
"One On One"

it's time to pull out their Greatest Hits CD!

fms said:

I've been wanting to get those remasters.I have an excellent 2-CD 'Best Of' that was released around the same time as the remasters,if I'm not mistaken.