Born in Baltimore on July 23, 1948, but reared in Elmira, NY, John Hall made his name as guitarist, singer and songwriter with the band Orleans. Earlier, he had played with and/or written songs for Janis Joplin, Seals & Crofts, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt and composed music for a Broadway play. Orleans began their career in the early ’70s as a club and college party band in the Northeast and became known as one of the best unsigned bands in the nation before finally getting a record deal and scoring such Top 5 hit songs as “Dance With Me” and “Still The One.”
Hall entered electoral politics after time as an anti-nuclear power activist nationally with Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) alongside Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, appearing at the 1979 No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. And in the mid-Hudson River Valley where he lives to block the building of a new nuclear power plant. His first elected office was as a member of the Ulster County (NY) Legislature. He also was elected to the Saugerties (NY) Board of Education before he ran as a Democrat for the United States Congress in the New York 19th District in 2006 and won, serving from 2007 to 2011.
When Republican presidential candidates George W. Bush (in 2004) and John McCain (in 2008) started using “Still The One” in their campaigns, Hall objected and they dropped the song. However, it seems he had no issues with ABC-TV adopting it as their theme song for two seasons (1977-80) as well as being used as a commercial jingle for Burger King, Nutrisystem, Frontier Airlines and ESPN, ensuring he never needed to work another day for the rest of his life. Nonetheless, he still performs and records today.
Hall released his sixth solo album, Reclaiming My Time, in 2021.
Related: Hall published his memoirs in 2016
6 Comments
Thanks for the update=always liked their music especially Spring Fever!
It’s a shame that there’s not some decent actual performance footage available of such a great, under-rated band. That Solid Gold footage is pretty lame.
I saw John with Orleans in 2017. Hadn’t seen him since seeing them in Gainesville, FL. in 1974. I was shocked how amazing they still are. Great show, timeless.
Here in Australia, “Still the One” was also used as the theme for the Nine Network for many years.
It’s all about the almighty dollar. How many actual chemical fires and oil spills vs. Nuclear? But anyway— whose idea was it to stand half naked on the album cover and I dare to ask what’s on the “back” of the album. Haha!
I saw Orleans at the new SUNY at Purchase. Had to walk on wood planks through the not yet seeded campus grounds to get there. Fantastic. Fab singing, playing, song writing. Their final encore, Del Shannon’s “Runaway”
Hmmm! I wonder where Bonnie got the idea to cover it?