Daryl Hall and John Oates: Lawsuit filed between 80s pop duo

Iconic 80s pop rock duo Daryl Hall and John Oates are embroiled in a confidential legal battle with court documents sealed.

The lawsuit involves Hall, 77, suing and taking out a restraining order against his former bandmate, Oates, 75.

According to court records, the lawsuit was filed in Nashville’s chancery court on 16 November.

The duo are best known for chart-topping hits including Maneater, You Make My Dreams and Private Eyes.

Court documents show that the case has been categorised as a “contract/debt” dispute, and the lawsuit against Oates is an individual and his trust.

On 17 November the court granted a temporary restraining order, beginning 30 November.

Neither of the two pop artists have publicly commented on the matter.

In 2022, Daryl Hall told Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast that Oates and him were “brothers, but we are not creative brothers. We are business partners. We made records called Hall & Oates together, but we’ve always been very separate, and that’s a really important thing for me”.

Talking about their 1980 number one hit song, Kiss on My List, Hall said: “I did all those harmonies. That’s all me.”

Hall also told the BBC in an interview in 2021 that although there were other names of the credits, he pretty much wrote You Make My Dreams (Come True) by himself.

The song has sold over one million copies in the UK.

Formed in Philadelphia in the 1970, Hall and Oates are the most commercially successful duo in the history of pop, beating everyone from Simon and Garfunkel to Daft Punk.

The duo, who entered the hall of fame in 2014, have sold more than 40 million records worldwide, released 18 studio albums and spent 246 weeks in the US charts during the 1980s.