John Oates Timeline

Fifty-nine years of Oates

by Shaun Brady

1946 Daryl Hall born, Oct. 11, in Pottstown, Pa.

1949 John Oates born, April 7, in New York.

1953 Oates' family relocates to North Wales, placing him in reach of the Philly sounds that would eventually shape his career.

1964 Oates graduates from North Penn High and grows a mustache destined to become a pop culture icon.

1967 Oates meets Hall while ducking bullets at a Battle of the Bands at Philly's Adelphi Ballroom.

1972 Hall & Oates release their first album, Whole Oats, to general indifference.

1973 Abandoned Luncheonette is released, featuring "She's Gone," which becomes a hit first for the artist Tavares before the original is re-released in 1976.

1975 Hall & Oates' self-titled album, their first on RCA after three on Atlantic, gives them their first hit with "Sara Smile."

1980 Voices, the duo's ninth album, contains the hits "Kiss on My List" and "You Make My Dreams," returning them to the charts after a lackluster period.

1981 MTV launches and seemingly plays a Hall & Oates video (usually "Maneater," if its image burned into my childhood brain is any evidence) approximately once an hour for the next four years.

1985 Hall & Oates perform at Live Aid and appear on "We Are the World," cementing their role as icons of 1980s pop — excessive and more than a little silly even at its most philanthropic.

1988 A switch from RCA to Arista coincides with a downturn in their popularity.

1990 Change of Season becomes Hall & Oates' last studio album for seven years.

2002 Oates releases his long-overdue first solo album, the somewhat embarrassingly titled Phunk Shui.

2004 Oates' duet with Jamie Cullum, "Greatest Mistake," appears on Handsome Boy Modeling School's second CD, White People — which features Dan the Automator and Prince Paul on the cover sporting mustaches. This tips Oates off to the cult forming around his famed mustache.

2008 Oates releases 1000 Miles of Life, his second solo album. Hall & Oates release double-CD Live at the Troubadour.