35-522: David Ashworth Gates (born December 11, 1940) is a retired American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin ) of the group Bread , which reached the top of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s. The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame . Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma , Gates
70-444: A BMI award for "Apologize" sung by Ames in 1968. Griffin met Robb Royer through Maria Yolanda Aguayo (Griffin's future wife). The two hit it off immediately and became life-time collaborators both as performers and writers. Griffin was a staff writer with Viva Publishing and managed to get them to hire Royer as his co-writer in 1967. Viva was resistant to hiring Royer and instead wanted Griffin to write with another staff writer with
105-609: A music copyist , as a studio musician , and as a producer for many artists – including Pat Boone . Success soon followed. His composition " Popsicles and Icicles " hit No. 3 on the US Hot 100 for The Murmaids in January 1964. The Monkees recorded another of his songs, " Saturday's Child ". By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading artists, including Elvis Presley , Bobby Darin , Merle Haggard , The Ventures , Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson . In 1965, Gates arranged
140-507: A No. 1 hit for Poco written by Ronnie Guilbeau. GYG was performing at numerous Nashville venues including the 2004 CRS Conference and making further plans to shop the CD to indie labels and take the act on the road at the time of Griffin's sickness and death. In early 2004, Griffin recorded a duet with Holly Cieri of his Oscar-winning song "For All We Know". During that same year, Griffin also collaborated with Michael Z. Gordon and Griffin recorded
175-518: A Time" under the pseudonym of "Del Ashley" in 1965. On Del-Fi, he released "No One Really Loves a Clown" / "You Had It Comin' to Ya". He also released a single under the name of "The Manchesters" in 1965 on the Vee-Jay label. In 1967, Gates produced and arranged the debut album from a band called The Pleasure Fair , of which Robb Royer was a member. A little over a year later, Gates and Royer got together with Jimmy Griffin to form Bread . The group
210-598: A cardiothoracic surgeon. Gates, who studied the cattle ranching business while touring with Bread, purchased a 1,400-acre (570 ha) cattle ranch financed by royalties he earned during his time with the band. He lives happily with his wife in Mount Vernon, Washington , enjoying his retirement. Jimmy Griffin James Arthur Griffin (August 10, 1943 – January 11, 2005) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with
245-607: A concert in 1957, the Accents backed Chuck Berry . In 1957, David Gates and the Accents released the 45 "Jo-Baby" / "Lovin' at Night" on Robbins record label. The A-side was written for his sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1959 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma studying law and pre-med. At Oklahoma he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles , where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as
280-563: A final Bread tour in 1996–97 with Botts and Knechtel. With the deaths of three of the other principal members of Bread, Gates is the sole surviving band member from their heyday, although Royer still successfully works in Nashville. The David Gates Songbook , containing earlier hit singles and new material, was released in 2002. Engelbert Humperdinck included " Baby I'm-a Want You " on his 1972 album In Time and "If" on his 2003 album Definition of Love . Frank Sinatra covered " If " in
315-567: A lawsuit from Griffin, who was still co-owner of the Bread trademark, and an injunction against the use of the name Bread. By the end of 1978, the "Bread" moniker had been dropped and they continued on as "David Gates and His Band". The dispute was not resolved until 1984. Gates released the albums Falling in Love Again (featuring "Where Does the Loving Go"), which peaked at No. 46 on
350-409: A lawsuit from Griffin. The dispute was not resolved until 1984. Griffin and Gates put aside their past differences for a Bread reunion tour in 1996–1997 with Botts and Knechtel. In 1977, Griffin released a third solo album, James Griffin , also on Polydor, with tracks recorded in 1974 and 1975. He teamed with Terry Sylvester (formerly of The Hollies) on the album Griffin & Sylvester in 1982 and
385-465: A live performance at Madison Square Garden on October 12, 1974, which was recorded by Reprise. Gates's songs have been recorded by many artists, including Telly Savalas , who had a UK No. 1 hit with "If" in 1975; Vesta Williams , who made a rendition of "Make It with You" in 1988; the band CAKE , which covered "The Guitar Man" in 2004; Ray Parker Jr. , who also recorded "The Guitar Man" in 2006; and Boy George , who took " Everything I Own " to No. 1 on
SECTION 10
#1732780933350420-617: The Billboard Hot 100 , and all were written and sung by Gates. That caused some antagonism between Gates and Griffin, who was also a significant contributor to Bread's albums as a singer and songwriter. Bread disbanded in 1973. Their last concert was performed at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City , Utah on May 19, 1973. Gates recorded and produced his solo album First in 1973. The single "Clouds", an edited version of
