American musician who teamed up with Dash Crofts in 1969 as “Seals and Crofts.” The soft-rock duo scored five consecutive gold-award albums through 1976. Their hits included “Diamond Girl,” “Summer Breeze,” “Get Closer” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again.”
Seals’ father Wayland headed a rockabilly group, and his brother Dan became a well-known country artist. Several uncles and cousins were in the music business as well, so perhaps it was inevitable that Jim should become a musician. In 1958, he met Dash Crofts while playing with singer Dean Beard. When Beard joined the “Champs,” both Seals and Crofts went along and stayed with the group until 1965. For the next four years, they worked with a number of different groups, but in 1969, they decided to form a duo and try it on their own. Seals played guitar, saxophone and fiddle while Crofts played drums, mandolin, keyboard and guitar, and they debuted as a fill-in act at the Icehouse in Los Angeles. They recorded their first album in 1969, notable for the song “Ashes in the Snow.”
Almost instantly successful, Seals and Crofts became the center of a controversy in 1974. The title track from their Unborn Child album was an anti-abortion song written from the fetus’s point of view. The single outraged right-of-choice advocates, and demonstrations at the duo’s shows became common.
Their appeal began to decline, and after 1976, their albums didn’t sell well. Their last Top 40 hit was 1978’s “You’re the Love,” and their last album was The Longest Road (1980).
Although his professional partnership with Crofts ended at that time, Seals still recorded on occasion. In 1991-1992, the two reunited for a tour of North America, recording an unreleased album, and worked together at various Bahá’í events.
Seals and his wife Ruby Jean Anderson had three children, Joshua, Juliette and Sutherland; all three became musicians. In 1980, he moved to Costa Rica where he had a coffee plantation and spent his free time golfing and fly-fishing. He was deeply involved in the Bahá’í faith since the 1960s.
Seals died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee on 6 June 2022, aged 79, after a long illness.
Link to Wikipedia biography