Jim Seals, the lead vocalist of music duo Seals and Crofts, died aged 80 on Monday, June 6. The pair was known for hits like ‘Summer Breeze’ and ‘Diamond Girl’. The cause of Seals’ death remains unknown.
Seals’ death was announced on Facebook by musician and colleague John Ford Coley. “Wow. Don’t even know where to begin. Jimmy Seals passed away today. I spent a large portion of my musical life with this man. We toured together, he and Dash invited us to sing on Seals and Crofts records, and we played with him for years. He was Dan’s older brother, it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name, he taught me how to juggle, made me laugh, pissed me off, encouraged me, showed me amazing worlds and different understandings on life, especially on a philosophical level, showed me how expensive golf was and how to never hit a golf ball because next came the total annihilation of a perfectly good golf club and the list goes on and on. We didn’t always see eye to eye, especially as musicians, but we always got along and I thought he was a bona fide, dyed in the wool musical genius and a very deep and contemplative man,” he wrote.
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“He was an enigma and I always had regard for his opinion. I listened to him and I learned from him. We didn’t always agree and it wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun but it definitely was always entertaining for sure. Dan adored his older brother and it was because of Jimmy opening doors for us that we came to Los Angeles to record and meet the right people. This is a hard one on so many levels as this is a musical era passing for me. And it will never pass this way again as his song said. He belonged to a group that was one of a kind. I am very sad over this but I have some of the best memories of all of us together. Rest In Peace Jimmy. You and Dan finally get reunited again. Tell him and your sweet momma hi for me,” Coley added.
Seals and Dash Crofts defined soft rock their way in the 1970s. Their first major hit was ‘Summer Breeze’ in 1972, which sold more than a million copies. ‘Diamond Girl’ was released next year and soon made it to No 4 in the US.
Jim Seals was born in Sidney and met Crofts when the latter was a drummer for a local band. Seals later joined an outfit called Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, in which he played sax. Crofts later joined Seals in the band. Before the two went on to form their own band, Seals had a composition called ‘It’s Never Too Late’, recorded by Brenda Lee in 1961, which featured as the B-side of her US Billboard No 6 single ‘You Can Depend on Me’.
Who is Jim Seals’ wife?
Seals married Ruby Jean Seals in 1970. Reportedly, the two moved to Costa Rica and lived on a coffee farm on and off since 1980, and also in Nashville and southern Florida. Not much is known about Ruby except that she shared three children with Seals – Joshua, Juliette, and Sutherland. Ruby preferred to stay out of the spotlight.