Biography:

Seals and Crofts was an American soft rock duo made up of Jimmy Eugene Seals (October 17, 1942 – June 6, 2022)^[1][2][a] and Darrell George “Dash” Crofts (born August 14, 1938)^[5] They are best known for their hits “Summer Breeze” (1972), “Diamond Girl” (1973), and “Get Closer” (1976), each of which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Both members have long been public advocates of the Baháʼí Faith. Though the duo disbanded in 1980, they reunited briefly in 1991–1992, and again in 2004, when they released their final album, Traces.^[6]

Early careers

Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were both born in Texas, Seals in Sidney in 1942, and Crofts in Cisco in 1938. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined an outfit called Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, in which he played sax; later on, Crofts joined Seals in 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.

Seals had a song (“It’s Never Too Late”) recorded by Brenda Lee in 1961, which was 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 April 8, 1961)^[7] in its own right. In the UK, the sides were switched when the single was released, but the single failed to make the UK Singles Chart (at that time only a Top 50 listing).

By 1963, Seals, 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, California. The band lasted only 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 The Dawn-Breakers, a book about the beginnings of the Baha’i Faith). Crofts eventually returned to California to team up with Seals again, in the Dawnbreakers, and thus both Seals and Crofts were introduced to and became members of the Baháʼí Faith. After becoming longtime adherents of the Bahá’í Faith, a number of their songs began to include references to and passages from Bahá’í scripture. When they appeared in concert, they often remained on stage after the performance to talk about the faith, while local Bahá’ís passed out literature to anyone interested.^[8]

As Seals and Crofts

After the failure of 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. Crofts married fellow Dawnbreaker Billie Lee Day in 1969 and Seals married Ruby Jean Anderson in 1970. The pair signed a new contract with Warner Bros. Records in August 1971.^[9] Their first album with their new label, Year of Sunday, peaked at #133 in the US. Their second Warner Bros. album, Summer Breeze, was a hit, peaking at No. 7 in 1972. The title cut was released as a single, peaking at #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #6 Pop. The song “Hummingbird” was the second single released from the album, climbing to #12 AC, #20 Pop. The album has since been certified 2× platinum by the RIAA for sales of two million copies in the US.^[10]

In 1973 Warner Bros. released Diamond Girl. That album has been certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies in the US. The title song reached No. 6 on the US chart in July 1973, and another single, “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)“, peaked at No. 21.

The controversial Unborn Child followed in 1974. Written shortly after Roe v. Wade, Seals & Crofts expressed their anti-abortion position in the title song, which created a huge dilemma for radio stations. Some stations banned it while others added it to rotation. The album still went gold despite the controversy and the lack of a Top 40 hit.

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 1970s 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.

1975’s I’ll Play for You was a gold seller as well, featuring the No. 18 hit title track, and their multi-platinum selling Greatest Hits, released later the same year, has been certified 2× platinum.

The duo had a return to the singles chart with the song “Get Closer“, the title track from their 1976 album. Carolyn Willis (from the R&B vocal group Honey Cone) appeared on the song and it peaked at No. 6 in July of that year. Willis also joined them for their 1976 tour, which resulted in the live album Sudan Village.

The pair also recorded songs that appeared in the feature films One on One (1977) and Foolin’ Around (1980), as well as the song “First Years” that was the theme song to the debut (1978–79) season of the television series The Paper Chase.

1978’s Takin’ It Easy featured the two branching out and experimenting with other types of sounds, including the disco influenced “You’re the Love“, which reached No. 18. But their gold selling days were behind them by this point.

In 1979 they contributed to the album Lote Tree, which was a narrated history of the Baháʼí Faith that included songs by them and other artists. It was distributed only within Baháʼí media outlets.

The Longest Road, released in 1980, was their last for Warner Brothers.

Credits:

Wikipedia