The Plastic Waffle: Fridays Featured Artist-Seals & Crofts .

One of the most successful soft rock acts of the 1970s, the duo of Jim Seals and Dash Crofts met while performing with singer Dean Beard in 1958. That year, Beard was invited to unite the Champs (of "Tequila" fame), and Seals and Crofts tagged along, remaining with the group until 1965. The two then bounced from the Mushrooms to the Dawnbreakers before deciding to take out on their own as a duo in 1969.

Seals played guitar, saxophone, and fiddle, while Crofts handled drums, mandolin, keyboards, and guitar. From 1972 to 1976, the duo had a chain of fin gold albums for Warner Bros. with an additional greatest-hits compilation certified double platinum. Their hit singles from this period include "Summer Breeze," "Diamond Girl," "We May Never Give This Way (Again)," and "Get Closer"; all exclude the third mentioned reached number six on the Billboard charts. Seals & Crofts became entangled in contention in 1974 due to the title tag of their Unborn Child album, an anti-abortion song written from the fetus' point of view; the album was a critical failure, while the single flopped and outraged abortion advocates, who held demonstrations at many of the duo's shows.

By 1976, Seals & Crofts' appeal began to decline; their albums failed to deal as well, and they scored their final Top 40 hit in 1978 with "You're the Love." Warner dropped them shortly after their 1980 LP, The Longest Road, but by this time both Seals and Crofts were more concerned in devoting themselves fully to the Baha'i religion they had converted to cover in 1969. The two have reunited occasionally at Baha'i gatherings and for a short 1991-1992 tour; Crofts has lived in various different countries, while Seals moved to a Costa Rican coffee farm in 1980. However, the pair did get together in 2004 to register their first album in over two decades, Traces, featuring re-recordings of various of their biggest hits as good as new and previously unreleased material. It should too be celebrated that Seals' brother Dan became a big country singer during the '80s after going the duo England Dan & John Ford Coley.