John Oates’ NYC history and the origin of ‘Maneater’ | Music To My Years

He’s making New Yorkers’ dreams come true.

John Oates – one half of the best-selling music duo of all time Hall & Oates – returns to his Big Apple roots for the premiere of “Music To My Years” with The New York Post.

Oates, 76, hit up a few of his old stomping grounds in the city, like Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, his go-to guitar shop Rudy’s in Soho, and the former Gaslight Cafe – now The Up & Up – where Bob Dylan also got his start. “I can’t believe that’s where we played,” he said. “We weren’t playing folk music – trust me!”

Even the origin of “Maneater” has a lot to do with New York. A late-night bar hang with a “drop-dead gorgeous” woman with a “filthy vocabulary” inspired the hit song and the lyric: “Watch out, boy, she'll chew you up.” Oates said it started out as a reggae song, a version of which he recorded in 2023, and later became a metaphor for Manhattan.

Join the legendary rocker, along with The Post’s senior entertainment writer and music critic Chuck Arnold, for this epic trip down memory lane. “You gotta go back to the beginning to start over,” Oates, who was born at Bellevue Hospital, said. His eight solo album “Reunion” is out now, which he calls his “most personal album” yet.

As a duo, Daryl Hall and John Oates split in Nov. 2023 after releasing 18 studio albums, selling over 20 million records and scoring six no.1 singles.

#johnoates #maneater #musictomyears #reunion #hallandoates

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