Bread was kind of the Association of the Seventies. Easy going, easy to listen to. Appealed to the parents almost as much as they did to the kids. They was a mellow easy to listen to group. Bread was led by David Gates, who was the voice of Bread. The other members, at first, were Jimmy Griffin and Rob Royer. Bread was a trio for a while, but soon, Mike Botts joined them and they became a quartet. David Gates is probably the best known of the group. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1940. His mother was a piano teacher and his dad led the band at the coal high school, so he was close to music growing up. He learned the piano, bass and the guitar.

In 1961, Gates’ family moved to Los Angeles and he became a songwriters to the stars. He wrote the number 3 hit, “Popsicles and Icicles” for the group, the Murmaids in 1964. He also write for the Monkees, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin and many more during the Sixties.

In 1968, David Gates produced an album for a duo, Jimmy Griffin and Rob Royer who were performing as Pleasure Faire. When that album didn’t do much, the three decided to get together as a trio and create a new group.

The group that would become Bread got together in 1967 and Gates wrote and the group recorded their first album, which was also called Bread, but it didn’t sell. It peaked at number 127. So the group decided to re-group and try again. The second album was called On the Waters and contained the song “Make It With You.” They finally had they hit.

After having one hit, they re-recorded “It don’t Matter to Me” which was on the first album and this time, it reached number ten on the charts. Bread had a good career, but never hit number one again. They charted regularly through 1973 and eventually placed twelve songs in the Top 40. After Bread broke up, David Gates went solo for a while, putting three songs in the Top 40 during 1975 and 1978, but none of them were number ones. His biggest hit was the title theme from Neil Simon’s movie, The Goodbye Girl. By 1978 all of Bread were doing something else and no longer hitting the charts.