Kiss on My List by Daryl Hall and John Oates
Artist: Daryl Hall and John Oates Weeks at #1: 3 weeks Chart dates: April 11, 1981 – April 25, 1981
About
“Kiss On My List” was the third single released from Hall & Oates’s ninth studio album, Voices (1980), and went on to become the duo’s second #1 hit on the Billboard 100 (after “Rich Girl,” which went to #1 in 1977]. It was also a top 40 hit in the UK, Belgium and New Zealand. Written by Daryl Hall and Janna Allen, the sister of Hall’s longtime girlfriend Sara Allen—the inspiration behind Hall & Oates’s classic, “Sara Smile”—"Kiss On My List" was originally intended as a first single for Janna, who wanted to launch a singing career. Hall cut a demo tape for Janna, only for it to be discovered by Hall & Oates’s manager who insisted they record the song themselves. The production team liked Hall’s original demo so much that they actually kept the vocals as is, and instead mixed in background vocals and additional instrumentation. This is why Hall considers the percussion on the track subpar, even calling the drums “dinky.” The music video for the song—which is really just a live performance—was one of the first to play on MTV’s first day on air: August 1, 1981.
