Hall Private

2008 five CD box. The Original Album Classics series, courtesy of Sony/BMG, packages together five classic albums from one of the most popular artists on the label's roster, housing them in an attractive slipcase. This set from the American Pop/Soul duo features the albums Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975), Bigger Than Both Of Us (1976), Beauty On A Back Street (1977), Private Eyes (1981) and H2O (1982).

There's one thing wrong with The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates, and it's minor – the promotional 12" mix of "Adult Education" is included in favor of the 7" version. This isn't a big deal and it doesn't mar what is the best overview of Hall & Oates' RCA years, the era when they became the biggest-selling duo in the history of rock…

Hall & Oates' 12 Inch Collection brings together a cache of alternate mixes of several of the duo's hits. However, it should be noted that this set is geared toward the dance club and would generally be of little interest to those looking for familiar versions of "Private Eyes" and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)," which can be found on a bevy of other collections of the group. For those looking for extended and edited Hall & Oates mixes, 12 Inch Collection should do the trick.

RCA/BMG released their first CD-era comprehensive Hall & Oates collection, The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates, in 2001. It was a single-disc, 18-track collection that contained all of the duo's big hits from the '70s and '80s apart from "She's Gone," which they recorded for Atlantic in the first half of the '70s. Even though that was a major omission, the collection was the best place to get the bulk of the hits until BMG Heritage released Ultimate Daryl Hall + John Oates three years later…