This song was written by Dash Crofts and the late Jim Seals, with its producer being Louie Shelton. To note the Isley Brothers also dropped a cover of this tune in 1974, which proved to be a mild hit in the UK. Seals and Crofts is an act that consisted of Jim Seals (1942-2022) and Darrell “Dash” Crofts. Seals passed away, at the age of 80, just a couple of days prior to this writing. As such there has been a renewed interest in “Summer Breeze”, which peaking at number 6 on the Hot 100, number four on the US Adult Contemporary list and number 16 on the Kent Music Report, marks the duo’s best-chart showing.

The dropping of this song dates back to 31 August 1972, with it serving as the lead single and title track to Seals and Crofts’ fourth album. So in conclusion, we can say that truly appreciating the message Seals and Crofts are trying to put across via these lyrics require that the listener be of a certain mindframe, one that is keen to sarcastic criticisms of the mainstream way of life. In other words, it seems this piece is in fact meant to be an extremely-roundabout condemnation, since the lyrics read as if the vocalist is biggin’ up the American Dream, but in his own mind he’s actually dissing it. Needless to say, based solely on the lyrics, a listener wouldn’t likely come to that understanding themselves. That meaning is so cleverly shrouded – so to speak – that it would fly over analysts’ heads, which in the grand scheme of things seems to have worked in Seals and Crofts’ favor, as it appears the reason this song hit is due to most people interpreting it as a simple celebration of summer. Going back to Jim Seals in his own words, he explained that to him and Crofts, what this piece is actually based on is something psycho-philosophical like a person being a prison of himself and becoming “insecure and paranoid” if they don’t have any direction in their personal life. So the message being put forth is that, even if only on this particular day, the vocalist is very much pleased with his life. Then once he enters the house, there we find the faithful housewife if you will, “ dressed up” and ‘smiling’ with dinner set “ for two”, in a very-good mood of her own. So we have the narrator coming home “ on a Friday night”, which is generally understood as the end of the work week. But he isn’t cranky or anything like that. Rather, it’s as if he is pleasantly aware of everything in his environment, including the light emanating from the window of his home, “ a little music” coming from next door and the smell of jasmine flowers. Also there is the titular “summer breeze”, which especially has him ‘feeling fine’. In terms of the actual lyrics, well first of all there doesn’t appear to be any dog present. But what we are dealing with is something like an idealized depiction of married life, or perhaps we can say more specifically the American Dream, since the latter also conventionally includes the presence of a family dog.

Summer breeze song who sang it first