455-720: The Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, and Take Me Now , which peaked at No. 62, in 1981. He recorded a duet with Melissa Manchester , "Wish We Were Heroes", included in her 1982 album Hey Ricky . Gates was less active in music during the remainder of the 1980s. He concentrated on operating a cattle ranch in the Fall River Valley of Northern California, located on land he purchased in the 1970s. He returned to music in 1994, when he released Love Is Always Seventeen , his first new album in thirteen years. Gates and Griffin put aside their differences, and reunited for
490-540: The Billboard Hot 100. At the end of 1977, Gates released what would be his most successful single as a solo artist, " Goodbye Girl ", from the 1977 film The Goodbye Girl. It peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. To capitalize on that success, Gates put an album together in June 1978 that featured material from his first two solo albums mixed with some new material. It yielded another hit single, " Took
525-882: The Glenn Yarbrough hit , " Baby the Rain Must Fall ". In 1966, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band . Gates scored his first motion picture Journey to Shiloh in 1967. In the meantime, Gates had been releasing singles of his own on several labels in the early 1960s. On Mala Records , he released "There's a Heaven" / "She Don't Cry", "You'll Be My Baby" / "What's This I Hear", "The Happiest Man Alive" / "A Road That Leads to Love", and "Jo Baby" / "Teardrops in My Heart". On Planetary, he released "Little Miss Stuck Up" / "The Brighter Side", and "Let You Go" / "Once upon
560-577: The 1970s soft rock band Bread . He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1970 as co-writer of " For All We Know ". Griffin was born in Cincinnati , Ohio and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee . His musical training began when his parents signed him up for accordion lessons. He attended Kingsbury High School in Memphis and Dorsey and Johnny Burnette were his neighbors and role models. After
595-689: The Adult Contemporary chart. The album reached No. 107 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In 1975, Gates released the album Never Let Her Go . The title track was released as a single, and reached No. 29 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album itself reached No. 102 on the Billboard 200. Bread reunited in 1976 for one album, Lost Without Your Love , released late that year. The title track—again written and sung by Gates—reached No. 9 on
630-702: The Burnette brothers moved to Los Angeles, California to further their music careers, Griffin went there to visit them, and managed to secure a recording contract with Reprise Records . His first album, Summer Holiday , was released in 1963. He had small roles in two films, For Those Who Think Young (1964) and None but the Brave (1965). In the 1960s, Griffin teamed with fellow songwriter Michael Z. Gordon to write songs for such diverse singers as Ed Ames , Gary Lewis , Bobby Vee , Brian Hyland , The Standells , Lesley Gore , Sandy Nelson and Cher . The pair won
665-521: The Last Train ", which reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 but the album itself made it only to No. 165 on the Billboard 200. In 1978, Gates and Bread guest starred on an episode of The Hardy Boys Mysteries . Botts and Knechtel from Bread, along with Warren Ham , brother Bill Ham and bassist David Miner , continued to record and tour with Gates. In late 1978, they toured billing themselves as "David Gates & Bread", which brought
700-664: The UK chart, when he covered the Ken Boothe reggae version of Gates's song, which itself had been a UK No. 1 in 1974. Jack Jones recorded a Bread tribute album, Bread Winners (1972) including the Gates' standard, "If", which has long been a staple of Jones' live performances. According to a 1996 article in People , Gates has remained married to high school sweetheart Jo Rita since 1959. Together they raised four children: three lawyers and
735-479: The album track "Suite Clouds and Rain", peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The full album version was played extensively by Radio Caroline presenter Samantha Dubois at the end of her early morning radio programme, and became her closing theme. A second single, "Sail Around the World", reached No. 50 on the singles chart and No. 11 on
SECTION 20
#1732780933350770-524: The albums Blue Frontier (1992) and Aim for the Heart (1993). Their single, " A Long Time Ago " went Top 10 on Billboard'' s country chart in 1992 with "Two-Timin' Me" cracking the Top 20 later that year. Beginning in 1994 Griffin and Robb Royer collaborated with Grammy-nominated songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Todd Cerney to write songs and perform in local venues. Larry Knechtel also participated in
805-613: The band's permanent drummer, first appearing on their second album, On the Waters . In 1970, Griffin and Royer – under the pseudonyms Arthur James and Robb Wilson – wrote the lyrics for Fred Karlin 's music for the song " For All We Know ", featured in the film Lovers and Other Strangers . It won the Academy Award for Best Song .This song was later covered by The Carpenters on their third album. In 1971 Royer left Bread, but continued to provide songs co-written with Griffin for
840-483: The collaboration and the group called themselves Toast (an obvious reference to Bread ). Griffin, Royer and Cerney began this collaboration when they wrote "Kyrie" in 1994. Knechtel also joined songwriting credits on the 1995 song "Slow Train". The group wrote, recorded and performed together at various Nashville Venues including the Bluebird Cafe , 3rd & Lindsley, and 12th & Porter. In 1998 they changed
