With their distinctive names, England Dan & John Ford Coley sounded more like a pair of Old West card sharks than they did soft rockers. But they certainly aced the competition for a stretch there in the 1970s, most notably with their “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” one of the most offhand, cordial seduction songs of the decade.
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The song hit No. 2 on the charts in 1976. Not bad at all, considering it was a duo that had been dropped by their previous label singing a song that they didn’t really think they should record. Here’s are the details behind “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.”
A Persistent Duo
England Dan was Dan Seals, whose older brother Jim started minting hits as part of Seals and Crofts in the early ’70s. His love of British music helped earn him the nickname. He met Coley (real name John David Colley) as a high school student in Texas, which is when the pair first started playing music together.
After time spent in a psychedelic rock act in the late ’60s, they turned to singing and songwriting as a duo in the early ’70s. Success was hard to come by, however, and they were dropped by their label A&M Records after two albums. They knocked around for several years before pitching themselves again on the strength of their demo of “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.”
Among the labels they tried was Atlantic Records, which politely passed. But the head of one of that major label’s offshoots (Big Tree Records) had an office right near where the pair were pitching their song that day. He overheard, jumped in, and signed the band. That led to England Dan & John Ford Coley having a chance to record their first big hit with a song that, oddly enough, they initially tried to shun.
A Songwriting Formula
Parker McGee was an aspiring songwriter struggling to find a niche when one day he simply turned his career around on a dime. Up to that point, McGee’s songs skewed towards introspection and spirituality. But those songs weren’t exactly paying the bills, so he decided to aim for better commercial prospects with his writing. He quickly came up with “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” as a result.
A demo of the song made its way to England Dan & John Ford Coley, but they initially weren’t crazy about it. They thought at first that it was better suited to a female lead vocalist. But since they weren’t doing that well with their original material, they relented and gave it a shot, which led to the record deal with Big Tree.
The connection between Parker McGee and the duo continued with the song “Nights are Forever,” which followed up the success of “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by also hitting the Top 10. The duo scored two more Top-10 hits before the decade ended. They split up as the ’80s dawned.
What is the Meaning of “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight”?
Was the term “booty call” around in the ’70s? Well, whatever it was called back then, you could consider “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” to be the aural equivalent of that phenomenon. The narrator calls up an old acquaintance out of the blue (Hello, yeah! It’s been a while / Not much, how about you?) and essentially invites himself over: And I was thinking maybe later on / We could get together for a while.
He goes about this rather sweetly (And I really do miss your smile). Most of the activities he suggests are actually quite chaste: a walk, a drive, watching TV. But in the chorus, romance sneaks back into the picture, even he insists it will only be temporary: I’m not talking about moving in / And I don’t want to change your life / But there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around / And I’d really love to see you tonight.
The bridge insists that pushing it further would be folly: We’ve both played that game before / Say I love you then say goodbye. Smooth talker, this fellow. Maybe that’s why “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” touched such a chord, giving England Dan & John Ford Coley their signature hit and a yacht rock classic indeed.
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