Customer Reviews

Seals & Crofts - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Bands and their reputations live and die in the marketing. The Moody Blues could have been sold as soft rock lightweights with a few uptempo numbers, but they did it the right way: they presented themselves as a rock band that knew how to mellow out and explore different kinds of beautiful music.

Seals & Crofts were trapped on the opposite side of the road: these guys knew how to rock out, and were expert musicians with tremendous depth of songwriting and the kind of expansive vision usually associated with art-rock bands like Yes and ELP. But they could never escape their marketing as "easy listening." That's a shame, because they deserve a higher place than history has afforded them in the rock music echelon. The depth of their music, the quality of their voices, the superiority of their sound, and the breadth of their musical range left us some great music, and their Greatest Hits is even greater than the sum of its parts.

Forget the catchiness of even the two or three most cloying songs included here. "Summer Breeze" is right at the top with all great songs of the last 50 years or more; "Diamond Girl" is as good as popular music gets; and "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" boasts a chorus as deep as anything that was ever played on 70s radio--without using any words other than the title.

"Hummingbird" and "East of Ginger Trees," among others, are unapologetically committed to a spiritual search, but without the dippy aimlessness of so much of that era's music. These down-to-earth Texans are passionately committed, well-read Baha'is who emphasized such novel ideas as peace, love and understanding.

The real genius of this collection is in the sequencing. While some of the original S&C albums contained a couple of "wholesome" or almost jokey songs (i.e. not the kind you want to hear on a rock record), and any dangerous power inherent in the music tended to be sequenced out, this collection smartly closes with the thought-provoking "We May Never Pass This Way," having taken us through the perfect balance (in the perfect order) of big hits, spiritual journeys, and intriguing side trips.

A proper re-issue would add the huge hit "Get Closer," the Philip Steir remix of "Summer Breeze," and perhaps one or two other pieces, but for a repeatable listen of ten songs that mostly represent this duo at their best, this is an excellent collection that still holds up.

This is likely the most under-appreciated of the groups populating the popular music scene in the late sixties and early seventies. Like another fringe duo, Brewer and Shipley, whose evocative lyrics and memorable arrangements (which are largely unavailable today, especially their terrific "Shake Off The Demon" album) propelled them into the spotlight with its like "One Toke Over The Line" and "Tarkio Road", Brewer and Shipley were never taken as seriously as the content of their music deserved. Much of what they write and sing is organized around their religious beliefs, and this is easy to discover in most of what they say in the songs populating this greatest hits album. Their problem seemed to be that they encased a lot of meaningful lyrics into a very sweet and light sound that critics mistook for lightweight material, and they consequently scoffed at them. Yet their fame and popularity endures, and is deserved for a group who dominated the charts with "Diamond Girl", "Hummingbird", "I'll Play For You", and "We May Never Pass This Way Again", all chart-toppers and mainly from a single album, "Summer Breeze". Of course, "Summer Breeze" itself was a number one hit, and is till a perennial favorite for FM play. Do yourself a favor and read the lyrics as you listen along, though, and you will discover what sweet, loving, and compassionate human beings these two erstwhile escapees from the deep poverty of the rural South really are. If you listen you just can't miss it. My personal favorites here are "Ruby Jean and Billie Lee" (their wives' names), and of course, "I'll Play For You". Let them play for you too, real soon. Add this wonderful compilation to your collection, and then enjoy it!

Seals and Crofts are one of the most underappreciated and unfairly maligned bands in rock history. Their wonderful harmonies sounded like a cross between Simon & Garfunkel and the Bodeans, and their musicianship was often outstanding, especially in earlier albums. The arrangements frequently were flavored with hints of bluegrass as well as international (especially middle-eastern) sounds, the playing could be hot, and sometimes, they even rocked with surprising authority! Nowadays they are generally dismissed by the critics as lightweight, "lite-rock" pabulum, and frankly a good deal of their material (mostly the later stuff) warrents this reputation, but if you separate the wheat from the chaff you will find a sizable body of great music. Unfortunately, you won't find much of it on the slight "Greatest Hits". Yes, in 1975 when this collection first appeared on vinyl, it was a reasonable sampling of their biggest hits to date, but by the time it was reissued on CD, the record label really did Seals & Crofts and their fans a major disservice by not taking advantage of the extra capacity of the CD format to flesh out the collection with later hits ("Get Closer", "My Fair Share") and key album tracks (Such as the instramental "Wisdom" from the "Diamond Girl" LP, or more selections from the wonderful side 1 of their best album, "Year of Sunday"). Nonetheless, for the time being most of the Seals and Crofts catelog is unavailable on CD, so this collection is the best that's out there. But it could have been, and should have been, so much better.

Super collection of Jim Seals and Dash Crofts' hits. Unfortunately, Greatest Hits and Summer Breeze are the only CD's available in the U.S. I have a Diamond Girl import from Japan. In response to fans objections about exclusion of Get Closer, My Fair Share, etc. Those hits are from 1976 and 1977 respectively. Greatest Hits package was released in 1975. K-Tel produced an album and cassette of Greatest Hits that include ALL hits. Thankfully, I have a large collection of their albums which I play constantly. Since leaving the record business in 1980, the duo has devoted their energies toward spreading the Baha'i Faith. Jim Seals pioneered to Costa Rica and now lives on a coffee plantation there. Dash Crofts currently lives in Nashville, TN. They have produced Baha'i-related music over the years. Great music by GREAT people.

