60-Second Critic: Do What You Want, Be What You Are

Grade: A
Impossible to believe it was 40 years ago that two Temple students — Daryl Hall and John Oates — met and decided to make music together. Since then, they’ve racked up 22 Billboard Top 20 singles and six platinum albums, making them the most successful pop duo in history. Their career is definitively chronicled in this four-CD, 74-track box set, which moves chronologically from rare pre-duo recordings through all the hits, interspersed with obscure tunes (“Perkiomen”?), thoughtful TSOP covers, and superb previously unreleased live performances. The extensive liner notes (quotes from Mick Jagger, Carly Simon and Kenny Gamble, plus track-by-track H&O commentary) will provide more answers than you ever needed. A must for any hard-core fan.