Hall and Oates had a string of hits in the 1970s and '80s that made them household names. But it took a strange run of unsavory events to make them a duo. Daryl Hall and John Oates attended Temple University at the same time, and both were in doo-wop groups, but somehow they never met until that one night. Hall sang for The Temptones and Oates was in The Masters. Both groups were recording and trying to break out into the mainstream.
In 1967, both bands were invited to perform at a dance event promoted by area disc jockey Jerry Bishop at the Adelphi Ballroom on North 52nd Street in Philadelphia. According to Oates, the concert was a professional obligation: Bishop had the ability to give songs airtime.
“When Jerry Bishop contacted you, you had to go,” Oates told Pennsylvania Heritage magazine in 2016. “If you didn’t, your record wouldn’t get played on the radio.”
That’s how Hall and Oates found themselves backstage at the Adelphi, each preparing to perform with their respective group. (Oates said Hall looked good in a sharkskin suit with the rest of his partners, whereas he felt more self-conscious in a “crappy houndstooth” suit.) While Oates had previously seen The Temptones perform, the two had never met nor spoken. It’s possible they never would have if it weren’t for what happened next.
It happened that some of the singing groups came from high school fraternities with a violent attitude for their competition. The reason Hall and Oates finally met was the gunfire at the ballroom, but in order for them to collaborate, it also took a war and unpaid rent. Altogether the story of Hall and Oates is pretty wild, and you can read about it at Mental Floss.