An article from American Songwriter highlights three well-known songs from the 1980s that drew direct inspiration from, or sampled, hit tracks by Daryl Hall & John Oates. The piece underscores the duo's outsized influence on the pop and hip-hop landscape of the decade, with acts ranging from Michael Jackson to Van Halen borrowing musical ideas from their work, often with Hall's good-humoured blessing.

Michael Jackson's 1983 hit "Billie Jean" reportedly took its groove from "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", a debt Daryl Hall acknowledged publicly while noting Jackson made it his own. That same Hall & Oates track was later sampled directly by De La Soul for their 1989 anti-drugs song "Say No Go", addressing America's crack cocaine epidemic. Van Halen's 1984 chart-topper "Jump" is also said to have drawn its famous synth line from "Kiss On My List", according to comments Hall made in an interview, though producer Ted Templeman admitted he initially doubted the song's synth-driven direction.