Seals and Crofts

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Seals and Crofts are Jim Seals (born James Seals, October 17, 1941, Sidney, Texas) and Dash Crofts (born Darrell Crofts, August 14, 1940, Cisco, Texas). The soft rock duo was one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s. They are best-known for their hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl". Seals' younger brother, Dan Seals was also well known as one half of the successful soft rock band in the same time period, England Dan and John Ford Coley, as well as a very successful country artist in the mid-1980s.

Career

Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were both born in Texas. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined a band called Dean Beard and the Crew Cuts where he played guitar; later on Crofts joined the band. With Beard, they moved to Los Angeles to join The Champs. In 1958, Seals and Crofts toured with The Champs.

In 1963, Jimmy Seals, Dash Crofts, Glen Campbell, and Jerry Cole left The Champs to form a band named "Glen Campbell and the GCs" which played at The Crossbow in Van Nuys, CA. The band only lasted a couple of years before the members went their separate ways. Crofts returned to Texas and Seals joined a band named The Dawnbreakers (a reference to a book by the same name). Crofts eventually returned to California to join The Dawnbreakers. However, The Dawnbreakers turned out to be unsuccessful. Crofts married fellow Dawnbreaker Billie Lee Day in 1969, and both Seals and Crofts were introduced and became members of the Bahá'í Faith.

After the failure with The Dawnbreakers, the two decided to play as a duo, with Seals on guitar, saxophone and violin, and Crofts on guitar and mandolin. They signed a contract with Talent Associates and released two LPs, which were largely ignored. The pair signed a new contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1971. Their first album with their new label was also unsuccessful, but their second album, Summer Breeze charted at #7 in 1972.

After a long and successful run of recordings in the 1970s, the two lost their contract with Warner Brothers and set aside music for a while. They held a short reunion tour in 1991–1992 and appeared at several Bahá'í gatherings. Crofts lived in Mexico, Australia and then Nashville, playing country music and making occasional hit singles. Seals moved to Costa Rica and has lived on a coffee farm off & on since 1980, and Crofts now lives on a ranch in the hill country of central Texas.

Seals and Crofts are both members of the Baha'i Faith. A number of their songs are inspired by Baha'i writings, and several contain references to tenets of the faith and actual passages of Baha'i scriptures. When they appeared in concert they often remained on stage after the performance to talk about the faith while local Baha'is passed out literature to anyone who was interested.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Seals and Crofts reunited and recorded, for the first time since 1998, a new album - Traces.

Discography

Albums

• Seals & Crofts, 1969
• Down Home, 1970
• Year Of Sunday, 1971, #133
• Summer Breeze, 1972, #7
• Diamond Girl, 1973, #4
• Seals & Crofts I & II, 1974
• Unborn Child, 1974, #14
• I'll Play For You, 1975, #30
• Greatest Hits, 1975, #11
• Get Closer, 1976, #37
• Sudan Village, 1976 (live), #73
• One On One (soundtrack), 1977, #118
• Takin' It Easy, 1978, #78
• Collection, 1979
• The Longest Road, 1980 (Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke appeared on track one, "Stars").
• Lote Tree, 1980
• Today, 1998
• Traces, 2004

Singles

• "Summer Breeze", 1972, charted at #6 Pop / #4 AC
• "Hummingbird", 1972, #20 Pop / #12 AC
• "Diamond Girl", 1973, #6 Pop / #4 AC
• "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)", 1973, #21 Pop / #2 AC
• "Unborn Child", 1974, #66 Pop
• "King Of Nothing", 1974, #60 Pop / #26 AC
• "I'll Play For You", 1975, #18 Pop / #4 AC
• "Castles In The Sand", 1975, #21 AC
• "Baby, I'll Give It To You", 1976, #58 Pop / #14 AC
• "Get Closer" (featuring Carolyn Willis of Honey Cone), 1976, #6 Pop / #2 AC
• "Goodbye Old Buddies", 1977, #10 AC
• "My Fair Share" (from the Robby Benson movie "One on One"), 1977, #28 Pop / #11 AC
• "You're the Love", 1978, #18 Pop / #2 AC
• "Takin' It Easy", 1978, #79 Pop
• "First Love", 1980, #37 AC

Songs in movies

• "These Moments Never Live Again", from Foolin' Around (1980)
• "My Fair Share", from One on One (1977)
• "Get Closer"
• "Summer Breeze" from Dazed and Confused (1993)

See also

• Dan "England Dan" Seals, Jim Seals' brother, was also a successful recording artist, first with the pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley and later as a country solo act. He died on March 25, 2009 due to complications of mantle cell lymphoma.
• Troy Seals, a cousin of Jim Seals, is a country music artist.
• Brady Seals, a cousin of Jim Seals, frontman of the country groups Little Texas and Hot Apple Pie.

References

• George-Warren, H (ed.) 2001, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, 3rd edn, Fireside, New York.
• Introducing Seals and Crofts -Interview/Article by Deborah Landau, from Stereo Review magazine; January 1971

External links

• Seals and Crofts official website
• Seals & Crofts: Pop Troubadours site