This group seems to have been the pioneer
of soft rock. Coming from Los Angeles and formed in 1969 by David Gates. The
group is in the vocal group hall of fame and achieved six gold and platinum
albums in the American charts.
David Gates was born in 1940 and during the
1960s had worked with people like Elvis, Duane Eddy, and Brian Wilson and even produced
records for Captain Beefheart too. He formed the group and signed up to Elektra
records and released their very first album Called Bread in 1969.
The second album was released in 1970 called
On The Waters which had the classic Make It With You, which was written by
David Gates. The song topped the U.S. charts and get to No. 5 in the U.S.
Band member Jimmy Griffin was a founder member
of the group too. He won an academy award in 1970 under a false name of Arthur
James. The award was for the Carpenters song For All We Know. He died in 2005
from cancer.
The group had two single hits in the U.S.
called It Don’t Matter To Me and Let Your Love Go. In March 1971 they had a
U.S. top five hit with If. The song was No. 1 in the UK but NOT by Bread. The
film and TV star Telly Savalas had a speaking version of the song. Telly was on
the TV in Kojak at the time.
Band member Robb Royer was with the band up
to 1971 and was replaced by Larry Knetchel who use to work with the Monkees,
Simon and Garfunkel (he won a Grammy award for his piano playing on the track)
and the Partridge family. Larry died in 2009 of a heart attack aged only 69.
Mother Freedom was a U.S. hit only in 1971,
and then in October that year another hit on both sides of the pond with Baby Im-A Want You, which was a U.S. No. 1 gold single and No. 14 in the UK. Mike
Botts was the drummer who was again with the band right from the start. Later
in the 1970s he worked with Andrew Gold and was playing on his big hit Lonely
Boy. Mike died of Colon Cancer in 2005.
1972 saw a massive hit with Everything I
Own getting to No. 5 in the U.S. and No. 36 in the UK. The reason it was not massive in the UK? Because it went to No 1 in the 1970s for Ken Boothe in a
reggae style, and again in the 80s for Culture Club’s Boy George. The song was
written as a tribute to David Gates dad.
Diary was a beautiful 1972 U.S. hit and
that was followed by Guitar Man in July from the album called Guitar Man. Both
U.S. and UK chart hits in the top twenty. This was followed in the U.S. by
Sweet Surrender and Aubrey both getting to No. 15 in the charts. Aubrey was written
by David after watch Breakfast At Tiffany’s starring Audrey Hepburn.
1976 saw the last British single with LostWithout Your Love, which was an excellent single to go out on. In 1973 Bread
split up because David and Griffin were not getting on. The last Bread concert
was in Utah that year. They reunited for a year in 1976.
David had many solo projects and a few
modest single hits after Bread, but without the vehicle Bread he did not
achieve those dizzy heights again. The albums the Best of Bread can be found in
most homes of us baby boomers.
