Since coming together in 1970, three years after first meeting at Philadelphia’s Adelphi Ballroom, the pair have steadily upended the landscape of contemporary pop via selling a certified 13 million albums and six million singles in the U.S. alone. From the sheer omnipotence of FM staples like “Maneater,” “You Make My Dreams (Come True),” and “I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)”, to a slew of carefully-crafted gems like “She’s Gone,” “Rich Girl” and “Private Eyes”, the pair’s synonymy with pure pop finesse has long been beyond speculation.

2020 was all set to be a landmark year for the pair. Setting off on the road with Squeeze and KT Tunstall to mark a half-century making music together, things got off to a smooth start. And then everything ground to halt. Speaking to me from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, John Oates, thankfully, can see the wood for the trees. “We did literally one show together and then it was over,” he explains, “but the sequestered period has actually been quite inspiring for me. It’s given me time to do a lot of things I would not have been able to do if I had been on the road. I worked on a great movie Gringa, which is out this year. The director - a good friend - asked if I would come up with a song and I ended up coming up with five. I also collaborated and sang in Spanish with a young artist from Mexico, Ximena Sariñana. So I did all these things that were totally outside of the box for me.”

A picture of health and the sound of contentment, 72-year-old Oates has good reason to be in high spirits. Late last year, he and his old friend Daryl Hall reached yet another milestone when their 1981 Yacht Rock classic, “You Make My Dreams (Come True)”, became one of a handful of songs to hit 1 billion digital streams. Though it wasn't originally released as a single in the UK, the song - which has featured in films such as 500 Days of Summer and The Wedding Singer - has evolved from a minor hit to bona fide pop classic over the last four decades.

It’s just the latest chapter in the pair’s cultural renaissance over the last two decades. Along with myriad younger listeners, your writer first encountered their music in the soundtrack to the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto: Vice City back in the early 2000s. That one song, the singularly ear-worming “Out of Touch,” first released in 1984, doubled as a perfect gateway for the uninitiated.

“My son was quite young, but he was starting to play the game,” Oates tells me. “He told me that our song was in this video game. I’d never heard of the video game and I didn’t even know that video games had songs. So that was totally eye-opening for me when he turned me on to it. I guess I kind of discovered it the same way.”

Fast-forward two decades and John Oates is firmly intent on making the present moment count. At a time when many families are struggling to make ends meet, he and his wife, Aimee, have spent the last few weeks planning a fundraiser event, Oates Song Fest 7908. Going live on 20 March, the free webcast will feature virtual performances from the likes of Oates, Dave Grohl, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and many more.

“All the benefits from the event go to Feeding America,” Oates tells me. “It’s a great organisation and a very transparent company. 98% of money raised goes directly to the food. My wife and I are very aware of what’s going on. It’s incredible how many American families are going without food. For us personally, to think of a country like America, with so many resources, it just didn’t seem right. We wanted to do more to help out. Just being home this period of time has given me more time to think and to contemplate other things, other than what I would normally be doing, like running around, doing shows and things. So we’re collecting videos from various artists. I also have a very interesting co-host called Saxsquatch. He and I have become good friends, believe it or not.”

Looking further down the line, Oates is cautiously optimistic that he and Hall will be able to celebrate their half-century together before the year is out. “Daryl and I have our tour planned for August of this year,” he says. “It’s a moving target but that’s our plan and we’ll hopefully do it. Our promoters think that we’ll be able to pull this off in some way, shape or form, so we’re going to try to do it. Right now, that’s what’s happening. If things change for the worse we’ll push it back, but if they don’t, hopefully we’ll be able to start playing live music again.”

As will come with any two artists working in each other’s pockets over five decades, Daryl Hall and John Oates haven’t always seen eye to eye. Many have been quick to over-scrutinise this when, in reality, it’s simply been one small facet of what is ultimately a healthy working relationship between two artists in their very own right: hence their desire to be referred to by their full names.

“I think there’s a tradition with most duos, or people who work together, that there is going to be a little conflict,” Oates says. “That they have this dynamic that is less than friendly or less than positive. Daryl and I have our differences. We’re not the same people. Our company is called Two Headed Monster, which is an ironic name for what we do. But at the same time, we gave ourselves space. I think we learned, and we’re smart enough to not push each other in certain directions. We have the individual freedom to do whatever we want. He started making solo albums in the ‘70s and it wasn’t even a thought in my mind to be like, “Oh, you can’t do that.” Who am I to say what he can and can’t do with his music, and vice versa?

“I think establishing that kind of relationship early on really was a positive thing that could carry us into the future,” he adds. “And it has. We have that kind of attitude. In fact, Daryl’s going to be on the song festival. He’s doing one of his great solo songs. I thought that was really cool, because I’m sure everyone expected Daryl and I would do a song together. Well, we’re actually not. I’m going to do a brand-new song that I wrote and he’s going to do one of his. We further establish ourselves as individuals who work together. That’s the gist of our relationship.”

This level of nurtured understanding and - crucially - interdependence is precisely why the pair are still an active proposition 51 years in. While the road ahead remains uncertain, and the turn-offs aren’t always clear, one suspects we’ll be hearing from them for many years to come. As for Oates, his Nine Songs choices here - including several artists set for Oates Song Fest 7908 - reveal a deep love not simply of song, but of creators and their craft, and the many worlds in which they can thrive and belong.