David Gates

DAVID GATES
 
 
David Gates  (born December 11, 1940) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970’s.  The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Popsicles and Icicles was one of the earliest songs written by David Gates, after his family relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles in 1961.  Gates is best known as the bandleader and lead singer for the under-rated soft rock band Bread.  

 

David Gates had been in various local bands in Tulsa, and his high school band backed Chuck Berry for a concert in 1957.  David Gates also wrote “Saturday’s Child”, and the Monkees included this song on their first album, The Monkees.  Writing for Allmusic, critic Matthew Greenwald says that “Saturday’s Child has a “proto-heavy metal guitar riff” and is “one of the more interesting curios of the early Monkees catalog”. 

 

Glenn Yarbrough had a #12 hit with a song that was arranged by David Gates,Baby the Rain Must Fall”, the title song for the 1965 Steve McQueen/Lee Remick film Baby the Rain Must Fall.  The film is notable as the screen debut (uncredited) of Glen Campbell.  If that isn’t eclectic enough for you, David Gates also produced two singles and wrote one song for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band for A&M Records that were hits in the L.A. area. 

 
(January 2015/1) 
 
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Last edited: March 22, 2021