50 Daryl Hall & John Oates Songs You Better Have…Or Else
“Method of Modern Love”
(1985, #5 pop)
Producer: Daryl Hall, John Oates, Bob Clearmountain
Writer: Daryl Hall, Janna Allen
from the album Big Bam Boom
Could Hall & Oates rap? No one really knows for sure, but glimmers of an urban freestyle execution can be heard on “Adult Education” and more prevalently in the deep ridges of “Method of Modern Love.” Hall spells out the song title with a hip suburban swagger (“M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E”) across a terrain of percussion and faux-calypso vibes. Spelling out the song title across Bashiri Johnson’s percussion was the most Hall & Oates could come close to touching the gravitas of Run DMC, but the song worked. The song proved to be another unexpected crossover for the blue-eyed soul pair, jumping to number 21 on the r&b charts and number 18 dance. Hall and co-writer Janna Allen composed the song using some of the likeness of “Adult Education.” Although it didn’t bear the brash and cocky traits of “Adult Education,” it still shows up as one of their more popular urban experiments.
