- Seals and Crofts
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Seals and Crofts Origin Los Angeles, California, United States Genres Soft rock, pop rock Years active 1969–1980, 1991–1992, 2004 Labels Warner Bros.
Wounded BirdAssociated acts England Dan & John Ford Coley Past members Jim Seals
Dash CroftsSeals and Crofts is a band made up of 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 another successful soft rock band in the same time period, England Dan & John Ford Coley, as well as for his success as a country artist starting in the mid-1980s.) The duo disbanded in 1980, and both members went on to become public advocates of the Bahá'í Faith. They reunited briefly in 1991–1992 and again in 2004, when they released their final album, Traces.[1]
Contents
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, California 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 about the beginnings of the Baha'i Faith 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 to 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 the record division of Talent Associates (TA) in 1969 and released two LPs, which did not chart. The pair signed a new contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1971. Their first album with their new label did not break into the charts, but their second album Summer Breeze charted at #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.[2]
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. They held a short reunion tour in 1991–1992 and appeared at several Bahá'í gatherings. Crofts lived in Mexico, Australia and then Nashville, Tennessee, playing country music and making occasional hit singles. Seals moved to Costa Rica and has lived on a coffee farm off and on since 1980, as well as in Nashville. Crofts currently resides on a ranch in the Texas hill country.
Seals and Crofts are longtime adherents of the Baha'i faith. A number of their songs have references to Baha'i, 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.[3]
In 2003 Seals and Crofts reunited and recorded a new album for the first time since 1998, released as Traces (2004).
In 2011 the bandmates' daughters, Juliet Seals and Amelia Crofts, used the name "Seals and Crofts" for their musical act.
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
Year Single Peak chart positions Album US US AC 1972 "Summer Breeze" 6 4 Summer Breeze 1973 "Hummingbird" 20 12 "Diamond Girl" 6 4 Diamond Girl "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" 21 2 1974 "Unborn Child" 66 - Unborn Child "The King of Nothing" 60 26 1975 "I'll Play for You" 18 4 I'll Play for You "Castles in the Sand" — 21 1976 "Baby I'll Give It To You" 58 14 Sudan Village "Get Closer" 6 2 Get Closer 1977 "Goodbye Old Buddies" — 10 "My Fair Share" 28 11 One on One soundtrack 1978 "You're the Love" 18 2 Takin' It Easy "Takin' It Easy" 79 — 1980 "First Love" — 37 Longest Road "—" denotes releases that did not chart 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)
- "Summer Breeze" from King of California (2007)
- "Summer Breeze" from Land of the Lost (2009)
See also
- Dan "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
- ^ Steve Huey. "Seals & Crofts – Biography". All Music Guide. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p5384/biography. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
- ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 320. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ Steve Huey. "Seals & Crofts – Biography". Pandora. http://www.pandora.com/music/artist/seals+crofts. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
- 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
Categories:- American Bahá'ís
- American rock music groups
- Carlton Records artists
- Challenge Records artists
- Musical duos
- Musical groups from Texas
- 21st-century Bahá'ís
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