One of the Seals…
After scoring several hits as part of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, Dan Seals reinvented himself as a country-pop singer and enjoyed a tremendous run of success during the latter half of the ’80s. Born in McCamey, TX, in 1948, his brother was Jim Seals, later of another successful soft rock duo, Seals & Crofts.
Both brothers played with their parents in the Seals Family Band, with Dan learning string bass; however, after their parents divorced, Dan spent several years moving around with his mother. They eventually settled in Dallas in 1958, and Seals spent his teen years playing in garage bands, where he first met John Ford Coley. They worked together in a band called the Shimmerers, which recorded some demos in 1965 and became the Southwest F.O.B. two years later, scoring a chart single with “The Smell of Incense.” Seals and Coley left to form a duo in 1969 and kicked around for a while, landing an early-’70s deal with A&M that went sour.
They finally hit big in the late ’70s, with soft rock touchstones “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” and “Nights Are Forever Without You” ranking as their best-known singles.Seals went solo in 1980, signing with Atlantic and keeping the name England Dan for his debut album, Stones. In 1981, he underwent a grueling battle with the IRS that cost him nearly everything he owned. His follow-up album, Harbinger, stiffed, and he turned his attention to country music, adapting his style to fit the demands of country radio while still keeping his signature soft sound.
Signed to Liberty/Capitol, he scored a pair of Top Ten hits on the country charts in 1984 with “(You Bring Out) The Wild Side of Me” and “God Must Be a Cowboy.” “My Old Yellow Car” and “My Baby’s Got Good Timing” had similar success in 1985, and his next single, a duet with Marie Osmond called “Meet Me in Montana,” went all the way to number one. It also kicked off a spectacular run of nine straight chart-toppers: 1986 brought “Bop” and “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)”; 1987 saw “I Will Be There,” “Three Time Loser,” and “You Still Move Me”; 1988 featured “Addicted” and “One Friend”; and 1989 gave him one more in “Big Wheels in the Moonlight.”
Not only that, he managed two more number ones in 1990, thanks to “Good Times” and “Love on Arrival.” However, the arrival of Garth Brooks abruptly changed the country landscape, and Seals found his style out of favor. He moved to Warner Brothers in 1991, without much success, and despite releasing a few recordings on smaller labels in the latter half of the ’90s, he was effectively a touring artist for the remainder of the decade.
Although Dan Seals was a touring artist for the rest of the 1990s, he did release a few more albums on smaller labels throughout the decade, such as Fired Up in 1994, his final album for Warner Bros. He signed to Intersound and released In a Quiet Room, comprising acoustic versions of his earlier hits in 1995. He then switched to TDC and released In a Quiet Room II in 1998, followed by Make It Home in 2002.
In 2008, Seals completed radiation treatments for mantle cell lymphoma at Vanderbilt in Nashville and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and received a stem cell transplant in December of that year at NIH in Maryland. Seals died on March 25, 2009 at his daughter’s home following those treatments.
Selected Discography
Harbinger
Warner Bros 1982
Tracks: Can´t Get You Out Of My Mind, I Could Be Lovin´You Right Now, It´s Not Gonna Be That Easy, In My Heart, It Will Be Alright, I Don´t Believe I´ll Fall In Love Again, Once In A While, Up To Me, Not Every Heart Succeeds, Bad News & Harbinger Sage Or Fool.
Musicians on the Harbinger album: Dan Seals, Sherri Hiffman, Lisa Silver, Diane Tidwell, Jon Goin, Bobby Thompson, Larry Byrom, Rafe Van Hoy, Steve Wilson, Steve Gibson, Dan Huff, Duncan Cameron, Shane Keister, Randy McCormick, Kelly Wilson, Bobby Odgen, Jack Williams, Tom Robb, David Hungate, Bob Wray, James Stroud, Larrie Londin, Farrell Morris, Mike Lewis & Shelly Kurland.
Stones
Warner Bros 1980
Tracks: Stones (Dig A Little Deeper), Late At Night, Love Me Like The Last Time, Getting To The Point, How Do I Survive, Holdin´Out For Love, You Could´ve Been The One, Take You Home, When It´s Over & Lullaby.
Musicians on the Stones album: Dan Seals, Gene Page, Ray Parker Jr., Paul Jackson Jr., Jon Goin, Steve Lukather, Nathan East, Mike Baird, Paulinho Da Costa, Shane Keister, Dave Loggins, Shari Kramer, Lisa Silver, Diane Tidwell, Rafe Van Hoy, Larrie Londin, Kido, Paul Worley, Bob Wray, Farrell Morris, David Foster, Tom Kelly, Bergen White, Richie Zito, Eberhard Ramm, Shelly Kurland, Charles Fearing, Jack Williams, Bill Paine, Ed Greene, Steve Gibson, Denny Henson, kenneth Buttrey, Sealatron, Bobby Thompson & Buddy Spicher.