The overheard demo that made a Dallas duo a hit

The duo began as friends and classmates at W. W. Samuell High School in Dallas. Dan Seals and John Ford Coley played in local cover bands, among them Playboys Five and Theze Few, and they recorded demos in Nashville as The Shimmerers until their producer died before he could find them a deal. Their next group was Southwest F.O.B., whose “The Smell of Incense” rose to number 56 in 1968 and put them on the bill with acts such as Led Zeppelin.

Seals was the younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts, and Jim gave him the nickname “England Dan” because he was a fan of the Beatles and sometimes adopted an affected English accent. Coley's last name was originally spelled Colley, and was changed for easier pronunciation, with “Ford” added as a middle name for flow. They signed with A&M Records in 1970. In 1972 their song “Simone” became a number one in Japan and charted in France, but not in the US, and A&M released them after two albums.

What happened next is a favourite music-business story. The pair found a song by the Mississippi-based songwriter Parker McGee called “I'd Really Love to See You Tonight”, and played their demo in the office of Bob Greenberg, a senior vice president at Atlantic Records. Next door sat the label Big Tree, whose founder, Doug Morris, heard it through the wall and walked in. When Greenberg decided against it, Morris said he wanted it and offered them a deal.

With the producer Kyle Lehning they made a hit that reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1976, selling two million copies and topping the Adult Contemporary chart. A follow-up single, “Nights Are Forever Without You”, also made the Top 10. The partnership ended with the decade; Seals went on to a country career with 11 number one country hits. “Love Is the Answer” and the rest of their catalogue come from years of working toward that soft, easy sound.