Jim Seals, who has died aged 79, was half of the musical duo Seals and Crofts, whose Summer Breeze debuted in the first half of the 1970s.
Seals and Crofts blended close-harmony singing with spiritually oriented lyrics and some minor stylistic touches in the wake of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s harmony-drenched music, as well as part of a trend of melodious artists including America and Bread.
Darrell “Dash” Crofts multitasked on drums, mandolin, and keyboards while Seals played guitar, saxophone, and fiddle; the two were able to integrate aspects of bluegrass, country, and jazz into their compositions via compositional twists that elevated their music beyond simple listening.
Diamond Girl (1973) and We May Never Pass This Way (Again), both released in 1973, were two more lushly produced albums that combined their distinctive harmonies with R&B-style piano. With a dramatic string arrangement similar to some of Jimmy Webb’s colossal ballads, We May Never Pass This Way (Again), also released in 1973.
However, their album Unborn Child (1974) encountered problems. The song “Unborn Child” reflected the pair’s Bahá’í-inspired belief that life begins at conception and its anti-abortion message, which emerged shortly after the Roe v. Wade US supreme court decision in 1973 protecting women’s rights to end a pregnancy, elicited a furious
“It was our ignorance that we didn’t realize something like this was simmering and roiling as a social problem,” she added. “If we’d known it would create so much discord, we might have reconsidered. At the time, it overshadowed all of the other things we were trying to communicate in our music.
Seals and Crofts’ commercial peak was yet another US Top 20 hit, but their album still made it to number 18. Their subsequent Top 10 songs were Get Closer (1976) with guest vocals by Carolyn Willis and My Tender Heart on the Winter of Our Love (1977), which peaked at No 8 in the States.
Jim was the son of Wayland Seals and Susan (nee Taylor), who was from Sidney, Texas. Wayland worked as a pipe fitter for Shell Oil in the Yates oilfield and was employed by the firm throughout his career.
Jim grew up in Iraan, near Pecos, Texas, and was inspired to create music by his father, who performed with Tex Collins and the Oil Patch Boys as a skilled guitar player. Jim’s father bought him a fiddle from a Sears catalogue when he showed an interest in the instrument. He quickly learned how to play and won
There was plenty of musical talent in the home to start the informal Seals Family Band, including Jim’s younger brother Danny, who would go on to form half of the successful duo England Dan & John Ford Coley.
Finally, Jim picked up the saxophone and played with Dean Beard and the Crew Cats. When the Crew Cats’ drummer quit unexpectedly, he met Crofts, who was playing with him at the time. They were subsequently both signed to the Champs (best known for their hit Tequila, though Seals and Crofts did not perform on it.
They also collaborated with other musicians, including the Monkees and Gene Vincent, as well as recording and writing songs with them. In 1961, Seals’ song It’s Never Too Late was the B-side of Brenda Lee’s You Can Depend On Me.
In 1963, they became members of Glen Campbell and the GCs, and when that band broke up in 1965, Seals and Crofts joined the Dawnbreakers. The band’s name was inspired by The Dawn-Breakers, a book originally written in Persian that chronicled the formation of the Bahá’í religion.
