Background

In the early 1970s, Hall had formed Hall & Oates, a partnership with guitarist/songwriter John Oates. They had produced several hit pop singles, but Hall had grown to feel artistically limited and in 1977 was much more concerned with expressing his own outlook on life and music than with making more hit songs.^[2]

Fripp had dissolved his group King Crimson in 1974, and after a sabbatical, returned to music with session work and other guest appearances.

According to the notes for the 1999 CD reissue of Sacred Songs, and to Eric Tamm's book-length study^[2] of Fripp's music, Hall and Fripp first met in 1974. Already familiar with one another's work, the duo felt an instant rapport, and planned to work together.

In 1977, Hall and Fripp reconnected while Hall was writing songs for his solo debut; Hall drafted Fripp as producer and guitarist. Hall wrote all the songs, except "Urban Landscape", (a 'Frippertronics' solo), and "NYCNY" for which Fripp wrote the music and Hall the lyrics, and which appeared also on Fripp's Exposure (1979) only with different lyrics as "I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I've Had Enough of You".

Sacred Songs was recorded in a span of three weeks, with most of the songs initially recorded with Hall singing and playing piano alongside Fripp's guitar work, followed by overdubs by Hall & Oates' regular touring band. Hall insisted on working with his own band rather than with the Los Angeles session musicians who had played on Bigger Than Both of Us (1976), the previous fifth Hall & Oates album. Although the session players were uniformly excellent musicians, Hall felt their performances were hampered by a disconnectedness from the songs. The album was originally intended to be part of a loose trilogy of sorts with Peter Gabriel's 1978 second album and Fripp's Exposure (1979), all of which Fripp produced.^[2]

Besides Hall and Fripp, the backing band for the album consisted of bassist Kenny Passarelli, drummer Roger Pope, and guitarist Caleb Quaye, all of whom were then part of the second iteration of the Elton John Band, which had started recording and touring with John beginning in 1975.

RCA shelves the album

Though still relatively pop-oriented, Sacred Songs was very different from Hall & Oates, and RCA Records feared the album might be unsuccessful and alienate Hall's mainstream fans. So the company shelved the record, and the release was postponed indefinitely.

Outraged, Hall and Fripp passed tapes of Sacred Songs to music journalists and disc jockeys. Tosches notes that a groundswell of interest was generated inside the music profession and from Hall's fans with a letter-writing campaign directed at RCA requesting the album's release.^[2]

Release and afterwards

Upon release, Sacred Songs peaked at #58 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart; however, there was no hit single from the record.

Afterwards, Hall recorded vocals for most of the tracks on Fripp's solo debut, Exposure (1979), however due to pressure from RCA and Hall's management this was cut back to just two songs on the final release ("You Burn Me up I'm a Cigarette" and "North Star"). These are included on some CD versions of Sacred Songs. Nearly thirty years after Hall recorded these songs, most were finally released on the 2006 re-issue of Exposure (1979) by Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label. In notes for the 1999 Buddha Records CD reissue, Fripp describes Hall as the best all-around singer he'd ever met and speculates that had Sacred Songs been released as planned in 1977 at the height of the punk rock zeitgeist, music fans and critics might have seen Hall not only as a good R&B and pop singer, but rather as a creative innovator comparable to iconic British singer David Bowie.^[2]

Fripp and Hall considered forming a full-time band together with bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta, but only Levin stayed while Adrian Belew and Bill Bruford replaced Hall and Marotta, respectively. The group was originally planned to use the name Discipline, but gradually morphed into the Mark IV version of King Crimson.^[2]

In 2023, Hall performed "Survive" with Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke on Episode 86, and Hall and Fripp performed "NYCNY," "Babs and Babs," "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette," and "The Farther Away I Am" on episode 87 of Hall's TV show Live From Daryl's House. Episode 87 was the first time Hall and Fripp had performed together. Hall also performed songs from the album on other episodes. The song "North Star" was performed with Monte Montgomery on episode 9. "Babs and Babs" was performed with Guster on episode 38. "Why Was It So Easy" was performed with Butch Walker on episode 54. On episode 62, Hall also performed "NYCNY" with indie rock band Minus the Bear, the first time he had played the song since the 1978 studio recording of the album. With Ben Folds on episode 70, Hall performed "Babs and Babs" and "Don't Leave Me Alone With Her."^[3]

Bonus tracks

1. "You Burn Me Up, I'm a Cigarette" (Fripp, Hall) – 2:20
2. "North Star" (Fripp, Hall, Joanna Walton) – 3:10

Album