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• For fans of: The Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash.
• Ten albums from the ‘Summer Breeze’ songwriters’ time at Warner Bros.
Despite epitomizing the platinum selling Californian soft rock sound that dominated the US airwaves throughout the mid-1970s, both Jim Seals and Darrell “Dash” Crofts originally hailed from Texas. Formed in 1969 in Los Angeles, Seals and Crofts released their self-titled debut the same year, followed by ‘Down Home’ in 1970. Warner Bros. Records were the ideal home for their mellow, acoustic based sound, with whom they signed in 1971 for ‘Year Of Sunday’. Seals and Crofts and Warner Bros. finally struck gold with 1972’s ‘Summer Breeze’, a worldwide smash that year, which was subsequently covered and a global hit for The Isley Brothers.
The title track to 1973’s ‘Diamond Girl’ maintained their upward trajectory with another platinum hit, even if their stance exemplified on 1974’s ‘Unborn Child’ divided their fan base. By 1974 Seals and Crofts were established enough to hold their own alongside the biggest hitters of the decade - Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, ELP, Eagles - at one of the biggest festivals of the 1970s, the California Jam. By 1978 the influence of disco could be heard in the grooves of the danceable ‘Takin’ It Easy’.
Deciding to call it a day following their final Warner Bros. album in 1980, Seals and Crofts went their separate ways, occasionally reuniting for successful reunion shows. Although unfairly maligned in the ensuing years, the growth in interest for the smoother sounds and platinum hits of the 1970s, plus the cult success of the Yacht Rock series presented Seals and Crofts to a whole new audience in the 21st Century.
Tracklist
DISC ONE
SEALS AND CROFTS (1969)
1 See My Life
2 Sea Of Consciousness
3 Seldom's Sister
4 Not Be Found
5 Birthday Of My Thoughts
6 In Tune
7 Cows Of Gladness
8 Earth
9 Seven Valleys
10 Jekyll And Hyde
11 Ashes In the Snow
12 See My Life (Reprise)
DOWN HOME (1970)
13 Ridin' Thumb
14 Hand-Me-Down Shoe
15 Purple Hand
16 Robin
17 Hollow Reed
18 Gabriel Go on Home
19 Tin Town
20 Today
21 Cotton Mouth
22 Granny Will Your Dog Bite?
23 Leave
DISC TWO
YEARS OF SUNDAY (1971)
1 When I Meet Them
2 'Cause You Love
3 Antoinette
4 High On a Mountain
5 Year Of Sunday
6 Paper Airplanes
7 Irish Linen
8 Springfield Mill
9 Ancient Of the Old
10 Sudan Village
SUMMER BREEZE (1972)
11 Hummingbird
12 Funny Little Man
13 Say
14 Summer Breeze
15 East Of Ginger Trees
16 Fiddle In the Sky
17 The Boy Down the Road
18 The Euphrates
19 Advance Guards
20 Yellow Dirt
DISC THREE
DIAMOND GIRL (1973)
1 Diamond Girl
2 Ruby Jean And Billie Lee
3 Intone My Servant
4 We May Never Pass This Way (Again)
5 Nine Houses
6 Standin' On a Mountain Top
7 It's Gonna Come Down (On You)
8 Jessica
9 Dust On My Saddle
10 Wisdom
UNBORN CHILD (1974)
11 Windflowers
12 Desert People
13 Unborn Child
14 The Story of Her Love
15 Dance By the Light of The Moon
16 Rachel
17 King Of Nothing
18 29 Years from Texas
19 Ledges
20 Follow Me
21 Big Mac
DISC FOUR
I'LL PLAY FOR YOU (1975)
1 I'll Play for You
2 Golden Rainbow
3 Castles In the Sand
4 Blue Bonnet Nation
5 Ugly City
6 Wayland The Rabbit
7 Freaks Fret
8 Truth Is but A Woman
9 Fire And Vengeance
SUDAN VILLAGE (1976)
10 Sudan Village
11 Advance Guards
12 'Cause You Love
13 Baby I'll Give It to You
14 Thunderfoot
15 East Of Ginger Trees
16 Put Your Love in My Hands
17 Arkansas Traveller
18 Eighth Of January
DISC FIVE
GET CLOSER (1976)
1 Sweet Green Fields
2 Get Closer
3 Red Long Ago
4 Goodbye Old Buddies
5 Baby Blue
6 Million Dollar Horse
7 Don't Fail
8 Passing Thing
TAKIN' IT EASY (1978)
9 Takin' It Easy
10 One More Time
11 Midnight Blue
12 You're The Love
13 Sunrise
14 Breaking In a Brand New Love
15 Magnolia Moon
16 Nobody Gets Over Lovin' You
17 Forever Like the Rose
18 A Tribute To 'Abdu'L-Baha'