Dan Seals

Dan Wayland Seals (born February 8, 1948 in McCamey, Texas - died March 25, 2009) was an American musician.

From a very music oriented family, his older brother Jim Seals sang with a 1950s musical group called The Champs who had a 1958 hit single with the song “Tequila”, and who then teamed up with Dash Crofts in the mid-1960’s to perform as Seals & Crofts. Dan’s other brother is country musician Eddie Seals. He is a cousin of singers Johnny Duncan, Troy Seals, Chuck Seals and Brady Seals (of Little Texas and Hot Apple Pie fame).

Taught by his father to play the upright bass, in high school, Dan joined with piano-playing friend John Ford Coley to perform first as part of Dallas pop/psych group “Southwest F.O.B.” (Freight On Board) whose material has been re-released on CD by the Sundazed label. When the group disbanded, he continued performing with Coley as England Dan & John Ford Coley. The two would eventually have several hits performing singing pop rock harmonies such as I’d Really Love To See You Tonight. After 7 albums, they disbanded in 1980 and since then Dan has been performing as a solo artist.

Between 1985 and 1990, Seals scored 10 #1 hits, 7 of them consecutively, on the country charts. His first #1 was “Meet Me in Montana”, a 1985 duet with Marie Osmond. His first #1 as a solo artist, “Bop”, won the Country Music Association Award for best single in 1986 and had some crossover success as well; the song reached #10 on the adult contemporary charts and #42 in the Billboard Hot 100. Seals and Osmond also won a CMA award as Vocal Duo of the Year in 1986.

England Dan & John Ford Coley

The seeds of one of classic rock’s most pleasant sounding duos were sown when Dan Seals and John Colley first met in high school in Dallas, Texas during the early 1960s.

Dan Seals was born February 8, 1950, in McCamey, Texas. To say that he came from a musical family would be an understatement. He was the son of E. W. “Waylon” Seals, a pipe fitter and repairman for Shell Oil who also played guitar and bass, and was a member of bands led by Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills. By the time he was four, Dan had learned to play upright bass and soon after he was playing in the family band. His older brother, Jim Seals recorded a hit single called “Tequilla”, as a member of the Champs from 1958 thru the mid-1960s, then as one half of the duo “Seals And Croft”. His other brothers included successful country musicians Eddie Seals (of Eddie and Joe), while his cousins included composers Chuck Seals (author of “Crazy Arms”) and Troy Seals, Brady Seals (of Little Texas), and country singer Johnny Duncan.

John Colley, born October 13th 1951, was a classically trained pianist. The two began working together as members of local cover bands, including Playboys Five and Theze Few. They recorded a series of demos in Nashville as The Shimmerers, but their prospects ended with the death of their producer, before he could secure a recording deal for them.

It was as members of a group called Southwest F.O.B. (Freight On Board) that the two first paired off as a formal duo.