“Sounds of the universe crying”: This pop icon’s label wanted a pop solo album. He gave them a prog record instead. Which is why they suppressed it for three years

Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates, posed outside of the TopPop Studio Hilversum, Netherlands, January 1976. (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns).

In 1977 Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame made his debut solo album, Sacred Songs, with major input from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. The results concerned Hall’s label so much that they tried to shelve it for good. In 2011 Prog recalled how they’d failed – although they managed to stall for three years.

In theory Sacred Songs, the first solo album by Daryl Hall, scheduled for release in 1977, should have done well. After all, Hall & Oates were going gold in late 70s America. Yet when Hall’s label, RCA, heard the finished results they ordered it to be shelved.