Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts died on Monday at age 80, in keeping with friends and family. The reason for demise wasn’t instantly launched.
Seals was the principal lyricist and singer behind eight High 40 hits within the ’70s. Seals & Crofts rose as excessive as No. 6 on the singles chart 3 times, with 1972’s “Summer time Breeze,” 1973’s “Diamond Woman” and 1976’s “Get Nearer.” He’d stopped taking part in music in 2017, after reportedly suffering a stroke.
“My coronary heart simply breaks for his spouse Ruby and their youngsters,” cousin Brady Seals of the nation band Little Texas instructed Variety. “Please hold them in your prayers. What an unimaginable legacy he leaves behind.”
Born in 1942 at Sidney, Texas, to oilman Wayland Seals and his spouse Cora, James Eugene Seals started his profession as a member of the Champs with Glen Campbell, becoming a member of after they hit with “Tequila.” He toured with Eddie Cochran earlier than initially working with Sprint Crofts throughout a subsequent stint with Campbell. They constructed their profession present by present, whereas Seals & Crofts’ first three albums have been largely ignored.
“We have been fortunate,” Seals instructed Melody Maker in 1975. “We got here alongside at a time when Chicago, Jethro Tull and the Moody Blues and folks like that may have us as a assist band.”
“Summer time Breeze” grew to become their breakout hit. All of a sudden, Seals & Crofts have been enormous stars – and the topic of no small quantity of derision from some rock critics. (Robert Christgau memorably dubbed them “folk-schlock.”) They saved promoting information whereas delving into surprisingly philosophical subject material, together with the often-misunderstood Bahai religion.
Take heed to Seals & Crofts’ ‘Summer time Breeze’
Each 1975’s “I will Play for You” and 1978’s “You are the Love” went to No. 18, and Seals & Crofts even appeared on the California Jam alongside the likes of Deep Purple and Eagles. By the point they broke up amid the rise of disco, punk and post-punk, Seals & Crofts had notched 4 gold-selling albums and a pair of multiplatinum LPs, together with 1975’s Best Hits.
“We have been nonetheless drawing 10,000 to 12,000 folks at concert events, however we might see, with this variation coming the place all people wished dance music, that these days have been numbered,” Seals instructed the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “We simply determined that it was a great time, after a future at it, to lie again and never completely commit ourselves to that form of factor.”
Jim and Ruby Seals moved to Costa Rica, the place they raised three youngsters whereas working a espresso farm. Seals & Crofts lastly reunited 11 years later and once more in 2004 once they launched Traces, their first new album since 1980’s The Longest Highway.
Seals was the older sibling of the late Dan Seals, who discovered fame as a part of England Dan & John Ford Coley. The brothers later toured collectively as Seals and Seals.
“It was due to Jimmy opening doorways for us that we got here to Los Angeles to document and meet the precise folks,” Coley mentioned in an emotional Facebook post. “It is a onerous one on so many ranges as this can be a musical period passing for me. And it’ll by no means move this fashion once more as his tune mentioned. He belonged to a bunch that was one in all a form.”
In Memoriam: 2022 Deaths
A have a look at these we have misplaced.
