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
James Arthur Griffin (August 10, 1943 – January 11, 2005) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s soft rock band Bread. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1970 as co-writer ...
) of the group
Bread
Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...
, 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.
Life and early career
Originally from
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...
,
Gates 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
Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
'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
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock a ...
.
During a concert in 1957, the Accents backed
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...
. 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
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
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
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a
music copyist, as a
studio musician, and as a producer for many artists – including
Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films.
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
The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...
recorded another of his songs, "
Saturday's Child". By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading artists, including
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
The Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers were an American pop group formed in Los Angeles in 1964 by John Walker (musician), John Walker (real name John Maus) and Scott Walker (singer), Scott Walker (real name Noel Scott Engel), with Gary Walker (musician), Gary Wal ...
,
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music.
Darin started ...
,
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in country music, he was a central pioneer of the Bakersfield ...
,
The Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson (musician), Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar acro ...
,
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy (April 26, 1938 – April 30, 2024) was an American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" guitar sound, including ...
and
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...
. In 1965, Gates arranged the
Glenn Yarbrough hit, "
Baby the Rain Must Fall". In 1966, he produced two singles on
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
for
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born 'Don Glen Vliet'; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the M ...
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 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.
Bread and fame

In 1967, Gates produced and arranged the debut album for a band called
The Pleasure Fair,
[1985 Album ''Anthology'' – ]Elektra Records
Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
LP (E1-60414) of which
Robb Royer was a member. A little over a year later, Gates and Royer got together with
Jimmy Griffin
James Arthur Griffin (August 10, 1943 – January 11, 2005) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s soft rock band Bread. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1970 as co-writer ...
to form
Bread
Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...
.
The group 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
Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...
'', 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
Ecclesiastes ( ) is one of the Ketuvim ('Writings') of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ...
11:1; "''Cast thy bread upon the waters'': for thou shalt find it after many days."), with a new drummer,
Mike Botts
Michael Gene Botts (December 8, 1944 – December 9, 2005) was an American drummer, best known for his work with 1970s soft rock band Bread (band), Bread, and as a session musician. During his career, he recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonof ...
, 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
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
in the US. Bread's next three albums, ''
Manna
Manna (, ; ), sometimes or archaically spelled Mahna or Mana, is described in the Bible and the Quran as an edible substance that God in Abrahamic religions, God bestowed upon the Israelites while they were wandering the desert during the 40-year ...
'' (1971), ''
Baby I'm-a Want You'' (1972) (featuring
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles–based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Sim ...
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 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
The Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, more commonly known as the Salt Palace, is a convention center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Named after Utah's 11th governor, Calvin L. Rampton, the moniker "Salt Palace" was previously used by ...
in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
, Utah on May 19, 1973.
Gates recorded and produced his solo album ''
First
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
'' in 1973.
The single "Clouds", an edited version of 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
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...
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 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
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-t ...
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 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 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
Warren Ham (born October 26, 1952) is an American saxophonist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for playing with Kansas (1982), Toto (1986–1988, and since 2017) and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band (since 2014).
Career
Duri ...
, 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 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 the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1979, and ''
Take Me Now'', which peaked at No. 62, in 1981. He recorded a
duet
A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...
with
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been played by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage.
Early li ...
, "Wish We Were Heroes", included in her 1982 album ''
Hey Ricky
''Hey Ricky'' is the title of the tenth album release by Melissa Manchester. It was issued on Arista Records in April 1982.
During the interim between the release of ''Hey Ricky'' and that of the precedent '' For the Working Girl'' in September ...
''. Gates was less active in music during the remainder of the 1980s.
He concentrated on operating a
cattle ranch
A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...
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 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
''In Time'' is a 2011 American science fiction action film written, produced, and directed by Andrew Niccol. Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried star as inhabitants of a society that uses time from one's lifespan as its primary currency, wi ...
'' and "If" on his 2003 album ''Definition of Love''.
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
covered "
If" in a live performance at
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
on October 12, 1974, which was recorded by Reprise. Gates's songs have been recorded by many artists, including
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (; January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was a Greek-American actor. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on the crime drama series '' Kojak'' (1973� ...
, who had a UK No. 1 hit with "If" in 1975;
Vesta Williams
Mary Vesta Williams (December 1, 1957 – September 22, 2011) was an American singer-songwriter, who performed across genres such as soul music, soul, funk, R&B, Quiet storm, jazz soul and Urban Contemporary. Originally credited as Vesta Williams ...
, who made a rendition of "Make It with You" in 1988; the band
CAKE
Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...
, which covered "The Guitar Man" in 2004;
Ray Parker Jr.
Ray Erskine Parker Jr. (born May 1, 1954) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. As a solo performer, he wrote and performed the theme song for the 1984 film '' Ghostbusters'' and also sounds from the animated series '' The ...
, who also recorded "The Guitar Man" in 2006; and
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham a ...
, who took "
Everything I Own
"Everything I Own" is a song written by American singer-songwriter David Gates. It was originally recorded by Gates's soft rock band Bread for their 1972 album '' Baby I'm-a Want You''. The original reached No. 5 on the American ''Billboard'' ...
" to No. 1 on the UK chart, when he covered the
Ken Boothe
Kenneth George Boothe OD (born 22 March 1948) is a Jamaican vocalist known for his distinctive vibrato and timbre. Boothe achieved an international reputation as one of Jamaica's finest vocalists through a series of crossover hits that appeal ...
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.
Personal life
According to a 1996 article in ''
People
The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...
'', Gates has remained married to high school sweetheart Jo Rita since 1959. Together they raised four children: three lawyers and a cardiothoracic surgeon. Gates, who studied the cattle ranching business while touring with Bread, purchased a cattle ranch financed by royalties he earned during his time with the band. He lives happily with his wife in
Mount Vernon, Washington
Mount Vernon is the county seat of and the most populous city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. A central location in the Skagit River Valley, the city is located south of the U.S.–Canada border and north of Seattle. The popul ...
, enjoying his retirement.
He has since sold the ranch and moved to San Diego, CA to be closer to his kids.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Singles
References
External links
David Gates & Bread Facebook Page(Super Seventies RockSite!)
*
* Alan Cackett
David Gates - Make It Again(First Published in ''Country Music International'', January 1995)
ccessed 20 September 2022
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gates, David
1940 births
Living people
American male singer-songwriters
American country singer-songwriters
American keyboardists
American soft rock musicians
Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Monkees
Vee-Jay Records artists
Singer-songwriters from California
American rock bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American multi-instrumentalists
American male violinists
American violists
Guitarists from California
Guitarists from Oklahoma
American ballad musicians
Elektra Records artists
Record producers from Oklahoma
Record producers from California
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
20th-century American guitarists
21st-century American violinists
Will Rogers High School alumni