You couldn’t swing a radio dial in the late 70s and early 80s without it hitting a Hall & Oates song. The original purveyors of “white boy soul” – and in many respects still the best – Daryl Hall and John Oates launched a string of hits into the airwaves.
Highlights on this collection include “Sara Smile”, “Kiss On My List”, “You Make My Dreams”, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” and “One On One” – and those are just the ones I liked. Other hits include “Maneater” and “Private Eyes” (both major chart hits, though they were overplayed to the point where I tend to skip those tracks these days), as well as latter-day hits like “Adult Education” and “Say It Isn’t So”, which never really tripped my trigger like the earlier stuff.
I do, however, have an axe to grind here – how could they leave out the excellent live version of “Everytime You Go Away” from the Live At The Apollo album featuring David Ruffin and Eddie Kendrick!? That was one of the biggest hits Hall & Oates had, and it’s a rare case of a song which, despite radio 
overexposure, I still like. The live version of “Wait For Me” is on here, but it’s hardly a substitute. What were they thinking?
Other than that, the oddly-titled Rock ‘n’ Soul Part I is a worthwhile collection – though maybe it’d help if more people knew this was the greatest hits album.
- Say It Isn’t So (4:18)
- Sara Smile (3:10)
- She’s Gone (3:27)
- Rich Girl (2:26)
- Kiss On My List (3:54)
- You Make My Dreams (3:07)
- Private Eyes (3:28)
- Adult Education (5:28)
- I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (3:45)
- Maneater (4:33)
- One On One (3:56)
- Wait For Me (live) (6:05)
Released by: RCA
Release date: 1983
Total running time: 47:35