875-547: The company. According to Royer, Griffin convinced Viva to hire Royer by threatening "I will be writing with him. Do you really want to give away half the publishing on all those songs?". James Griffin sang songs that were featured in a few episodes of the TV series Ironside in the late sixties. In 1968, Griffin and Royer teamed with David Gates to form the band Bread using session drummer Jim Gordon for their first album and their initial gigs. Mike Botts soon replaced Gordon as
910-413: The group. He was replaced by keyboardist/guitarist Larry Knechtel . They had a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit with the song, " Make It With You ". Other hits by Bread included " Baby I'm-a Want You ", " If " and " Everything I Own ". Although Griffin was a significant contributor to Bread's albums as a writer and singer, every one of the group's thirteen songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 chart
945-429: The name to "Radio Dixie" in an effort to be more commercially viable. The group disbanded in 1998, although Royer and Cerney continued to collaborate on song-writing. In 2003, Griffin, Rick Yancey and Ronnie Guilbeau began writing and performing as GYG, recording a CD of the same name. The CD included new material and well-known tunes like "Who's Gonna Know", a Remingtons tune recorded by Conway Twitty, and "Call It Love"
980-466: The recording, which was Bread's only No.1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song first appeared on Bread's 1970 album, On the Waters . Released as a single that June, it was the group's first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and spent the week of August 22, 1970, at No.1; it also reached No.5 on the UK Singles Chart . Billboard ranked "Make It with You" as
1015-474: The song, "Something Else Altogether" which was slated to be the title song for the film, "The Devil and Daniel Webster". However, the film went into bankruptcy and the song was never used in the movie but was recently posted on YouTube and dedicated to Griffin. Griffin died of complications from cancer on January 11, 2005, at his home in Franklin, Tennessee , after undergoing treatment for several months; he
1050-659: The waters : for thou shalt find it after many days."), with a new drummer, Mike Botts , was released in 1970, and became a breakout success. It contained the No. 1 single " Make It with You " and was the first of seven consecutive Bread albums to go gold in the US. Bread's next three albums, Manna (1971), Baby I'm-a Want You (1972) (featuring Larry Knechtel as a new member of the band, replacing Royer) and Guitar Man (1972) were also successful, with more chart singles and gold records . From 1970 to 1973, Bread charted 11 singles on
1085-419: Was 61 years old. He was survived by his wife Marti, daughters Katy and Alexis, sons Jamey and Jacob, granddaughters Laura and Lilli and grandsons Gryffyn and Max. Make It with You " Make It with You " is a song written by David Gates and originally recorded by American pop - rock group Bread , of which Gates was a member. Gates and drummer Mike Botts are the only members of the group to appear on
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1120-552: Was a member of Black Tie with Randy Meisner and Billy Swan , which released When The Night Falls in 1985, co-produced by T-Bone Burnett . Robb Royer was also credited as a musician on the album. The album was remixed and reissued in the early 1990s, with Griffin's voice more prominent on some songs. The Black Tie single "Learning The Game" peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard country chart in 1991. In 1991 Griffin formed The Remingtons with Richard Mainegra and Rick Yancey. They released their first single that same year, followed by
1155-534: Was signed by the Elektra record company, where it would remain for the eight years of its existence. Elektra released Bread's first album, Bread , in 1969, which peaked at No. 127 on the Billboard 200 . The first single, "Dismal Day", written by Gates, was released in June 1969 but did not sell well. Bread's second album, On the Waters (the title a wordplay on Ecclesiastes 11:1; " Cast thy bread upon
1190-481: Was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of Clarence Gates, a band director, and Wanda Rollins, a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, violin, bass and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa 's Will Rogers High School . Gates formed his first band, The Accents, with other high school musicians which included a piano player, Claude Russell Bridges, who later in life changed his name to Leon Russell . During
1225-592: Was written and sung by Gates, a situation that created friction between the two. After the release of Guitar Man in 1972, Bread went on hiatus. Griffin released a solo album, Breakin' Up Is Easy on Polydor Records in 1973, credited to 'James Griffin & Co'. Neither the album nor the singles, "Breakin' Up Is Easy", and "She Knows", made the Billboard charts . Bread reformed in 1976 for one final album, Lost Without Your Love . Gates, Botts, and Knechtel continued to record together on Gates's solo albums, and initially toured as 'David Gates & Bread', which led to
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