Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock and soul singer-songwriter. He is best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Hall & Oates, with guitarist and songwriter John Oates. Outside of his work in Hall & Oates, he has also released six solo albums, including the 1980 collaboration with progressive rock guitarist Robert Fripp, Sacred Songs. His 1986 album Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine provided his best-selling single, "Dreamtime", which peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. He has also collaborated on numerous works by other artists, such as Fripp's 1979 release Exposure, and Dusty Springfield's 1995 album A Very Fine Love, which produced a UK Top 40 hit with "Wherever Would I Be". Since late 2007, he has hosted the streaming television series Live from Daryl's House, in which he performs alongside other artists, doing a mix of songs from each's catalog. The show has been rebroadcast on a number of cable and satellite channels as well.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hall scored numerous Billboard chart hits and is regarded as one of the best soul singers of his generation. Fripp, who worked with Hall several times, has written, "Daryl's pipes were a wonder. I have never worked with a more able singer." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On November 1, 2023, his TV series (Live from Daryl's House) returned on Hall's YouTube channel with an episode featuring Squeeze singer/songwriter Glenn Tilbrook. The new batch of episodes also featured Blackberry Smoke singer/guitarist Charlie Starr, King Crimson guitarist and Daryl Hall solo album producer Robert Fripp, Lisa Loeb and Howard Jones.
Hall was born on October 11, 1946, in Pottstown, a Pennsylvania borough 40 miles (64 km) from Philadelphia; his family is of German descent. Both of his parents had a background in music; his father came from a choral-group clan and his mother was a vocal coach. He began recording music with a student at Owen J. Roberts High School, from which he graduated in 1964.
Hall is Jewish. At college at Temple University in Philadelphia, he majored in music, while continuing to record. He worked with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as both an artist and a session musician. While a student, Hall met and eventually married Byrna Lublin, whom he converted to Judaism for. During his first semester at Temple, in the fall of 1965, he and four other Temple University students formed the vocal harmony group the Temptones.
They were popular additions to the largely black Philly soul scene, defeating both The Ambassadors and The Delfonics in a contest at the Uptown Theater. The Temptones recorded a handful of singles for Arctic Records, produced by Jimmy Bishop. While performing at the Uptown Theater, Hall formed creative affiliations with artists including Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, and many other top soul singers of the 1960s.
In 1967, Hall met John Oates, who was also an undergraduate at Temple University. According to Hall, they met when "We got in the middle of a fight at a dance–I have no idea what the fight was about. I guess the Greek letters on one gang's jackets didn't appeal to the other gang. We both beat it out the back and met on the elevator while leaving the place rather quickly." Hall was by then a senior while Oates was a freshman. They played together until Oates transferred to a different school at age 19. Hall did not let Oates's departure discourage him from pursuing his own musical career: he dropped out of college in 1968 and worked with Tim Moore in a short-lived rock band, Gulliver, and released an album on the Elektra Records label. He was a member of the studio group behind the project Electric Indian whose song "Keem-O-Sabe" became a big hit in 1969. In 1969 Hall again began recording songs by other artists, which led to the duo Hall & Oates signing their first record contract in early 1972.
Signed to Atlantic by Ahmet Ertegun and managed by Tommy Mottola in the early 1970s, Daryl Hall and John Oates have sold more albums than any other duo in music history. Their second album, Abandoned Luncheonette, produced by Arif Mardin and released in 1973, yielded the single "She's Gone", which went to No. 7 in the U.S. Top 10 on re-release in 1976 after reaching No. 1 on the R&B charts when it was covered by Tavares. The duo recorded one more album for Atlantic, War Babies (produced by Todd Rundgren), before they were dropped and promptly signed by RCA Records. During their tenure at RCA, the duo catapulted to international superstardom.
From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Daryl Hall and John Oates scored six U.S. No. 1 singles, including "Rich Girl" (also No. 1 R&B), "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (also No. 1 R&B), "Maneater" and "Out of Touch" from their six multi-platinum albums – Bigger Than Both of Us, Voices, Private Eyes, H2O, Rock 'n Soul Part 1 and Big Bam Boom – the last five of which were released consecutively. The era also produced an additional six U.S. Top 10 singles, "Sara Smile", "One on One", "Family Man", "You Make My Dreams", "Say It Isn't So" and "Method of Modern Love".
In 1972, Daryl Hall and John Oates opened for David Bowie, who was performing in his first tour of the United States as his stage persona Ziggy Stardust.
The duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
In November 2023, Daryl Hall sued John Oates and obtained a temporary restraining order against him, for initially undisclosed reasons. The following week, Hall filed a declaration accusing Oates of "the ultimate partnership betrayal" for planning to sell his share of the duo's publishing to Primary Wave Music. Oates responded that Hall's statements were "inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate". Hall and Oates resolved their legal dispute in August 2025, after participating in arbitration.
In addition to his work with Oates, Hall recorded music as a solo artist as well as recording with Robert Fripp in the late 1970s, working on Fripp's critically praised Exposure album from 1979. In 1977 Fripp produced and performed on Hall's debut solo album, the much-acclaimed Sacred Songs. This album was released in 1980.
In 1984 Hall co-wrote and produced, with Arthur Baker, the single "Swept Away" for Diana Ross, which reached US No. 19, US R & B No. 3 and US Dance/Club Play No. 1. In 1985 he performed two songs during the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. Hall participated in the We Are the World session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia. He also made an album with Dave Stewart that year, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine, which yielded his number five solo single "Dreamtime". He has recorded solo works like Soul Alone in 1993 and Can't Stop Dreaming in 1996, both of which were received well internationally. In 1994 he composed "Gloryland", the official album of the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
In 2007 Hall guest-starred on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, playing an MC of a "world music" festival. On March 12, 2008, he played a well-received set with his band at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Hall was slated to sing the National Anthem of the United States before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park but, due to an illness, could not appear, and Oates sang it instead. In 2009, Hall guest starred as himself on the Independent Film Channel series, Z-Rock.
In 2010 Hall was back in the studio working on a solo recording with bassist and musical director T-Bone Wolk. Wolk died of a heart attack on February 28, 2010, hours after completing a session with Hall. Hall released a statement about the death of his bassist of nearly 30 years: "It's not if I will go on, but how? T-Bone was one of the most sensitive and good human beings that I have ever known."
On June 11, 2010, Hall shared the stage with electronic duo Chromeo for a special late night set at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Their set consisted of a mix of both Hall & Oates and Chromeo tracks.