Dash Crofts, Co-Creator of 'Summer Breeze' with Seals & Crofts, Passes Away at 87

Dash Crofts, one half of the 1970s soft-rock duo Seals & Crofts, died on Wednesday in Austin, Texas, at age 87. His daughter Lua Crofts Faragher confirmed to the New York Times that heart failure was the cause. Crofts, alongside musical partner Jim Seals, who died in 2022, helped shape the era's mellow rock style, characterized by harmonious vocals over guitar-driven, jazz-inflected rhythms. Their music, emerging after the turbulent late 1960s, provided themes of love and companionship, influencing acts like America and Bread, and later being categorized as yacht rock. Their most successful track, 'Summer Breeze' from 1972, peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, earned a Grammy nomination, and propelled its namesake album to double-platinum status. The song has accumulated over 320 million streams on Spotify and has been used in films and television series such as 'Dazed and Confused.' It was also reinterpreted by the Isley Brothers in 1973 and Type O Negative in the 1990s. Born Darrell George Crofts on August 14, 1938, in Cisco, Texas, he was nicknamed Dash by his mother. He and Seals met as teens, relocated to California in the late 1950s, and joined the Champs, a group that included Glen Campbell and had a hit with 'Tequila.' They released their debut album as Seals & Crofts in 1969, after embracing the Baha'i faith. In 1974, they faced criticism for their anti-abortion song 'Unborn Child,' released following the Roe v. Wade ruling; Seals later expressed regret over the divisiveness it caused. The duo disbanded around 1980 but reunited for performances and released the album 'Traces' in 2004. Crofts is survived by his wife Louise, daughters Lua and Amelia, and son Faizi.