RIP
TWO HIT WONDERJim Seals of Seals and Crofts, 'Summer Breeze' fame dies
Jim Seals of soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts died Monday at the age of 80.
File Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Records
June 7 (UPI) -- Singer and songwriter Jim Seals of the 1970s duo Seals and Crofts, which produced soft-rock hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl," has died, his family announced. He was 80.
Family members confirmed his Monday death on social media.
"I just learned that James 'Jimmy' Seals has passed," said his cousin, Brady Seals of the country band Little Texas. "My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind."
No other details or cause of death were given.
Jim Seals was the lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo with mandolinist Darrell "Dash" Crofts. The Texas natives met in local bands during the 1950s. Together they formed Seals and Crofts in 1969 and converted to the Bahai Faith five years before their first big hit.
"It was the only thing I'd heard that made sense to me, so I responded to it," Jim Seals recalled in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That began to spawn some ideas to write songs that might help people to understand, or help ones who maybe couldn't feel anything or were cynical or cold. Lyrically, I think music can convey things that are hard sometimes for people to say to each other."
Seals and Crofts released their hit song "Summer Breeze" in September 1972, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Seals and Crofts' second big hit, "Diamond Girl," followed a year later also landing at No. 6. The pair also found success with their exotic instrumentation in "We Will Never Pass This Way," "I'll Play for You" and "Hummingbird."
"I think our music is a combination of the Eastern part of the world and the Western," Jim Seals said in 1971. "We've had people from Greece, Israel, England and France, China, everywhere, listen to our music and say, 'Oh, it's music from the old country.'"
Seals and Crofts toured and recorded throughout the 1970s, but the pair never bested its two pop-single chart-toppers. In all, Seals and Crofts had four gold and two platinum albums before they broke up in 1980.
The duo attempted to reunite in 1991 and again in 2004 for a new album Traces, which included remakes of their classics. Jim Seals retired from music to Nashville before having a stroke in 2017.
Jim Seals, who was born in 1941 in Sidney, Texas, came from a musical family. His younger brother was Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley. Dan Seals died in 2009 from cancer.
On Tuesday, John Ford Coley shared his thoughts on Jim Seals' death in a lengthy Facebook post.
"He was Dan's older brother and it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name," Coley wrote. "You and Dan finally get reunited again."
June 7 (UPI) -- Singer and songwriter Jim Seals of the 1970s duo Seals and Crofts, which produced soft-rock hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl," has died, his family announced. He was 80.
Family members confirmed his Monday death on social media.
"I just learned that James 'Jimmy' Seals has passed," said his cousin, Brady Seals of the country band Little Texas. "My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind."
No other details or cause of death were given.
Jim Seals was the lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo with mandolinist Darrell "Dash" Crofts. The Texas natives met in local bands during the 1950s. Together they formed Seals and Crofts in 1969 and converted to the Bahai Faith five years before their first big hit.
"It was the only thing I'd heard that made sense to me, so I responded to it," Jim Seals recalled in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That began to spawn some ideas to write songs that might help people to understand, or help ones who maybe couldn't feel anything or were cynical or cold. Lyrically, I think music can convey things that are hard sometimes for people to say to each other."
Seals and Crofts released their hit song "Summer Breeze" in September 1972, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Seals and Crofts' second big hit, "Diamond Girl," followed a year later also landing at No. 6. The pair also found success with their exotic instrumentation in "We Will Never Pass This Way," "I'll Play for You" and "Hummingbird."
"I think our music is a combination of the Eastern part of the world and the Western," Jim Seals said in 1971. "We've had people from Greece, Israel, England and France, China, everywhere, listen to our music and say, 'Oh, it's music from the old country.'"
Seals and Crofts toured and recorded throughout the 1970s, but the pair never bested its two pop-single chart-toppers. In all, Seals and Crofts had four gold and two platinum albums before they broke up in 1980.
The duo attempted to reunite in 1991 and again in 2004 for a new album Traces, which included remakes of their classics. Jim Seals retired from music to Nashville before having a stroke in 2017.
Jim Seals, who was born in 1941 in Sidney, Texas, came from a musical family. His younger brother was Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley. Dan Seals died in 2009 from cancer.
On Tuesday, John Ford Coley shared his thoughts on Jim Seals' death in a lengthy Facebook post.
"He was Dan's older brother and it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name," Coley wrote. "You and Dan finally get reunited again."
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