Hall and Oates: how we made I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)

Daryl Hall, singer-songwriter

We were recording the Private Eyes album in Jimi Hendrix’s old studio, Electric Lady, and had finished for the day. The only people left were myself, John and the engineer. I was still sitting at my keyboards, just playing around. I had this primitive drum machine, a Roland CompuRhythm, which had a setting called: “Rock 1”. I pushed the button and out came a rhythm. Then I played the first bassline that came into my head, followed by some chords, and thought: “Oh man! There’s something happening here!”

I yelled into the studio: “Turn the tapes on!” Then I shouted to John: “Play this line.” And I hummed something. John grabbed his guitar – and that was it. I basically wrote the song on the spot: it was being recorded as I was thinking of it. In the vocal booth, I sang some gibberish words and wrote some proper lyrics later. We added the alto sax later too.

Most people think the song is about a relationship and it is – but one with the music industry. I felt very manipulated at the time, by management and the record business. Like a pawn. “I can’t go for that – no can do.” That was something I said a lot.

A few years after the song topped the US charts, we did We Are the World, the USA For Africa famine relief record, with a lot of other stars. Everybody was in the room without their minders – a really unusual situation. I got talking to Michael Jackson and he said: “I hope you don’t mind. I stole the groove from I Can’t Go for That for my song Billie Jean.” I told him: “Oh Michael, what do I care? You did it very differently.”

I can’t say I’d ever noticed but he was quite insistent. Of course, I went away and listened to Billie Jean. And sure enough, it was our groove.

John Oates, guitar, vocals

Michael Jackson once came backstage after one of our shows in Los Angeles and told us: “I loved to dance to that song in my bedroom in front of the mirror.” What can I say? It’s an amazing groove, but it was all a bit of a fluke how it happened. Daryl just hit that button!

The phrase “No can do” is a common American expression and that’s what really inspired the song. In the early 80s, we’d had all these hits and been thrust into the upper echelons of pop stardom. There was no time for anything any more – there were so many demands on us. It was an amazing time to be popular, but there was a price. You lose any time for reflection or objectivity. We didn’t have personal lives.

So the song was a cry of defiance, our way of saying: “Enough is enough.” I don’t think the average person cares about all that music business stuff, but everyone has something they’ve had enough of. So because the song’s quite cryptic, it has universal appeal. I actually regret not saying “No can do” to more things – like that Learjet race we did for MTV. Daryl started on the east coast, I was on the west, and we each got in a Learjet with some fans and had a race towards the centre of the country, somewhere in Oklahoma.

We did some stupid shit, but hey, it was the 80s! Everything was oversized, excessive and ridiculous. Money was being thrown around. It was before Aids, so you could have sex and not die. The Wolf of Wall Street reminded me of those times: values like “More is better”, people taking drugs, and having sex on tables or in lifts and stuff. Young people today might see that and think it’s like a cartoon, but shit like that actually happened. And, as one of the most popular groups in the world, we were right in the middle of it all. It was pretty amazing.

• The hits collection Timeless Classics is out now. Hall and Oates tour the US from 19 April.