Bad Cover Art of the Day: Daryl Hall and John Oates

For a while now I've been wanting to start a new regular feature of this blog, called Bad Cover Art of the Day, because as much as I love retro cover art, there's no shortage of "WTF" examples. Since I've been listening to a lot of Hall and Oates lately, I'm choosing them for my first victims. You're looking at the cover of the 1975 album with the very unoriginal name Daryl Hall and John Oates. And, my, the boys are looking quite pretty, aren't they? Especially Daryl. He's suddenly gone from Daryl Hall to Daryl Hannah!

Easy, breezy, beautiful, cover...boys



How do they explain this? According to a biography about the duo called "Dangerous Dances", Mick Jagger's French makeup designer Pierre LaRoche was responsible for this glamour shot. John Oates explained, "We decided that if we were going to put our faces on an album cover for the first time we wanted to do it in a big way. Pierre said, in that French accent of his, 'I will immortalize you!' And he just did. To this day it's the only album cover that people ask us about."

Or, more likely, it sounded like this: "I veee immortillize vous!"

I must admit, however, and I know I'm bias because I had a crush on the young Daryl, but he's looking pretty hot to me with all of that makeup. I've never seen a prettier man (and no, I'm not a lesbian.) Hall told VH1 years later that he "looked like the girl he always wanted to go out with." He almost could've launched a side album under a glam rocker persona. Oates looks like...well, Oates looks like a guy with a mustache wearing makeup.

I'm guessing this cover didn't help the "we're not gay" argument. Not one of their finer moments, for sure. It did have a hit song, though: "Sara Smile." And I'm sure that's just what she did when she saw this album for the first time!