Troy Seals obit

Songwriting Legend Troy Seals Passes

 

He was not on the list.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Troy Seals has died at age 86.

During his illustrious career, Seals co-wrote more than 75 charted singles, including 30 top 10 hits and 11 No. 1 records. Among his classics are “Seven Spanish Angels,” “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,” “There’s a Honky-Tonk Angel (Who’ll Take Me Back In)” and “If You Ever Have Forever in Mind.” Troy Seals was also a recording artist and a session guitarist.

The musician was born in Big Hill, Kentucky, and his family moved to Cincinnati when he was 11. Troy Seals began his career at age 17 in 1956. He and his band The Earthquakes performed on the rock & roll nightclub circuit during the 1950s, working with such legends as Fats Domino, Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley, The Drifters, Lloyd Price, Dorsey Burnette and Chubby Checker.

At one rock & roll show, Seals met rockabilly recording artist Jo-Ann Campbell, who was featured in such teen films as Go, Johnny Go (1958) and Hey Let’s Twist (1961). Not long after Seals and Campbell married, she scored a 1963 country hit with “I’m the Girl From Wolverton Mountain.” Billed as “Jo-Ann & Troy,” the couple had pop success with “I Found a Love, Oh What a Love” in 1964.

After regular appearances on Dick Clark’s TV shows American Bandstand and Where the Action Is, Campbell retired in 1965. Seals gave up music and founded a construction company in 1968. The couple moved to Nashville in early 1969. Troy Seals continued to work in construction, building Music Row’s Quadraphonic Studio. He also took work as a session musician, hoping to break into the country industry.

He began to make inroads as a songwriter in the 1970s. In 1972, Sammi Smith had a top 40 hit with his “Girl in New Orleans.” Waylon Jennings introduced Seals’ co-written ballad “We Had It All” in 1973. Although never a big hit, the song became something of a country standard with subsequent versions by Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Tom Jones, B.J. Thomas, Tina Turner, Donna Fargo and co-writer Donnie Fritts, among others.

Troy Seals recorded his debut album at Quadraphonic in 1973. Titled Now Presenting Troy Seals, the Atlantic Records collection included his version of “We Had It All,” as well as “There’s a Honky Tonk Angel (Who’ll Take Me Back In).”

Another of the artists Troy Seals worked with on the rock & roll circuit was Conway Twitty, who had transitioned into country stardom in Nashville. Twitty took Seals under his wing and in 1974 turned “There’s a Honky Tonk Angel” into the songwriter’s first No. 1 smash. Twitty also had No. 1 hits with the Seals tunes “Don’t Take It Away” (1979), “Red Neckin’ Love Makin’ Night” (1982) and “Fallin’ for You for Years” (1987). Three Troy Seals songs were duet hits for Twitty and Loretta Lynn, “Feelin’s” (1975), “I Can’t Love You Enough” (1977) and “From Seven Till Ten” (1978).

Producer Billy Sherrill recorded Troy Seals as the songwriter’s second album. It was issued by Columbia Records in 1976. Seals also recorded singles for Elektra, RCA, Polydor and several smaller labels. But he became increasingly known for his writing, rather than his recordings.

By the close of the 1970s, Troy Seals was established as a Music Row tunesmith. He worked with a variety of co-writers, most successfully Eddie Setser, Max D. Barnes, Graham Lyle and Mike Reid. Seals and wife Jo-Ann Campbell were also sometimes cowriters. His early songs were recorded by Johnny Paycheck, Jeanne Pruett, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nat Stuckey, Bob Luman and Connie Smith. In 1979, Elvis Presley had a posthumous, top 10 country hit with his revival of “There’s a Honky Tonk Angel.”

The 1980s witnessed his full flowering as a songwriter. During the decade, Troy Seals provided top-10 hits for Charley Pride (1980’s “You Almost Slipped My Mind”), The Bellamy Brothers (1984’s “Forget About Me”), George Jones (1985’s “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”), Keith Whitley (1986’s “Ten Feet Away”), Alabama (1984’s “When We Make Love”), John Schneider (1985’s “Country Girls”), Ronnie McDowell (1984’s “I Dream of Women Like You”), Lee Greenwood (1986’s “Didn’t We”) and Waylon Jennings (1985’s “Drinkin’ and Dreamin’”).

Between 1980 and 1986, Brenda Lee, David Allan Coe, Johnny Rodriguez, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, Dobie Gray and others also issued country singles of Troy Seals songs. In 1985, his co-written “Seven Spanish Angels” became a smash hit for Willie Nelson and Ray Charles. It was nominated as Song of the Year by the CMA and was the biggest country hit of Charles’ career.

Seals songs reached beyond country music. In 1983, Eric Clapton had a pop hit with the songwriter’s “I’ve Got a Rock and Roll Heart.” Over the years, Troy Seals copyrights were also recorded by such pop and R&B stars as Joe Cocker, Millie Jackson, Celine Dion, Three Dog Night, Etta James, Jodeci, Delbert McClinton, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and Barry Manilow, among others.

In 1985, Ronnie Milsap had a huge hit with “Lost in the Fifties Tonight.” This became the second Troy Seals song nominated for a CMA Award. It won the ACM’s Song of the Year honor, was ASCAP’s Country Song of the Year and earned Milsap a Grammy. It also led to Troy Seals being named Country Songwriter of the Year by ASCAP.

Troy Seals became even more successful in 1987-88, when he co-wrote six top 10 country hits. In addition to Twitty’s “Fallin’ for You for Years,” these included “Maybe Your Baby’s Got the Blues” for The Judds, “Let the Music Lift You Up” for Reba McEntire, “No More One More Time” for Jo-El Sonnier, “Joe Knows How to Live” for Eddy Raven and “I Won’t Need You Anymore (Always and Forever)” for Randy Travis, which won the singer a Grammy Award. During this same two-year span, Seals also provided singles for Gene Watson, The Bama Band and Hank Williams Jr. This era was capped by his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988.

Troy Seals closed out the 1980s by cowriting a top-10 hit for The Oak Ridge Boys (“Beyond Those Years”) and a No. 1 success for Eddy Raven (“Bayou Boys”). Around this time, the songwriter’s nephew Brady Seals was becoming known at the keyboardist/singer in the band Little Texas. The extended family also included country stars Dan Seals and Johnny Duncan, pop star Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts and hit songwriter Chuck Seals (“Crazy Arms”).

Troy Seals began the 1990s with a flurry of successes. He co-wrote the George Jones/Randy Travis duet “A Few Ole Country Boys,” as well as Eddy Raven’s “Island” and Travis Tritt’s “Looking Out for Number One.” Seals earned his third CMA Song of the Year nomination along with co-writer Vince Gill for 1999’s “If You Ever Have Forever in Mind.”

His 1990s singles also included songs recorded by Faith Hill, John Anderson, Clinton Gregory, John Berry, Neal McCoy, J.P. Pennington, Chris LeDoux, Mike Reid and nephew Brady Seals, who was then recording as a solo artist. The songwriter’s last notable chart success was with his co-written “Good Little Girls,” recorded by the duo Blue County in 2003. At the time, Troy Seals was 65 years old.

Troy Seals died at home in Hendersonville on March 6. He is survived by wife Jo-Ann and by son Troy Jr. Funeral services were private.