The Great 70s

Bread

Bread was a late rock/pop band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were a primary example of what later was labeled "soft rock", releasing a string of well-crafted, melodic soft rock singles.

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 1970), and Larry Knechtel (bass, guitar, keyboards, harmonica; replaced Royer in 1971).

Bread became a quartet with their second album, On the Waters (peaking at #12 on the Billboard 200), bringing in Botts as drummer. Their efforts quickly established Bread as a major act with the Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit "Make It With You" in 1970. "Make It With You" would be Bread's only number one hit on the Hot 100.

For their next single, they released a re-recorded version of "It Don't Matter To Me", a Gates song from their first album. This single was a hit as well, reaching #10. Bread began touring and recording the 1971 album titled Manna (#21), which included the Top 5 hit single, "If". As with the first album, songwriting credits were split evenly between Gates and Griffin-Royer.

Royer left the group after three albums—although he would continue to write with Griffin—and was replaced by Larry Knechtel, a leading Los Angeles session musician who had played piano on Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" single in 1970. In January 1972, Bread released a rerecording of their earlier song Baby I'm-a Want You, their most successful album, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200. The title song was established as a hit in late 1971 before the album was released, also hitting #3. Follow-up singles "Everything I Own" and "Diary" also went top-20. The next album, Guitar Man, was released ten months later and went to #18. The album produced three top-15 singles, "The Guitar Man" (#11), "Sweet Surrender" (#15), and "Aubrey" (#15), with the first two going to #1 on Billboard's adult contemporary chart.

Despite the band's success, tensions existed between Gates and Griffin. All eleven of Bread's charting singles between 1970 and 1973 had been written and sung by Gates. Elektra Records had invariably selected Gates' songs for the A-sides of the singles, while Griffin felt that the singles should have been split between the two of them.

By 1974, fatigue from constant recording and touring had set in and personal relationships began to show strain. There was also some dissatisfaction with the songs planned for a sixth album. Bread decided to disband.

The reunion of the group in 1976 came about after Elektra Records expressed interest in another Bread album. Gates, Griffin, Botts and Knechtel returned to the studio that year and recorded the album Lost Without Your Love, released in January 1977. The title track—again written and sung by Gates—was the band's last top-ten hit, peaking at #9 on the singles chart. This comeback record reached #26 on Billboard's album chart and was Bread's seventh consecutive album (including the two best-ofs) to be RIAA-certified gold. In March 1977, Elektra released a second single, "Hooked On You". It was less successful on the pop chart (peaking at #60) but it reached #2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. The four members of Bread (along with session guitarist Dean Parks) toured throughout 1977 to support their comeback album. After a short break, they commenced the tour's second leg that summer without Griffin, whom Gates failed to invite after further rising tensions. They ended the year with no further plans to record as a group.

Wikipedia contributors. Bread (band). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. December 20, 2009, 08:49 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bread_(band)&oldid=332825485. Accessed December 31, 2009.