Bread was an American soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. They had 13 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1977.
The band was fronted by David Gates (vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, violin, viola, percussion), with Jimmy Griffin (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion) and Robb Royer (bass guitar, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder, backing vocals). On their first album session musicians Ron Edgar played drums and Jim Gordon played drums, percussion, and piano. Mike Botts became their permanent drummer when he joined in the summer of 1969, and Larry Knechtel replaced Royer in 1971, playing keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, and harmonica.
Beginnings and fame
The band in 1970.
David Gates was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He released a song in the late 1950s entitled "Jo-Baby"/"Lovin' at Night". Gates knew Leon Russell and both played in bar bands around the Tulsa area. Both Gates and Russell headed for California to check out the music scene there. Before forming Bread, Gates had worked with Royer's previous band, the Pleasure Fair, who recorded one album for the UNI Records label with Gates producing and arranging. Royer then introduced Gates to his songwriting partner, Griffin, and the trio joined together in 1968 and signed with Elektra Records in January 1969. Gates later explained the genesis of the band's name:
A bread truck came along right at the time we were trying to think of a name. We had been saying, "How about bush, telephone pole? Ah, bread truck, bread." It began with a B, like the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Bread also had a kind of universal appeal. It could be taken a number of ways. Of course, for the entire first year people called us the Breads.
The group's first single, "Dismal Day", was released in June 1969 but did not chart. Their debut album, Bread, was released in September 1969 and peaked at No. 127 on the Billboard 200. The songwriting on the album was split evenly between Gates and the team of Griffin-Royer. Session musicians Jim Gordon and Ron Edgar accompanied the band on drums for the album.
On July 25, 1969, Bread appeared in concert for the first time, with Gordon on drums, at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, opening for the Flying Burrito Brothers. When Gordon's schedule conflicted and he proved unavailable for future outings, they brought in Mike Botts as their permanent drummer. Botts, whom Gates had previously worked with in Botts's group The Travelers 3 as a producer, appeared on their second album, On the Waters (released in July 1970 and peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard 200). This time their efforts quickly established Bread as a major act with the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit "Make It with You" in 1970. "Make It with You" would be Bread's only No. 1 on the Hot 100.
For their next single, Bread released a re-recorded version of "It Don't Matter To Me", a Gates song from their first album. This single was a hit as well, reaching No. 10. Bread began touring and recording their third album, titled Manna (March 1971), which peaked at #21 and included "Let Your Love Go" (which preceded the album's release and made No. 28) and the Top 5 hit single, "If". As with the first album, songwriting credits were split evenly between Gates and Griffin-Royer.
Royer, after conflicts with other members of the band, left the group in the summer of 1971 after three albums, although he would continue to write with Griffin. He was replaced by Larry Knechtel, a leading Los Angeles session musician who played piano and harpsichord on The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album and on Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" single in 1970.
In January 1972 Bread released Baby I'm-a Want You, their most successful album, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The title song was established as a hit in late 1971 before the album was released, also hitting No. 3. Follow-up singles "Everything I Own" and "Diary" also went Top 20.
The next album, Guitar Man, was released ten months later and went to No. 18. The album produced three Top 20 singles, "The Guitar Man" (#11), "Sweet Surrender" (#15), and "Aubrey" (#15), with the first two going to No. 1 on Billboard's adult contemporary charT.
BREAD MIDI-KAR FILES (HERE)
- Bread - Aubrey (3:36)
- Bread - Baby I'm a Want You (2:24)
- Bread - Been Too Long On The Road (4:53)
- Bread - Diary (3:17)
- Bread - Everything I Own (3:11)
- Bread - Goodbye Girl (David Gates) (2:42)
- Bread - Guitar Man (3:36)
- Bread - I Can't Find The Words To Say Goodbye(David Gates) (3:25)
- Bread - If (2:41)
- Bread - It Don't Matter To Me (2:55)
- Bread - Look What You've Done (3:16)
- Bread - Lost Without Your Love (2:56)
- Bread - Make It With You (3:14)
- Bread - Never Let Her Go(David Gates) (3:21)
- Bread - Part Time Love (2:31)
- Bread - Sweet Surrender (2:32)
- Bread - Take Me Now(David Gates) (3:41)
- Bread - Too Much Love (2:48)
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