As the Hall & Oates drama continues — with Daryl Hall suing John Oates and getting a restraining order against his longtime partner to block the sale of his share of their publishing royalties to Primary Wave — it’s clear that being in one of music’s biggest duos isn’t always the stuff of making your dreams come true.
In fact, being in a duo — as opposed to a band — has been a particularly difficult musical marriage to negotiate throughout pop history. It’s a curse that Hall & Oates managed to avoid for five decades until it even caught up to them deep into their 70s.
Here are some other top twosomes who ultimately became out of touch.
The Everly Brothers
The Tennessee twosome of Don Everly and his younger brother, Phil, were early rock pioneers in the late ’50s with hits such as “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” But all was not as smooth as their harmonies for the brothers.
After they both enlisted in the Marines in 1961, they had relatively little success once they were discharged. And they both became addicted to amphetamines, with Don ultimately suffering a nervous breakdown. In the ’70s, they pursued solo careers before eventually reuniting for a 1983 concert at Royal Albert Hall in London.
Ike & Tina Turner
Of course, everyone knows the story of how Tina Turner was abused by her husband, Ike, during their marriage and musical partnership. But there is no denying the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame pedigree that the tumultuous twosome achieved with hits such as 1960’s “A Fool in Love,” 1966’s “River Deep — Mountain High” and 1971’s “Proud Mary.”
But Ike’s cocaine-fueled rage finally convinced Tina to leave him in 1976. And the Acid Queen would eventually make the comeback of all comebacks with a solo career that landed her in the rock hall again — this time, all by herself — in 2021.
Jan & Dean
In 1963 — the same year that the Beach Boys hit it big with “Surfin’ U.S.A.” — the sun-kissed California duo of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence had the first surf song to go No. 1 with “Surf City.”
Then, in 1964, the pair hit the Top 10 again with “Dead Man’s Curve.” But that single would prove to foreshadow tragedy for the twosome when, in 1966, Berry had a near-fatal car crash near the same Hollywood intersection they sang about in “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Berry suffered brain damage and partial paralysis, having to learn to walk again, and the duo never got their mojo back.
Simon & Garfunkel
Despite the chart-topping success of hits such as 1964’s “The Sound Of Silence” and the Grammy-winning “Mrs. Robinson” from the 1967 film “The Graduate,” there was a lot of troubled water to bridge between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
In fact, they called it quits after their fifth studio album, 1970’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” occasionally reuniting before their last performance together to sing “Mrs. Robinson” at an American Film Institute tribute to “The Graduate” director Mike Nichols in 2010.
The Righteous Brothers
Although they were not actually brothers, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield found a chart-topping connection in 1965 with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (which would inspire a hit cover by Hall & Oates in 1980).
And their version of “Unchained Melody” would become the definitive one famously heard in “Ghost.” But the duo broke up in 1968, with Hatfield even pulling a switcheroo with Jimmy Walker to release the “Re-Birth” album as the Righteous Brothers in 1969.
The two would reunite, though, to score one last hit with “Rock and Roll Heaven” in 1974 before Hatfield’s death in 2003 from cocaine-related heart failure.
The Carpenters
When siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter made their big breakthrough with their Grammy-winning second album, 1970’s “Close to You,” and its chart-topping title track, it seemed as if they had only just begun.
But their successful run ended later in the ’70s as Richard battled a sleeping pill addiction and Karen struggled with anorexia. Two years after the duo released their final studio album, 1981’s “Made in America,” she died from anorexia-related heart failure at just 32 in 1983.
Steely Dan
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were the definition of cool chill with their jazz-rock jams such as 1974’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and 1977’s “Peg.”
But it wasn’t all mellow vibes behind the scenes: In fact, after scoring their last Top 10 hit, “Hey Nineteen,” in 1981, the duo broke up amid Becker’s battle with drug addiction.
But after Becker produced Fagen’s 1993 solo album “Kamakiriad” to critical acclaim, Steely Dan began touring together again and went on to win the Album of the Year Grammy for 2000’s “Two Against Nature.” They remained together until Becker died from esophageal cancer in 2017, although Fagen continues to perform under the Steely Dan name.
Outkast
The outré Atlanta hip-hop duo of André 3000 and Big Boi were on top of the music world when 2003’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” won the Album of the Year Grammy in 2004.
But the fact that that double LP was divided into Big Boi’s “Speakerboxxx” LP and André 3000’s “The Love Below” hinted at the creative differences they were already experiencing at the very peak of their powers.
Although they would come together to make 2006’s “Idlewild” musical film and its soundtrack, it would turn out to be an unfitting finale for the greatest duo that hip-hop has ever seen. And now we have to settle for André 3000 playing the flute on his new instrumental album, “New Blue Sun.”
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