BREAD
Bread was an American soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were an example of what later was labeled as soft rock. The band consisted of David Gates (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, violin, viola, percussion), Jimmy Griffin (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Robb Royer (bass, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder, backing vocals), Mike Botts (drums; joined in the summer of 1969), and Larry Knechtel (bass, guitar, keyboards, harmonica; replaced Royer in 1971). (More from Wikipedia)
But most of the albums in Ernie Guyton’s birthday present to me I did not have. He included Styx’s second album, Styx II, that I quite enjoy; and The Best of Bread (by Bread) reminded me again that soft rock can be quite delicious. The original My Fair Lady (featuring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews) was another treat; I was also delighted to notice in small letters “Not for Sale” on the white label, meaning that it was a promotional LP. Thus, although this LP was a big seller and is quite common, this gives the album some collector’s value. The reason is that, besides being rarer than the commercial or record-club releases, promotional and DJ albums were the first ones manufactured; and the quality tends to be a little better.
(November 2012)
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The album by Telly Savalas, Telly includes a spoken-word version of the Bread song “If” (written by David Gates), which got to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the UK charts in 1975.
(March 2013)
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By the early 1960’s, “girl groups” were becoming more prominent in rock and roll. The Jaynetts achieved an ethereal sound with their 1963 hit “Sally Go ’Round the Roses”. Another one-hit wonder, the Murmaids took “Popsicles and Icicles” to the Top 3 in January 1964; the song was written by David Gates, later of the band Bread, while Kim Fowley worked behind the scenes.
(October 2013)
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“Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids 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.
(January 2015/1)
