Talent, Tenacity, Tequila & a Tale of Two Texas Teenagers

"It was so interesting when I was living in Nashville, some of the universities across America would contact me and say, "We're getting our spring entertainment together, and the students voted to have Seals & Crofts perform, and we have a budget of $30,000, $60,000 or whatever, are they available?" Unfortunately, I'd have to write them back and explain that, yes they're available, but they aren't performing together anymore."

Dash Crofts explained their decision to Tony Bentivegna in a year 2000 interview for the Seals & Crofts website:

"I know we could be making a lot of money and we could be touring and all that but, you know, when you get to a point where you think you said everything you want to say, then it's like beating a dead horse. It's fun, yeah, we loved everything, we love to write and perform and record, but sometimes silence is better than other things. We stopped when we were pretty much in the flow, you know, rather than having to struggle and go back, and do this and that. We just decided that this would be a good time to stop traveling. I mean, we traveled for 30 years! We traveled with The Champs. We did The Dawnbreakers, The Mushrooms. We did Seals and Crofts."

Given their lack of new material, their uncertainty about trends in the 80s, and their decision to pack it in, in retrospect it would have been great for them to have gone out with a bang. Had they not already released a live album in 1976, there would have been a possibility that would have left the door open to occasional tours. Imagine if they had filmed and recorded a couple of farewell concerts in top quality at a packed theater with great acoustics and lighting. Three distinct sets, the first set featuring rock songs with energy, which they certainly had. Followed by a break with an acoustic second set, initially as a trio with the rest of the band on acoustic instruments gradually joining them. Finally, a jazz-adjacent third set heavy on instrumentals—as an encore, fiddle music. That would have been a worthy sendoff for these two remarkable performers and songwriters.

As it is, 2019 marks the 50 year anniversary of their first album, and you're invited to rediscover and celebrate their music.

Seals & Crofts Playlists

• YouTube Seals & Crofts Jazz-Adjacent Playlist
• YouTube Seals & Crofts Beyond the Hits, 15 Essential Songs
• YouTube Seals & Crofts After 1974—10 Definite Keepers

Credits & Sources

• Seals & Crofts website an invaluable source of information about all things relating to Seals & Crofts, the site also has a detailed history of the Champs, and an interview with Dash Crofts.
• Photo: Original base photo by Mark Neal from Pexels.com, free use stock image. Collage and effects A .Bryson
• www.thompsonian.info/sealcrof.html Thompsonian Seals & Crofts page excellent collection of resource links relating to Seals & Crofts.
• Grayflannelsuit this blog has a thoughtful guide to the music of Seals & Crofts.
• Los Angeles Times 1991 interview with Jim Seals
• All About Jazz, Louie Shelton: In Session, January 27, 2010 Quoted above, but the interview contains additional information about Seals & Crofts and Glen Campbell.
• Website of the guitarist Marty Walsh whose first guitar solo on a major recording was the song "Thunderfoot" on the Seals & Crofts album Sudan Village. He has worked as a guitarist with other groups such as Super Tramp and is currently an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. On his website he shares behind the scenes photos and insights from touring with Seals & Crofts and reveals the surprising origin of the name "Thunderfoot."
• Huelyn Duvall's first hand account of the "Tequila" recording session
• New York Times Aug 7, 1970 article on the Delaney & Bonnie concert in Central Park.
• New York Times Program of Songs By Seals & Crofts Expands Its Range, by Don Beckmannov Nov. 15, 1971.
• People Magazine article about Seals & Crofts from 1976
• Dan Seals profile page
• Bahá'í World News Service Hearing "the Divinity in the music": Dizzy Gillespie remembered at 100
• Website of the Bahá'ís of the United States source used for information about the Bahá'í Faith.