Hall Oates

Back in 2007, when Daryl Hall came up with the idea for his online music show Live From Daryl's House, he was motivated in part by being able to go to work without leaving home. "I've been traveling around the world forever," says Hall, the 65-year-old Pottstown native who, along with John Oates, made up one of the best-selling duos in music history, with No. 1 hits that included "Kiss on My List," "Private Eyes," and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do). " "But the Internet allows you to turn everything upside down," says Hall, on the phone this week from his house in Dutchess County, N.Y., where Live From Daryl's House is filmed.

Hall and Oates threw a festive stone soul picnic at the Tower Theater on Saturday night. And they provisioned it with the most surprising ingredients. The opening number was "Family Man," an obscure song from 1982's H2O LP. It was a clear indication that this performance wasn't going to be a standard salvo of the Philly-bred duo's greatest hits. Instead, they hopscotched through their legacy, setting out a garage sale of B-sides and forgotten tunes. If nothing else, the unusual set showcased the enormous range and variety of their catalog, from the Mink DeVille-like tango of "How Does It Feel to Be Back" from 1980's Voices to the Stylistics' soul of "Starting All Over Again" from 1990's Change of Season.

If you wake up Saturday morning and you're not suffering too badly from St. Paddy's revenge, you may notice a sweet and soulful tang to the air. That's because Mayor Street has proclaimed March 18 Daryl Hall & John Oates Day in Philadelphia, an honor the duo will mark with a show that night at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby. It's a fitting tribute, because over the years, through the good times and the bad, Hall & Oates were always representing the City of Brotherly Love.

You've read about her troubled childhood in Vanity Fair. You've seen her Martha's Vineyard house in In Style. After years of debilitating stage fright, Carly Simon graced Philadelphia at a near-sellout show at the Mann Music Center Thursday. Not only that, but fans were also treated to a homecoming from locals Daryl Hall and John Oates, who played a brief set before joining Simon onstage for her 90-minute show. The '70s FM-radio diva - dressed in flowing white harem pants and a tank top - radiated her trademark exuberance as she dramatically took the candlelit stage with the title track from her latest album, Letters Never Sent.

It takes some doing for a show at the Trump Taj Mahal's Mark G. Etess Arena to be as empty, indulgent and ultimately boring as the Donald's palace of glitz itself. But Saturday, before a sellout crowd, Hall & Oates gave it their best shot. So who's to blame for the precipitous decline of the blue-eyed soul duo, former rulers of the pop charts reduced to playing before undiscriminating casino crowds? Point your finger at Daryl Hall and John Oates for failing to deliver any new models of the hard-to-resist confections that were their specialty.

For a couple of decades, one of the coolest anecdotes in Philadelphia pop music lore had The Temptations dragging a teen-age Daryl Hall and his group, The Temptones, down to South Street to pick up magenta sharkskin suits at Krass Brothers. Born Daryl Franklin Hohl in Pottstown, the lanky towhead knew from witnessing numerous R&B shows at the Uptown Theater that any self-respecting vocal act was nothing without natty attire. Now Hall wants to set the record straight. "It was actually a purple mohair suit," Hall said.

FAMILIAR FACES emerge in different guises in this week's new music roundup. HALL PASS: When the lead singer/composer in an established band strikes out on his own, even longtime fans don't always make the connection. Daryl Hall fights those odds again, minus longtime partner John Oates, in "Laughing Down Crying" (Verve/Forecast, A-) . If you relish Hall & Oates' vibrant take on rock 'n' soul, you're gonna find this shiny solo set (Hall's first in a decade) equally appealing.

The partnership between Philadelphian Daryl Hall and New Yorker John Oates was a musical meeting of minds that produced much of the best "blue-eyed soul" in the business. Both were already established musicians when they met at Temple University in the mid-'60s. Although an electric organist, Hall was at that time a member of a vocal group, the Temptones. Guitarist Oates was a member of a band called The Masters. They began writing songs together, and for while Oates joined the Temptones as guitarist.

"We needed to separate to continue to endure together," John Oates said of the hiatus he and partner Daryl Hall took from each other in the late '80s. For three years, Hall & Oates pursued different interests in and out of music before turning out Ooh, Yeah! in 1988. This week, the Philadelphia-bred rock-and-soul duo released their 19th collaborative effort, Change of Season. The key to that kind of longevity as a twosome rests with maintaining a sense of individuality apart from the team, Oates said during a recent interview.

Local legends Daryl Hall and John Oates, who will return to the Tower Theater on Saturday night, are being feted for their 30th anniversary. The math is a little sketchy (their first album, Whole Oates, came out in 1972), but the track record is peerless. With 16 singles reaching the top 10 on the charts, they are the most successful duo in the history of the music business. (What? You were expecting maybe Simon and Garfunkel?) And for Hall & Oates, the hits keep coming. Their new CD, Do It for Love, debuted at No. 77 on the Billboard charts, a remarkable showing for an independent release.