Seals and Crofts have, for no conceivable reason, missed out on the CD reissue program given to practically every other 70s artist, including a good many a damn sight less successful - artisically or commercially.

Other than this bare-bones collection only "Summer Breeze" (A good album, but far from their best) is available on CD, so if you're looking to get some S&C this is about your only choice (Although you should get SB as well, if only for "The Euphrates", one of their best songs ever).

What's here is, for the most part highly enjoyable - never liked "I'll Play For You" much (Although it comes from one of their best albums), but "Diamond Girl", "Hummingbird", "King Of Nothing" and "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" are all flawless pop gems. The musicanship (including several future TOTO members) is outstanding, and the harmonies are fantastic. The lyrics are also noteworthy, containing a strong spiritual element that never becomes preachy, but instead adds an extra layer to the material.

This is recommended listening, but, if you have the patience, wait until somebody FINALLY releases a comprehensive collection -not to mention the rest of their albums.

There is no question that every track on this CD is excellent - some of the duo's "early" best! But, what about their later material. Yes, this is the original LP. However, in this day and age of expanded CDs with extra added bonus cuts, this CD should have contained later material also - say a "Greatest Hits & More" or a "Greatest Hits (Expanded Edition)." That is why I give this CD only four stars. The music, of course, gets five stars. After reading other Amazon.com reviews, I see I'm not the only one who is wanting more Seals & Crofts on CD. Another LP that should be available on CD is their 1976 masterpiece "Get Closer." That title track along with other classic tunes should have been included on the CD edition of the Greatest Hits. Where are these other great hits from 1976 on: Baby I'll Give It To You, My Fair Share, Takin' It Easy, You're The Love... and the list could go on. We want more!!!

Of the five albums the tracks on this disc were taken from, only one, "Summer Breeze" is still in print. That's too bad because even though this album is very worthy of its title, it's only a small sample of what this duo have accomplished as singer/songwriters. Of course their two most recognizeable hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl" are here along with the Top 40 hits "Hummingbird", "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" and "I'll Play For You"."Castles In The Sand" was also a minor hit. The track "Ruby Jean and Billie Lee" was written for their respective wives. They also had a controversial hit called "Unborn Child" which isn't here but "King Of Nothing" from the same album is. The other tracks "When I Meet Them" and "East Of Ginger Trees" are album cuts. "Get Closer" was a hit after this collection.

I've had the cassette of this album for over ten years and just recently purchased the CD version but I can only imagine how much better this would sound if Warner Bros. or Rhino would step in and remaster this along with the rest of their catalog. It's been done with other artists already and for this duo it's high time.

It's true that Seals & Crofts were an underrated band that never got the proper attention they deserved. By "proper" I mean, as another reviewer mentions, avoiding the easy listening tag. There was SO much more to Seals & Crofts than just typical easy listening music.

They were sort of like a blend between Cat Stevens in the vocal department and spiritual side, and Simon and Garfunkel's peaceful atmospheric experiments. For some reason, the music of Seals & Crofts always reminded me of a place faraway, such as another planet and another life. It's hard to explain why I get these feelings from their music, because they aren't a space rock band like Pink Floyd or Rush.

Another feeling this band creates is the one of me growing up in Amish country here in the southern parts of Pennsylvania. Whenever I hear this music, I think about how peaceful the Amish are, and how friendly the music is. A fascination with the outdoors also helps me appreciate the music even more.

This Greatest Hits collection gathers a bunch of their best tunes and puts them on one disc. I'm not kidding- every single song here is a winner. I wonder whatever happened to these guys? I hope we see them again. I also hope some of their albums that were never released on CD will be released soon, such as the Takin' It Easy album. I LOVE that album and wish it was available on a disc.

Now don't get me wrong, Seals & Crofts are great song writers and musician but the record company fell asleep on this one. There are so many tunes not on here that truely should be, this is what happenes when record companies get greedy and some cat in a suit who does not know the music makes the decision to put out a greatest hits Cd. Jim and Dash are great guys and I know first hand, I grew up jamming with them at San Fernando park in the San Fernando Valley. A certain song is truely missing here "Cause You Love", no I wont tell you what album its from you need to look it up and buy that album or Cd. Too bad that some record companies do this kind of thing?

In my humble opinion, the most glaring current example of diservice to an American artist has to be the Warner Brothers treatment of the Seals & Crofts catalog. The fact that this label has yet to release anything save this ancient and shortchanged Greatest Hits and one other studio project is unbelievable. In fact it's so wacky that one has to consider if there isn't some sort of internal bias with the elite suits.
Clearly, there is reasoning beyond the norm because it's not about the money. There's not a chance that WB wouldn't profit financially with Gold albums like "Diamond Girl" and "Get Closer".
And here's the REALLY puzzling part:
Historically, Rhino - who has access to the WB catalog has stepped up when Warner's wasn't there and re-released albums on their own label. Where is Rhino with Seals & Crofts? Their disinterest is very telling. Again, it's all about money and there's no way any label would lose on this, so what's the REAL reason?
Regarding this Greatest Hits collection, not only is it old school short with the missing later hits, it's old school sonically as well with 80's mastering that falls far short of today's warmer, fuller sound.