Darrell "Dash" Crofts, whose mandolin playing and vocals helped define the mellow, sun-drenched sound of 1970s California soft rock, died on March 25. He was 87.
Crofts died of heart failure at the Heart Hospital of Austin in Austin, Texas, according to his daughter, Lua Crofts Faragher. She said her father had endured heart problems for several years and had been hospitalized for roughly a month before his passing, surrounded by his wife and children.
Born Aug. 14, 1940, in Cisco, Texas, Crofts grew up immersed in music, eventually mastering piano, guitar, drums and the mandolin. His partnership with Jimmy Seals began in their shared teenage years, when both played in a local rockabilly group called the Crew Cats.
A Turn to Faith-Based Music
It was through the Dawnbreakers that both men converted to the Baha'i faith—a turning point that would shape not just their personal lives but the entire arc of their musical careers. After the group disbanded, Seals and Crofts retreated from the noise of the rock scene to chart a quieter, more purposeful path.Seals and Crofts released their debut album in 1969, but it was the 1972 single "Summer Breeze" that catapulted them to success and stardom. The song's chorus—"Summer breeze makes me feel fine / blowing through the jasmine of my mind"—became one of the era's defining anthems of post-1960s escapism, right alongside the Eagles' "Take it Easy."
"That was the beginning of bigger concerts, bigger crowds and we kept getting hits in the Top 40," Crofts told the podcast "Inside MusiCast" in 2021. "That cemented us in the music business."
The duo followed "Summer Breeze" with a string of Top 10 hits, including "Diamond Girl" (1973) and "Get Closer," and released five gold albums for Warner Bros. between 1972 and 1976. Their greatest hits compilation was certified double platinum. Other fan favorites included "I'll Play for You," "Hummingbird" and "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)"—the latter a staple of high school yearbooks for a generation.
Their Baha'i faith wove spiritual themes throughout their lyrics, as the pair distributed religious literature at concerts and occasionally spoke from the stage about their beliefs, including during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
That faith also sparked their most controversial moment. In 1974, a year after Roe v. Wade, the duo released "Unborn Child," a song opposing abortion that prompted radio boycotts and concert pickets—yet still went gold with 500,000 copies sold.
"I think we got more good results out of it than bad," Crofts told the St. Petersburg Press in a past interview, "because a lot of people called us and said: 'We're naming our children after you, because you helped us decide to save their lives with that song. That was very fulfilling to us.'"
As the 1980s arrived and soft rock fell out of fashion, Warner Bros. dropped the duo and Seals & Crofts disbanded in 1981. They briefly reunited from 1989 to 1992, then regrouped once more in 2004 for their final studio album, "Traces."
Seals, Crofts' musical partner of more than six decades, died in 2022 of chronic illness.
Crofts is survived by his wife, Louise Crofts; his children Lua, Faizi and Amelia; and eight grandchildren. His first marriage ended in divorce.