Jim Seals and Dash Crofts formed their musical partnership in the late 50s when, as teenagers, they went out on the road with The Champs (of Tequila fame).
While the pair earned their living playing Latin-tinged instrumental rock, Champs founder Dave Burgess remembers that “they used to do their stuff with mandolin and guitar in the back of the van, like what they’d do ten years later. They just needed maturing”.
After they left The Champs, the couple formed a Vegas-style act called The Dawnbreakers, but it wasn’t until they discovered the Middle Eastern religion Bahaism that things clicked into place.
“That’s really why we formed the group,” said Seals, who was never photographed without his visored cap. “We would read the Bahai writings and take some of the ideas and put them into a song . . . never dreaming that we would record it.”
With a little push from Marcia Day – a former actor’s agent and fellow Bahai, who became their manager – the duo did eventually record those songs and soon became a very popular live act. But it was their fourth album, Summer Breeze (1972), that launched them into the mainstream.
Throughout the mid-70s, Seals and Crofts managed to combine their gentle philosophy with hit singles. We May Never Pass This Way (Again) wasn’t just one of their biggest hits. According to Seals it was also a summary of how the duo felt about life.
After six years of gold albums and Top 40 hits, Jim Seals and Dash Crofts walked away from it all. Feeling they had nothing left to say, they ended a musical partnership that had spanned more than 20 years.
During their years of self-imposed exile from the music business, Crofts moved first to Mexico and then to Australia. Seals bought a small coffee farm in Costa Rica, where he also built a recording studio. The two kept in touch and even reunited for a concert during Australia’s ‘Week Of Peace’ in April 1985.
They have recorded two albums since then; Today (1998) and Traces (2004).
