The Professional Work of Dan Seals

(Feb. 8, 1948 ~ Mar. 25, 2009)

Career Highlights

Grand Ole Opry Star

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• AustinCity Limits, 4
• Billy Bob'sTexas, 2
• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 3
• Gilley’s Club, 2
• Hee Haw, 4
• NashvilleNow, 4
• Pop Goes the Country, 4
• The Statler Brothers Show, 4

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 11
• Top-10 Singles: 16
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 24
• Chart Years Active: 1983-1992

Awards

Country Music Association

• Vocal Duo of the Year -1986*
•  Single of the Year (Bop)

*-With Marie Osmond

Career Labels:

• Liberty Records (1983-1984)
• EMI America (1984-1987)
• Capitol Records (1987-1991)
• Warner Records (19911992)

Billboard Top-10 Singles 

1. God Must Be a Cowboy -1984
2. You Bring Out) The Wild Side of Me
3. My Baby's Got Good Timing
4. My Old Yellow Car -1985
5. Meet Me In Montana*1, A
6. Bop*A
7. Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)*A -1986
8. You Still Move Me*A
9. I Will Be There*A
10. Three Time Loser*A -1987
11. One Friend*A
12. Addicted*A -1988
13. Big Wheels in the Moonlight*A
14. They Rage On -1989
15. Love On Arrival*
16. Good Times*

*-No. 1 Chart Single

#-Biggest Chart Single

1-With Marie Osmond

A-Consecutive No. 1 Chart Singles

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Everyrthing That Glitters (Is Not Gold) The Dan Seals Story

Dan Seals, a revered pop and later, country music star, who lent his voice to fans around the world for over four decades, passed away on March 25, 2009, in Nashville, Tennessee (TN) after a battle with lymphoma.  The younger brother of Seals & Crofts member Jim Seals, Seals first gained fame as the England Dan half of the soft rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley. However Mr. Seals found greater commercial success and popularity after changing directions and breaking into the country music field as a solo artist.

Born in McCamey, Texas (TX), his brother was Jim Seals, later of another successful soft rock duo, Seals & Crofts. Both brothers played music with their parents in the Seals Family Band, with Dan Seals learning string bass. After their parents divorced, Seals spent several years moving around with his mother.

They eventually settled in Dallas, Texas in 1958. Seals spent his teen years playing in garage bands with classmate John Coley. They formed a group with three other students called the Playboys. Seals' cousins include country music artists Johnny Duncan and Troy Seals and Brady Seals (Little Texas).

Seals and Coley left the group to form a duo in 1969. They kicked around for a while, landing an early-1970s contract with A&M Records that fell apart. They finally hit big with the soft rock hits, I'd Really Love to See You Tonight (No. 1, 1976), Nights Are Forever Without You (No. 6, 1976) and Love Is the Answer (No. 1, 1979), ranking as their most popular singles. For a few years, the smooth-voiced duo England Dan and John Ford Coley had solid followings inJapan and Europe and to a lesser degree inNorth America.

After EnglandDan & John Ford Coley disbanded in 1980, Dan Seals launched a solo country music career. In 1983, Seals signed a contract with EMI Records and broke into the top-ten with God Must Be a Cowboy the following year. It would be another year and a new label (Liberty) before his hits started charting at a steady pace. Throughout the mid-1980s and into the early-1990s, he placed sixteen top-ten singles on the Billboard country charts. Eleven of his singles reached number one.

From February 1984 through November 1988, Seals had nine consecutive number one singles, a milestone that is virtually unachievable in country music today. The landmark was rarely achieved in the eighties.Alabama (21, 1981 – 1987), Earl Thomas Conley (16, 1983 – 1989),GeorgeStrait (11, 1986 – 1989) and Ronnie Millsap (10, 1980 – 1983), are among the elite who charted a string of executive number ones during that era.

A switch to Capitol Records in 1987, sustained his career for a time as his first single for the label, One Friend (No. 1, 1987), kept him at the top of the charts. As a matter of clarity,Libertyand Capitol Records are subsidiaries of their parent company, EMI. Mr. Seals continued to have hits into the early-1990s. However, the arrival of Garth Brooks in 1989 abruptly changed the country music landscape. As a result, Seals was unable to maintain consistent chart activity.Alabama, Ronnie Millsap and John Anderson were among other established artist also affected by Garth’s sudden emergence into the country music fold.

Seals moved to Warner Brothers (1991), but without much success. 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. Seals' musical career was capped when he earned two Country Music Association (CMA) awards: CMA Single of the Year (Bop) and CMA Vocal Duet of the Year (Meet Me In Montana), with Marie Osmond, both awarded in 1986.

Though he battled cancer a few years prior to his death, Dan Seals joined his brother Jim for a number of performances as Seals and Seals and they recorded several songs together. Dan Seals had a lifelong love of fly fishing and made avocations of fly-tying and building bamboo rods. Although Seals' appealing persona and soothing vocals have been recalled, his music will remain forever etched into the music realm.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Dec. 6, 2011.