Back in 2007, when Daryl Hall came up with the idea for his online music show Live From Daryl's House, he was motivated in part by being able to go to work without leaving home. "I've been traveling around the world forever," says Hall, the 65-year-old Pottstown native who, along with John Oates, made up one of the best-selling duos in music history, with No. 1 hits that included "Kiss on My List," "Private Eyes," and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do). " "But the Internet allows you to turn everything upside down," says Hall, on the phone this week from his house in Dutchess County, N.Y., where Live From Daryl's House is filmed.

FAMILIAR FACES emerge in different guises in this week's new music roundup. HALL PASS: When the lead singer/composer in an established band strikes out on his own, even longtime fans don't always make the connection. Daryl Hall fights those odds again, minus longtime partner John Oates, in "Laughing Down Crying" (Verve/Forecast, A-) . If you relish Hall & Oates' vibrant take on rock 'n' soul, you're gonna find this shiny solo set (Hall's first in a decade) equally appealing.

Daryl Hall probably never conceived of taking his monthly Internet show, Live From Daryl's House , on the road when it started in 2007. Shot primarily in the barnlike rehearsal space of his self-restored Colonial in Millbrook, N.Y., the show has welcomed Hall friends old and new, musicians who inspired him as well as younger players he and longtime partner John Oates influenced. Players who visit Daryl's House chat, joke, prepare food, and make music. They include Travie McCoy, Nick Lowe, Sharon Jones, Smokey Robinson, and fellow Philadelphia pal and onetime producer Todd Rundgren, with whom Hall humorously made sausage during their show's cooking segment.

SOME MUSICIANS still have nothing but contempt for the Internet. Others, at least, open themselves to the fact that fan-captured, YouTube-posted videos of their concert performances are a positive, viral marketing tool. Then there's the unique and daring ploy Daryl Hall has taken with "Live from Daryl's House," a popular, Internet-only TV show that tonight makes the leap to the stage of the intimate Music Box at the Borgata in Atlantic City, co-starring Hall's kindred spirit and fellow Philadelphian Todd Rundgren.

Russell Brand 's invasion of America is complete: The British comic stars in the top two box office draws of the weekend. He rules the roost in Dinsey's Hop , about happy bunnies who get even more hopped up on joy. It's the weekend's top earner with $21.7 mil, according to studio estimates. The live-animation combo pic, which cost $63 mil to manufacture, has made $68.2 mil since its April 1 opening. Brand plays the title role in the No. 2 picture, a mild remake of the 1981 sex comedy Arthur , which opened this weekend with $12.6 mil. Hanna , a spy thriller about a wee bonnie teen lass (the explosive Saoirse Ronan)

Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff. POP . . . plus Joan Baez/Steve Earle: Always one of folk music's class acts, Baez returns to a favorite upscale venue with a feisty guest more in the vein of her old saddle pal Bobby D. Should provide an interesting study in contrasts. Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, 8 tonight, $45-$65, 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org . "The Most Interesting Show in the World": Wild and crazy rocker/DJ/party starter Andrew W.K. requests your presence at his curated collection of freaks and geeks - illusionists, burlesque dancers, escape artists and curiosities - from the four corners of the Earth.

Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts, which raised about $150 million for famine relief in Africa. What do you remember from the day? 1. Philadelphia was the U.S. Part Two of the day's program. What city was host to the opening festivities? a. West Berlin. b. Paris. c. London. d. Rome. 2. Where was the Philly concert held? a. Veterans Stadium. b. JFK Stadium. c. The Spectrum. d. Ben Franklin Parkway.

Back in the olden times, before iPods and iTunes and MP3s and everything else that's changed everything musical, Lansdale and Sellersville and North Wales were filled with little coffee shops. And the little coffee shops were filled with folkies and guitars. "There was a folk revival going on," John Oates told a group of high school students and aspiring musicians yesterday afternoon. "I started right here in Lansdale - North Wales and Lansdale," he said. Alas, the coffee houses are gone.

The best deal in town? Friday night's triple bill at the Spectrum: the Hooters, Todd Rundgren, and Hall & Oates for an admission fee that maxed out at $6. The deep discount reflected ticket prices in 1967, when the Spectrum first staged concerts. This concert was billed as "Last Call," as a triumvirate of locally bred past masters of pop bade an affectionate farewell to the soon-to-be-shuttered venue. The only way this show could have been more Philly-centric was if roaming PennDot crews had blocked access to the concession stands.