She's Gone (Hall & Oates song)
| "She's Gone" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "I'm Just a Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like a Man)" |
"She's Gone" is a song written and originally performed by pop music duo Daryl Hall and John Oates. It was included on their 1973 album, Abandoned Luncheonette.
Background/Hall & Oates version
The song was released as a single (Atlantic 2993) in 1974. It was a major hit in Hall & Oates' home market of Philadelphia and was moderately successful nationally, peaking at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Two years later in 1976, after Hall & Oates had moved to RCA Records and had scored with the hit "Sara Smile," Atlantic Records re-released the original single under a different number (Atlantic 3332). This time "She's Gone" was a hit, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the R&B chart, the song peaked at #93.[1]
This song was included on its single version in Hall & Oates's 1983 greatest hits compilation Rock and Soul Part 1 and the album version is included in numerous other compilations such as The Singles (2008), The Essential (2005), Looking Back: The Best Of (1991) but the song is missing on the albums The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates (2001) and Playlist: The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates (2008).
Daryl Hall, according to some reports,[citation needed] has called it the best song he and John Oates wrote together. Both performers were undergoing romantic problems at the time the song was written. A 1985 article in Rolling Stone said the song was about Hall's divorce from wife Bryna Lublin, while VH1's Behind the Music episode on the duo showed Oates explaining it was about a girlfriend that stood him up on New Year's Eve.
John Oates spoke of the song in a 2009 interview with American Songwriter: "I sat down with the guitar and sang the chorus of 'She's Gone' basically the way that it is. Then I played it for Daryl because I didn't have anything else. It just happened. I said, 'Hey, I’ve got this really great chorus.' And we wrote the verses together. 'She’s Gone' is a song that endures."[full citation needed]
Chart performance
Weekly singles charts
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Year-end charts
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Promotional video
The promotional video for "She's Gone," directed by John Oates' sister,[6] opens with shots of the "abandoned luncheonette" (see note about Album Cover on Abandoned Luncheonette) in which Hall & Oates sit in recliners, Hall wearing a robe and women's platform sandals, Oates wearing a sleeveless tuxedo shirt and pants and singing the song while a woman in a long dress (played by Sara Allen) and a man dressed in a shiny red devil's costume (played by Randy Hoffman, the band's tour manager)[7] repeatedly walk past the pair. Daryl Hall only lip syncs the portions of the song that he sings in harmony with John Oates during the video (none of the parts where he sings solo), while John Oates does lip sync his solo parts. Towards the end of the video, Oates rises, dons a jacket with long cuffs, and proceeds to emulate the song's guitar solo with his hands completely covered by the sleeves of his jacket, which makes it appear as if he has fish fins for hands.[8]
John Oates later explained that Hall & Oates had made the video to be shown at a television dance show based in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The duo had initially been asked to perform the song live on the show, but feeling that it was not the right type of song to perform live for the occasion, they decided to lip sync the song in a unique format instead.[6] (In an earlier Oates interview, he insinuated that they were in fact asked to lip sync the performance of the song in a "live" context, but that they were against that idea and opted to create a video to be aired during the broadcast.)[9] According to Oates, the dance show declined to broadcast the video.[6][9] The video was described by Mental Floss as "The Craziest Hall & Oates Video Ever".[10]
Personnel
- Daryl Hall - lead vocals, electric piano
- John Oates - lead vocals, wah-wah guitar
- Joe Farrell - tenor saxophone
- Chris Bond - electric guitar, mellotron, synthesizer
- Steve "Fontz" Gelfand - bass
- Bernard Purdie - drums
- Ralph MacDonald - percussion
Tavares version
| "She's Gone" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "To Love You" |
In 1974, the American R&B band Tavares covered the song for their album, Hard Core Poetry. The song became a hit, topping the U.S. R&B chart and peaking at #50 on the Hot 100.[11]
Chart performance
| Chart (1974) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 50 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles | 1 |
Other cover versions
In 1975, Lou Rawls covered his version from the same titled album.
Dee Dee Bridgewater recorded the song as "He's Gone" for her 1976 eponymous debut album.
The Captain and Tennille and Dionne Warwick covered the Hall & Oates version in 1977, as a live duet between Toni Tennille and Dionne Warwick, on The Captain and Tennille Show. The lyrics' pronouns were changed to the perspective of a woman losing her man (i.e the song became 'He's Gone').[12]
In 1996, Hall & Oates band member Daryl Hall re-recorded the song from his solo album "Can't Stop Dreaming", the album was originally released in Japan but it was later re-released by U.S. for a re-issue of the solo album in 2003.
In 1998, the song was covered by Matthew Marsden featuring Destiny's Child.
In 2000, Jacksoul covered the song on their album Sleepless.
In 2008, Hall and Oates themselves sang a parody of the song entitled "He's Gone", about Alan Colmes leaving the show Hannity & Colmes, for The Daily Show.
In 2010, The Bird and the Bee covered the song for their tribute album Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates.
In 2012, Emm Gryner released a cover of the song for her EP She's Gone: A Hall & Oates Tribute EP.
In 2015, Morgan James released a cover of the song for her LP Hunter.
Usage in media
Their version of the song was featured for The Bird and the Bee in the Halloween episode of Outsourced (Season 1 Episode 6), when Asha and Todd were slow dancing.
A version of the song was sung during a sketch on Late Night With Conan O'Brien by O'Brien and his house band. The sketch featured Conan's longtime trombone player Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg being so upset by Conan's glowing reception for Rosenberg's replacement for the previous week that he left the studio. Heartbroken, Conan starts to sing a version of the song titled "He's Gone", while a montage of LaBamba leaving the studio and living on the streets of New York played. After being forced to eat his own trombone, LaBamba returns to the studio, which Conan responds to with a more triumphant reprise of the song titled "He's Back."
"She's Gone" is also featured in the 2004 movie "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." The song was more recently mentioned in the 2015 movie "Pixels," with Hall and Oates appearing on screen and "She's Gone" referred in relation to Earth being destroyed by alien attacks.
Dan Dorian (played by Tom Cavanagh) sings a sorrowful version of the song in the Scrubs episode "My Common Enemy" after Elliot breaks up with him.
The films Better Off Dead and Men, Women & Children also feature the song.
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 242.
- ^ https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.5110A&type=1&interval=50&PHPSESSID=rmfaovmr01svjrf5qh0mjjc5e3
- ^ http://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/She%27s%20Gone/
- ^ http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1976.htm
- ^ http://50.6.195.142/archives/70s_files/1976YESP.html
- ^ a b c Locker, Melissa (2015-07-09). "Q&'80s: John Oates on the Legacy of Hall & Oates' 'She's Gone'" Retrieved 1-16-2016.
- ^ "John Oates' favorite Hall and Oates video might surprise you: 'One that we did totally on our own'". Something Else!. 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
- ^ Singh, Amrit (2008-01-29). "Video Hangover: Hall & Oates – "She's Gone"". Stereogum. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
- ^ a b Ryan (2009-08-14). "John Oates: The Losanjealous Interview: "The Mustache is Not Me, and I'm Not the Mustache…"". Losanjealous. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
- ^ Higgins, Chris (2012-04-26). "The Craziest Hall & Oates Video Ever". Mental Floss. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 567.
- ^ "Dionne Warwick & Toni Tennille- He's Gone (CAT 1977)". YouTube.com. Retrieved 30 April 2016.