Danny Wayland "Dan" Seals was an American musician. The younger brother
of Seals & Crofts member Jim Seals, he first gained fame as "England Dan", one
half of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, which charted nine pop
singles between 1976 and 1980, including the No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit "I'd
Really Love to See You Tonight". After the duo disbanded, Seals began a
solo career in country music. Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, he
released 16 studio albums and charted more than 20 singles on the country
charts. Eleven of his singles reached Number One: "Meet Me in Montana", "Bop",
"Everything That Glitters", "You Still Move Me", "I Will Be There", "Three Time
Loser", "One Friend", "Addicted", "Big Wheels in the Moonlight", "Love on
Arrival", and "Good Times". Five more of his singles also reached Top Ten on the
same chart. Background
Seals was born in McCamey, Texas, but raised in Rankin, Texas to a
music-oriented family. His mother, Sue, and father Wayland, an oilfield worker,
played in a country band. He was taught by his father to play the upright bass,
and his brothers, Eddie Seals and Jim Seals, are recording artists in their
own right. He moved to Dallas as a teenager and graduated from W. W.
Samuell High School in Pleasant Grove in 1966. He and classmate John Colley, who
later changed the spelling of his last name to Coley, formed a group with three
other Samuell students called the Playboys Five.
Dan first married his high school sweetheart Carol Bradbury, with whom he
had two sons, Jimmy and Jeremy. The couple divorced in the mid-1970s. He
then married Andrea Gilbert with whom he had a son and a daughter, Jesse Seals
and Holley May Seals. His cousins include country music
artists Johnny Duncan and Troy Seals, as well as Brady Seals, lead singer of the
band Hot Apple Pie and ex-member of Little Texas.
Dan's childhood nickname of "England Dan" was given to him by his brother
Jim. It was also Jim's idea to incorporate the name "England Dan" into
England Dan & John Ford Coley. The nickname was a reference to the fact
that, as a youngster, Dan had fixated on the Beatles and briefly affected an
English accent. Collaboration with John Ford Coley
Dan joined with fellow W.W. Samuell High School classmate and longtime friend
John Ford Coley to perform first as part of Dallas pop/psych group Southwest
F.O.B., whose material has been re-released on CD by the Sundazed label.
As England Dan & John Ford Coley, Seals using a childhood nickname he'd gained
from his affected English accent and love of The Beatles They would have
several pop hits in the second half of the 1970s. "I'd Really Love to See You
Tonight" was the pair's biggest hit, reaching No. 2 in 1976 and becoming
their only gold single. Their other hits include "Nights Are Forever Without
You"; "It's Sad to Belong" and "Gone Too Far", both in 1977; "We'll Never Have to
Say Goodbye Again"; and their last Top 40 hit, "Love Is the Answer". After
seven LPs, they disbanded in 1980 and Seals reinvented himself as a solo
country-pop artist, signing with Atlantic Records in 1980.
Albums = Stones and Harbinger=
He kept the name England Dan for his debut album, Stones. Although no single
charted on the country chart, his first single ever as a solo artist "Late at
Night" did peak at No. 57 on the US Hot 100. Otherwise, it was unsuccessful. His
next album, Harbinger, was unsuccessful commercially. None of its singles
charted, and he turned his attention to country music and adapted his style to
fit country radio's demands while still keeping his signature soft sound. He
signed to Capitol Records in 1983. = Rebel Heart=
1983's Rebel Heart, his first album for Capitol, was much more successful than
his first two albums. The first single, "Everybody's Dream Girl", peaked at No.
18. The next single "After You", however, charted lower, at No. 28. "You
Really Go For the Heart" was even less successful, but still managed to crack
the top 40, reaching No. 37. The album's last single, "God Must Be a Cowboy" was
much more successful than the album's first three singles, becoming his first
top 10 hit in early 1984, at No. 10. The album peaked at No. 40 on the country
albums chart, his first album to enter Top Country Albums.
