Besides Hall and Fripp, the backing band for the album consisted of bassist Kenny Passarelli, drummer Roger Pope, and guitarist Caleb Quaye, all of whom were then part of the second iteration of the Elton John Band, which had started recording and touring with John beginning in 1975. RCA shelves the album Though still relatively pop-oriented, Sacred Songs was very different from Hall & Oates, and RCA feared the album might be unsuccessful and alienate Hall's mainstream fans. So the company shelved the record, and release was postponed indefinitely. Outraged, Hall and Fripp passed tapes of Sacred Songs to music journalists and disc jockeys. Tosches notes that a groundswell of interest was generated inside the music profession and from Hall's fans with a letter-writing campaign directed at RCA requesting the album's release. Release and afterwards Upon release, Sacred Songs peaked at #58 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart; however, there was no hit single from the record. Afterwards, Hall recorded vocals for most of the tracks on Fripp's solo debut, Exposure (1979), however due to pressure from RCA and Hall's management this was cut back to just two songs on the final release ("You Burn Me up I'm a Cigarette" and "North Star"). These are included on some CD versions of Sacred Songs. Nearly thirty years after Hall recorded these songs, most were finally released on the 2006 re-issue of Exposure (1979) by Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label. In notes for the 1999 Buddha Records CD reissue, Fripp describes Hall as the best all-around singer he'd ever met and speculates that had Sacred Songs been released as planned in 1977 at the height of the punk rock zeitgeist, music fans and critics might have seen Hall not only as a good R&B and pop singer, but rather as a creative innovator comparable to iconic British singer David Bowie. Fripp and Hall considered forming a full-time band together with bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta, but only Levin stayed while Adrian Belew and Bill Bruford replaced Hall and Marotta, respectively. The group was originally planned to use the name Discipline, but gradually morphed into the Mark IV version of King Crimson. Hall performed the song "NYCNY" with indie rock band Minus the Bear on Episode 62 his TV show, Live From Daryl's House. In the commentary after the song was played, Hall mentions that it was the first time he