Seals and Crofts

Seals and Crofts
Seals and Crofts in 1975
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Soft rock, pop rock, folk rock
Years active	1969–80, 1991–92, 2004
Labels	Warner Bros., Wounded Bird
Associated acts	The Champs
Website	sealsandcrofts.com
Past members	Jim Seals Darrell Crofts

Seals and Crofts were an American soft rock duo made up of James "Jim" Seals (born October 17, 1941) and Darrell "Dash" Crofts (born August 14, 1938). They are best known for their Hot 100 No. 6 hits "Summer Breeze" (1972), "Diamond Girl" (1973), and "Get Closer" (1976).

The duo disbanded in 1980. They reunited briefly in 1991–1992 and again in 2004, when they released their final album, Traces.^[1]

Both members have long been public advocates of the Bahá'í Faith.

Career

Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were both born in Texas, Seals in Sidney and Crofts in Cisco. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined a band called Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, where he played guitar; later on Crofts joined the band. With Beard, they moved to Los Angeles to join The Champs, but the two did so only after the group's "Tequila" reached No.1 in 1958. Seals also spent time during 1959 in the touring band of Eddie Cochran.

Jimmy Seals had a composition ("It's Never Too Late") recorded by Brenda Lee in 1961, which featured as the B-side of her U.S. Billboard No.6 single, "You Can Depend on Me". "It's Never Too Late" nevertheless reached No.101 on Billboard and No.100 on Cash Box (week ending 8 April 1961)^[2] in its own right. In the U.K., the sides were switched when the single was released, but the single failed to make the U.K. singles chart (at that time only a Top 50 listing).

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. 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 about the beginnings of the Baha'i Faith). Crofts eventually returned to California to join The Dawnbreakers and thus both Seals and Crofts were introduced to and became members of the Bahá'í Faith. However, the band turned out to be unsuccessful. Crofts married fellow Dawnbreaker Billie Lee Day in 1969 and Seals married Ruby Jean Anderson in 1970.

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 the record division of Talent Associates (TA) in 1969 and released two LPs, of which only the second reached the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at No. 122 in October 1970. The pair signed a new contract with Warner Bros. Records in August 1971.^[3] Their first album with their new label did not break into the charts, but their second album Summer Breeze charted at No. 7 in 1972. The record sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in December 1972.^[4]

The duo played at the California Jam festival in Ontario, California, on April 6, 1974. Attracting over 200,000 fans, the concert put them alongside '70s acts such as Black Sabbath; Eagles; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Deep Purple; Earth, Wind & Fire; Black Oak Arkansas; and Rare Earth. Portions of the show were telecast on ABC Television in the US, exposing the duo to a wider audience.

After a long and successful run of recordings in the 1970s, the two lost their contract with Warner Brothers in 1980 and decided to set aside music for a while.

Seals and Crofts are longtime adherents of the Baha'i faith. A number of their songs contain Baha'i references, including passages from 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 interested.^[5]

During the 80s, despite their no longer being officially together as a duo, they continued to appear at several Bahá'í gatherings, including a world peace concert at the Bahá'í Center in Los Angeles for the film and music community in February of 1989. After this, they made the rounds of Canadian radio stations and some American talk shows to promote the Peace Document.

Crofts lived in Mexico, Australia and then Nashville, Tennessee, playing country music and making occasional hit singles. Crofts currently resides on a ranch in the Texas hill country. Seals moved to Costa Rica and has lived on a coffee farm off and on since 1980, as well as in Nashville.

In 1991 Seals and Crofts officially reunited and made concert appearances once again until disbanding again a year later. In 1998 Dash released a solo CD titled Today, which contained some re-recordings of Seals and Crofts material and in 2004 the duo reunited again and recorded their first new album since 1980, released as Traces.

In the early 2000's up to 2008, Jim Seals embarked on various tours with his brother Dan (of England Dan & John Ford Coley fame), billing themselves as Seals & Seals and performing their successful hits from Seals & Crofts and England Dan & John Ford Coley, Dan's hits from his solo career, and a few original songs written between the two brothers. A few shows featured Jim's sons Joshua on bass guitar and backing vocals and Sutherland on electric guitar.^[6]

In December 2010 the bandmates' daughters Juliet Seals and Amelia Crofts, along with Genevieve Dozier, daughter of Seals & Crofts engineer Joey Bogan, formed a musical trio called The Humming Birds.^[7] They released their eponymous EP The Humming Birds in September 2012.

Seals is the brother of "England" Dan Seals, of England Dan & John Ford Coley, and later a well known country music star. Seals and Crofts were instrumental in England Dan & John Ford Coley becoming adherents to the Baha'i Faith,^[8] some 28 years before Coley became a Christian.^[9] Dan Seals died of cancer in 2009. At the time of his death, Dan and Jimmy Seals had been working on songs together.^[10] The status of those recordings is unknown.

Discography

Albums

• Seals & Crofts, 1969
• Down Home, 1970
• Year of Sunday, 1971, No. 133
• Summer Breeze, 1972, No. 7 (RIAA:Platinum)
• Diamond Girl, 1973, No. 4 (RIAA: Gold)
• Seals & Crofts I & II, 1974
• Unborn Child, 1974, No. 14 (RIAA: Gold)
• I'll Play for You, 1975, No. 30 (RIAA: Gold)
• Greatest Hits, 1975, No. 11 (RIAA: Platinum)
• Get Closer, 1976, No. 37 (RIAA: Gold)
• Sudan Village, 1976 (live), No. 73
• One on One (soundtrack), 1977, No. 118
• Takin' It Easy, 1978, No. 78
• Lote Tree, 1979
• Collection, 1979
• The Longest Road, 1980
• Traces, 2004

Singles

Songs in movies

• "These Moments Never Live Again", from Foolin' Around (1980)
• "My Fair Share" from One on One (1977)
• "Summer Breeze" from Dazed and Confused (1993)
• "Summer Breeze" from King of California (2007)
• "Summer Breeze" from Land of the Lost (2009)
• "Summer Breeze" from Vacation (2015)

See also

• "England" Dan Seals, Jim Seals' brother, was also a successful recording artist, first in the pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley and later as a country music artist.
• Troy Seals, country music artist, a cousin of Jim Seals.
• Brady Seals, a cousin of Jim Seals, frontman of the country groups Little Texas and Hot Apple Pie.

References

• George-Warren, H. (ed.) The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, 3rd ed., Fireside, New York, 2001.
• Landau, Deborah. "Introducing Seals and Crofts", Stereo Review, January 1971.

External links

• Official website
• Seals & Crofts: Pop Troubadours site