= San Antone= His 1984 album San Antone was even more
successful. "(You Bring Out) The Wild Side of Me", the album's first single,
reached No. 9. The next single "My Baby's Got Good Timing" became his first
Top 5, at No. 2. In early 1985, the album's third and final single "My Old
Yellow Car" peaked at No. 9. This album peaked at No. 24 on the country albums
chart. = Won't Be Blue Anymore=
His 1985 album Won't Be Blue Anymore became his most successful studio album,
reaching No. 1 on the country albums chart and earning RIAA gold
certification. "Meet Me in Montana", a duet with Marie Osmond, became his first
No. 1 hit in 1985 and the first of nine straight Number Ones. Written by Paul
Davis, the single won the artists the Vocal Duo of the Year Award at the CMA
awards in 1986. The album's next single, "Bop", also co-written by Paul Davis,
with Jennifer Kimball, became his first solo No. 1 and was named Single of the
Year at 1986's CMA awards. After it came "Everything That Glitters", about a
rodeo cowboy having to cope with single parenthood.
= On the Front Line= On the Front Line reached No. 12 on the
country albums chart. The three singles from it all reached No. 1 in 1987: "You
Still Move Me", "I Will Be There", and "Three Time Loser".
= The Best= Dan Seals released his first compilation
album The Best in 1987. All of the songs included on the album were top ten hits.
The lone new track "One Friend", which was originally included on 1984's San
Antone, was re-recorded for this collection and continued his No. 1
streak. The album peaked at No. 7 and was certified platinum.
= Rage On= 1988 saw the release of Dan Seals' Rage
On album. The first single, "Addicted", not only became a No. 1 country hit but
also got its writer, Cheryl Wheeler, a contract with Capitol Records in 1989.
The next single, the truck driving song "Big Wheels in the Moonlight", was
released in late 1988, and reached No. 1 in early 1989, becoming his ninth No. 1
single in a row. This streak was broken when the album's third and final single
"They Rage On" peaked at No. 5. The album peaked at No. 6, and is the second
highest peaking of his albums. = On Arrival=
Dan Seals began the 1990s with his eighth album, On Arrival. The first
single "Love on Arrival" reached No. 1 in 1990, and stayed there for three
weeks. After it came a cover of the Sam Cooke standard "Good Times". This cover
was not only his last Number One, but also his last Top 40 hit, as the album's
next two tracks failed to reach the top 40 in the United States, although they
reached the top 40 in Canada. = Greatest Hits=
Dan Seals' second compilation album, titled Greatest Hits was released in
1991. It contained his hits from the albums Won't Be Blue Anymore, Rage On,
and On Arrival, along with a new track, "Ball and Chain", which was not released
as a single. = Walking the Wire=
By this time, the country music landscape had changed abruptly, and Dan
Seals found his style out of favor. He moved to Warner Bros. Records in 1991,
and released Walking the Wire. Only three of the five singles released from
this album actually charted, but none of them reached the top 40. Two other
singles, "Good Goodbye" and "We Are One" failed to chart. Additionally, the album
failed to crack the top country albums chart.
Later albums, career and death Although Dan Seals was a touring artist
for the rest of the 1990s, he did release a few more albums on smaller
labels throughout the decade, such as Fired Up in 1994, his final album for
Warner Bros. He signed to Intersound and released In a Quiet Room in 1995,
comprising acoustic versions of his earlier hits. He then switched to TDC
and released In a Quiet Room II in 1998, followed by Make It Home in 2002.
In 2008, Seals completed radiation treatments for mantle cell lymphoma at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and at M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston and received a stem cell transplant at NIH in Maryland.
Seals died at the age of 61, on March 25, 2009, at his daughter's home in
Nashville. Discography
= Studio albums= Stones
Harbinger Rebel Heart
San Antone Won't Be Blue Anymore
On the Front Line Rage On
On Arrival Walking the Wire
Fired Up In a Quiet Room
In a Quiet Room II Make It Home
= Compilation albums= The Best
Portrait Greatest Hits
The Best of Dan Seals Certified Hits
The Best of Dan Seals References
Lomax III, John. "Dan Seals". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul
Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 474–5.
External links Dan Seals at AllMusic
Obituary in the Knoxville News Sentinel Dan Seals at Find a Grave