Jim Seals, of Seals and Crofts Duo That Ruled ’70s Soft-Rock, Dies at 80

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticJim Seals, who as part of the duo Seals and Crofts crafted memorably wistful 1970s hits like “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl,” died Monday at age 80.Several friends and relatives confirmed the death. “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,” wrote John Ford Coley, of another hit duo of the era, England Dan and John Ford Coley, referring to the Seals and Croft hit “We May Never Pass This Way (Again).”“You and Dan finally get reunited again,” Coley added, referring to his own late musical partner, Danny Seals, better known as “England Dan,” the younger brother of Jim Seals. “Tell him and your sweet momma hi for me.” With Jim Seals as the primary lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo, they came to be the very emblem of “soft rock” with a run of hits that lasted for only about six years.

Although none of the pair’s hits ever reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, their biggest songs were for a time as ubiquitous as any that did top the chart. “Summer Breeze” in 1972 and “Diamond Girl” in 1973 both reached No.

6, as did a more upbeat song in 1976, “Get Closer,” sung with Carolyn Willis.Besides those three songs that reached the top 10 on the Hot 100, four more made it to the adult contemporary chart’s top 10: “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” in ’73, “I’ll Play for You” in ’75, “Goodbye Old Buddies” in ’77 and “You’re the Love” in ’78.Critic Robert Christgau called the duo “folk-schlock,” but Seals and Crofts had the last laugh, or would have, if crowing with vindication was part of the Baha’i way.