The Hall and Oates song about a serial killer
Artists don’t tend to have any control once their music is out in the world. Even though it may have started as the germ of an idea when working in a rehearsal room, every song a musician puts out will mean different things to everyone who listens to it. Although many would hope that their music would inspire people to do something with their lives, Hall and Oates were dealt a body blow when they found their work in connection with a murder.
Listening to their music, though, Hall and Oates were the last people many would suspect for writing about dark topics. Although the band had their traditional brand of rock and soul down to a science, one listener took the song ‘Rich Girl’ a bit too seriously when he ended up committing murder.
On the surface, ‘Rich Girl’ is just a typical complaint track sung about someone who thinks that money will answer all her problems. When infamous ‘Son of Sam’ killer David Berkowitz was acquitted for the deaths of six people in a murdering spree across New York City, he pointed out ‘Rich Girl’ specifically as his inspiration for carrying out the sinister act.
Although ‘Rich Girl’ was a hit around the same time that the killings took place, the timeline doesn’t add up when it comes to Berkowitz’s calculations. Since these killings were spread out over multiple months, ‘Rich Girl’ wasn’t even a hit on the charts yet by the time that the first murder had taken place, meaning that Berkowitz couldn’t have been so invested in the song to use it as inspiration.
This was far from the first serial killer to point the finger at music for inspiration. When Richard Ramirez was convicted of killing multiple people, he pointed to the AC/DC track ‘Night Prowler’ as his inspiration for carrying out the killings, even going under the moniker ‘Night Stalker’ from a riff off the rock band’s song.
Even though no artist wants to find themselves having inspired the killings of multiple people, the pop duo made the next best thing out of the deal. After settling the court case, Hall and Oates ventured into the studio to make their next album, Voices, featuring some of the most celebrated material of their career on songs like ‘Kiss on My List’.
Towards the end of the album, the band put a humorous spin on their controversy with ‘Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear The Voices)’. While the track itself is nothing but innocent soul-infused pop-rock of the classic Hall and Oates variety, many of the lyrics allude to the court case specifically, pointing out how absurd it would be for someone to blame a pop song for their deplorable acts.
Hall also takes a few swipes at other pieces that had generated controversy for the same thing, riffing on Charles Manson’s allegedly being inspired by The Beatles before namechecking ‘Son of Sam’ for ‘Rich Girl’s now-infamous reputation. For all of the great tracks they have made over the years, Hall and Oates never intended to make something that would drive someone to kill. It was all about making music to bring people together, and if someone did use their works for evil, they might as well counterbalance it with another optimistic tune.
