Dan Seals

Dan Seals was never particularly interested in being correct.

 He played a right-handed, 12-string guitar—left-handed—and with only eight strings, “upside down, and backwards,” as he used to say.

Texas born and raised, he called himself “England Dan” when he was in a duo that recorded hit pop songs, including “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.” His first solo No. 1 hit was a country song about be-bop dancing, and he followed that with a five-minute ballad about a rodeo sweetheart. He was hilarious offstage and somber on it.

“He could do anything he wanted to do,” said keyboardist Shane Keister, who recorded and performed with Mr. Seals for decades. “That’s the mark of a true artist: they find where their path leads.”

Mr. Seals’ path led through halcyon days in the 1970s, when he and duo partner John Ford Coley scored with pop hits such as “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight” and “Nights Are Forever (Without You).” He began the 1980s broke and sleeping under a friend’s piano and ended the decade having scored nine No. 1 Billboard country hits, including “Bop,” “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold),” “Three Time Loser” and “Addicted.”

Mr. Seals’ life in music began in McCamey, Texas, when he stood on an apple crate and played stand-up bass in the family band. Not knowing that guitars could be strung in reverse to be played left-handed, he learned to play the instrument in a manner that was never taught. Dan played guitar and sax in bands at his Dallas high school, and in 1965, he first went to Nashville and recorded at RCA Studio B as The Shimmerers.

That group ultimately became rock band Southwest F.O.B. (short for “Freight On Board”), which featured Mr. Seals along with friend and future duo partner John Ford Coley. Southwest F.O.B. wound up opening shows for acts including Led Zeppelin.

In 1971 Southwest F.O.B. became England Dan and John Ford Coley, a duo that left Texas for California at the prompting of older brother Jim Seals, who was at the time having pop success in his own right as one half of the duo Seals & Croft.

England Dan and John Ford Coley charted four Billboard Hot 100 top 10s and six top 20 Adult Contemporary singles between 1976 and 1979.

Liberty Records offered a deal to Dan Seals and stuck with him through three low-charting singles in 1983. In 1984, finally and fully embracing his country roots, “God Must Be A Cowboy” broke into the top 10, and Mr. Seals’ career had new life. With Lehning producing, Mr. Seals went on to a remarkable run of hits of a layered and literary nature that would seem at odds with commercial success.

 Dan Seals’ 1985 duet with Marie Osmond, “Meet Me In Montana,” was his first country No. 1. He and Osmond won the CMA’s top vocal duo prize, and his solo hit “Bop” became the CMA’s single of the year in 1986. From there, he continued a run of unbroken success with 9 more No 1s and 16 top 10 hits.