by Kevin Burton
I like barbecue sauce. I love cayenne pepper and other hot spices. But I don’t have to have it on everything, all the time.
And so it is with screaming guitars and scene-stealing guitar solos. They are cool sometimes, but I can live without them.
So it was that I had room and still have room for Seals and Crofts tunes. They had a soft-to-medium 70s sound that resonated with fans.
Dash Crofts died Wednesday at age 87. His singer/songwriter partner Jimmy Seals died June 6, 2022. They were part of the soundtrack of the 70s, even if young girls didn’t have their poster on their bedroom walls.
Seals and Crofts released only 16 singles their whole time as a duo, according to their discography on Wikipedia. Can that be right? But half of those singles made the Top 40.
The group had a big three in their catalog, “Summer Breeze” (1972), “Diamond Girl” (1973) and “Get Closer” (1976). Those songs all peaked at number 6 on the Hot 100. Let’s take them in order.
Here’s a shocker for me: Summer Breeze was listed as number 13 on a 2013 edition of Rolling Stone magazine’s list of best songs of all time, according to Wikipedia. Doesn’t seem like a tune they would go for.
I have said if I could inhabit any fictional world it would be the world of Calvin and Hobbes. But wow, doesn’t life sound super wonderful in the lyrics of Summer Breeze?
It’s got a lot of things going for it. Summer is a good time, breeze taking care of any excess heat there might be. The song mentions coming home from a hard day’s work to a loving, caring, carefree wife. So there’s your protestant work ethic, fruits of your achievements.
Now I don’t know too much more about flowers now than I did when this song came out. But jasmine just always sounded good. Here’s a note on jasmine from thursd.com.
“Its delightful aroma and charming beauty have made the jasmine flower a symbol of practically all that is pure, graceful, and elegant. It has, also, come to embody a love that goes beyond boundaries, cultures, and creeds.”
The musical crafting of the song is exquisite. It’s a wonder Summer Breeze didn’t climb higher on the charts.
For most of us Summer Breeze flowed seamlessly into the next number 6 hit, “Diamond Girl.” But from the perspective of the duo there was a definite shift, and not for the better.
“On Diamond Girl (the album and the single), Seals and Crofts beefed up their band with future Toto founders David Paich (organ, piano) and Jeff Porcaro (drums), among other studio luminaries,” according to SongFacts. “Jimmy Seals, however, felt the core duo got a bit lost in the shuffle of a bigger band, which stifled their musical identity.”
“After Summer Breeze hit, somewhere in between there and the recording of Diamond Girl, we realized that we could not progress any further… we were very limited as to the kind of music we could play,” Seals told Goldmine Magazine in 1992.
“But there was no way that we could play anything any harder. If you’re playing with a band, all of a sudden you’re in competition with 10,000 other bands. The band has got to really cook, and it’s got to have an identity. And for the crowd that we were playing (for), it had to be hard rock. I feel like we lost a little bit of uniqueness in what we were doing, because we started leaning more and more on the band.”
My Seals and Crofts Greatest Hite doesn’t have “Get Closer” on it because Warner Brothers released the hits package in 1975 and Get Closer was released in 1976.
The Seals and Crofts sound which came through on cuts from some of their early bands was squashed by the British Invasion. Disco pushed them to the background somewhat after 1973, but Get Closer was a breakthrough.
If you’re making a “keepin’ it real” 70s mix tape Get Closer has to be on it. It’s a very useful song, voicing a reality check that many relationships go through.
It’s as spot-on a portrait of a relationship that has hit a speed bump as Summer Breeze is on one that is ideal. In both cases there is nothing more to be said when the song ends. You’re nodding your head and should be tipping your cap to the songwriters.
I never hear Seals and Crofts mentioned as a great songwriting team, but they sure had some golden nuggets.
Get Closer rises to the heights that it reaches thanks in no small part to the contribution of Carolyn Willis. She is the female voice you hear on it. Willis was with the Honey Cone and sang backup on their 1971 hit “Want Ads.”
Willis also appeared on two tracks from the Seals and Crofts live album Sudan Village, according to Wikipedia. She recorded jingles for major companies such as Toyota, American Airlines and Max Factor. Willis recorded and toured with various artists, including Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs and Carly Simon.
There was enough great Seals and Crofts stuff that I wish we had more. And we did get some more.
“We May Never Pass This Way Again,” reached number 21 for Seals and Crofts in 1973. “I’ll Play For You” was number 18 in 1975. “You’re The Love” also reached number 18 in 1979. You may not know it by then name, but get it on you tube. You know it, it’s OK, but it’s not classic Seals and Crofts.
“King Of Nothing” from 1974, which only reached number 60, is interesting to me because I resemble that remark.
Seals and Crofts perhaps didn’t sustain it, but they were big time. And I wanted to give them a shoutout as both partners have now passed away.
Page 7 