Bread (band)

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Bread
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genre(s)	Rock and roll, Soft Rock, Pop, Pop/Rock
Years active	1968 – 1977

Bread was a 1970s rock and roll band from Los Angeles, California. They were one of the most popular pop groups of the early 1970s, a primary example of what later was labeled "soft rock", earning 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).

Contents 1 Biography 2 Discography: Albums 2.1 Main albums 2.2 Compilations 3 Discography: Singles

[edit] Biography

Gates, Griffin, and Royer formed the group in 1968 and signed with Elektra Records. Gates and Griffin had both worked with Royer's previous band, The Pleasure Fair. Bread's first single, "Dismal Day", was released in June 1969 but did not chart. Their debut album Bread was released in September 1969 and peaked at #127 on the Billboard 200. Songwriting on the album was split evenly between Gates and the team of Griffin-Royer. Jim Gordon, a top session player, accompanied the band on drums for the album.

Bread became a quartet with their second album, On The Waters (peaking at #12 on the Billboard 200), bringing in Botts as drummer. This time their efforts quickly established Bread as a major act, hitting the mainstream with the #1 hit "Make It With You" in 1970. On this album, Gates had writing credit on 10 of the 12 songs, with Royer at six and Griffin at three.

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 "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 Knechtel, a leading session player from the Los Angeles scene. In January 1972, Bread released Baby I'm-a Want You, their most successful original 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. Gates received writing credit on eight of the album's 12 songs, with Griffin at six, Royer with two and Knechtel with one. 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. Gates had eight writing credits on the album, followed by Griffin with five, Royer with two, and Botts and Knechtel with one each.

Despite the band's success, tensions existed between Gates and Griffin. All 11 of Bread's charting singles between 1970 and 1973 had been written and sung by Gates. Elektra Records had invariably selected Gates's songs for the A-sides of the singles, while Griffin felt that the singles should have been split between the two of them.

By 1973, 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. In view of this, Bread decided to disband. Gates and Griffin then began solo careers, with mixed results. The Best of Bread compilation album from 1973 was a huge success, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200 and staying on the chart for over two years. The follow-up, The Best of Bread, Volume Two, was released in 1974 and went to #32.

The reunion of the group in 1976 came about after Elektra Records expressed serious interest in another Bread album. Initially, Gates had mixed feelings about such a project. But he was on good terms with the label and could understand their position. 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 toured throughout 1977 to support their comeback album, ending the year with no further plans to record as a group. In 1978 Gates also enjoyed success as a solo artist with the hit singles "Goodbye Girl" and "Took The Last Train". He then toured with Botts and Knechtel as "David Gates & Bread." This led to a legal dispute with Griffin over use of the band's name, of which Griffin was co-owner. The resulting litigation was not settled until 1984.

In 1996, having settled their differences, Gates, Griffin, Botts and Knechtel reunited Bread for a successful "25th Anniversary" tour of the United States, South Africa, Europe and Asia.

In 2005, Griffin and Botts both died from cancer at age 61.

[edit] Discography: Albums

[edit] Main albums

Year	Title	Label	Sales Level	Billboard 200 Peak
1969	Bread	Elektra	n/a	#127
1970	On the Waters	Elektra	Gold	#12
1971	Manna	Elektra	Gold	#21
1972	Baby I'm-a Want You	Elektra	Gold	#3
1972	Guitar Man	Elektra	Gold	#18
1977	Lost Without Your Love	Elektra	Gold	#26

[edit] Compilations

Year	Title	Label	Sales Level
1973	The Best of Bread	Elektra	Multi-Diamond (20 Million)
1974	The Best of Bread, Volume Two	Elektra	Gold
1982	The Sound of Bread	K-tel	n/a
1985	Anthology of Bread	Elektra	Multi-Platinum (6 million)
1996	Retrospective	Elektra	n/a
2002	Make It With You and Other Hits	Flashback	n/a
2006	The Definitive Collection	Elektra/Rhino	n/a

• Gold and Platinum certifications from Recording Industry Association of America

[edit] Discography: Singles

Date	Title	Billboard Hot 100 Peak
July 1970	"Make It With You" (Gold single)	#1
Oct 1970	"It Don't Matter to Me"	#10
Jan 1971	"Let Your Love Go"	#28
April 1971	"If"	#4
Aug 1971	"Mother Freedom"	#37
Nov 1971	"Baby I'm-a Want You" (Gold single)	#3
Feb 1972	"Everything I Own"	#5
May 1972	"Diary"	#15
Aug 1972	"The Guitar Man"	#11
Nov 1972	"Sweet Surrender"	#15
Feb 1973	"Aubrey"	#15
Dec 1976	"Lost Without Your Love"	#9

• Date indicates month and year of entry onto Billboard's Top 40