DAVID GATES BIO
At a time when rock was at its angriest, David Gates
gave us gentleness. At a time when things were most turbulent, he
reminded us of love and tenderness. At a time when we were loud and
wild, he was the voice of sweet reason.
As an award-winning
composer/arranger, as the leader of Bread and as singer of records that
have sold more than 40 million copies, David Gates has stood for
craftsmanship, for individuality and for sweet melody in a world that
sometimes seems to have gone utterly mad. And now, perhaps when we need
his sound more than ever, Gates returns!
"If you have written a
song that stays alive for years and years, it is a wonderful thing,"
says the soft-spoken Gates. And I honestly feel that I am good at
it and that I do it differently from anybody else."
"Probably
the most important reason that I write is to watch the emotional
responses from people who listen to my songs ... to see if I’ve made a
connection. These are my paintings. This is what I do. And that is my
‘high,’ to try and touch people."
David Gates has done just that
during his 30-plus years in show business. His timeless ballads include
Everything I Own, Diary, Make It With You, and Baby I’m-a Want You. His
Goodbye Girl served as the theme song for the Oscar winning movie of
the same title. His perennially popular If has been recorded by more
than 200 artists. During the 1970’s David Gates practically defined
romantic songwriting. He still does.
His devotion to his craft
began when he was a child in Tulsa. The son of a band director and
piano teacher, Gates was surrounded by the classical music of his
parents and the big-band sounds of his older siblings. Encouraged by
his father, he was performing before he was in long pants and reading
music by age 5. By high school, he was proficient on piano, guitar and
bass.
"Rock and roll was starting to happen," he recalls, "so I
formed a band. The highlight came when Chuck Berry performed in Tulsa
and we were his backing group. That made a long lasting impression."
By
the end of the decade, as an arranger, his clients included Bobby
Darin, Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Duane Eddy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band, Merle Haggard, Hoyt Axton, Bobby Vee, Buck Owens and Captain
Beefheart. For Steve McQueen’s movie theme Baby the Rain Must Fall,
Gates came up with the captivating sound that became a Grammy nominated
top-10 hit for Glenn Yarborough in 1965.
By late 1963, David
Gates had his first bonafide smash as a songwriter when The Murmaids
warbled his charming Popsicles and Icicles into the national top-10.
Gates bought a house, had two more children and continued to hone his
craft. "I was real focused. I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke and never did
any kinds of drugs. And I treated the music business as something you
put up with to be able to do the music."
Gates formed Bread in
1968 with Jimmy Griffin and Robb Royer, with most of the hits coming
from Gates. Beginning with his Make It With You and It Don’t Matter to
Me in 1970, Bread was rising. Ten top-10 hit records later, Bread was
unquestionably a star act.
By the time of The Guitar Man and
Sweet Surrender in 1972-73, the group could have been touring
constantly. "I held it to 90 or 100 dates a year. That was my maximum.
I wanted my kids to have a normal life. That was the way it was."
The
group disbanded in 1973, but re-united in 1976-77 to score with another
David Gates top-10 tune, Lost without Your Love. The album of the same
title became Bread’s seventh consecutive Gold Record award winner. The
act also earned two Gold singles during its heyday (for Make It with
You and Baby I’m-a Want You).
In addition to his phenomenally
successful work with Bread, David Gates issued five solo albums, two in
1973-75 and three more in 1978-81. During those solo stints he issued
eight successful singles. Five of them became top-10 hits on AC charts,
including 1978’s popular Goodbye Girl from the film.
Meanwhile,
his Bread songs became evergreens. Julio Iglesias topped the charts
worldwide with a bi-lingual rendition of the same song in 1984. The
Kendalls (1972) and Joe Stampley (1977) did Nashville versions of
Everything I Own, and the number returned yet again in 1987 when Boy
George scored a No. 1 international smash with it.
Gates
recently collaborated with country recording artist Billy Dean and the
results were I Can’t Find the Words to Say Goodbye, as well as Dean
recording Gates’ Love & Bide, which can be heard on Dean’s new CD.
Millions
have cried, loved and dreamed to his songs over the years. And that is
surely a measure of success. In the soft-spoken dignity, direct
sincerity and open-faced honesty of David Gates is another measure.
It’s the success of a man who never compromised his ethics for stardom
and never exchanged his heart for a musical fad.
And it’s that
simple integrity of spirit that has made David Gates one of our most
valuable contemporary American song poets. -- Robert Oerman
DAVID GATES
1957: Forms high school rock ‘n’ roll band; backs Chuck Berry in concert.
1963: Writes Popsicles and Icicles for The Murmaids (#3 pop hit).
1968: Forms Bread.
1969: Bread debut LP Bread (Elektra Records).
1970:
Bread hits Make It with You (#1) and It Don’t Matter
to Me (#10). Bread LP On the Water (Elektra Records). Make It with You
single wins Gold Record.
1971: Bread hits Let
Your Love Go (#28), If (#1), Mother Freedom (#37), Baby I’m-a Want You
(#3). Bread LP Manna (Elektra Records).
1972: Bread hits Everything I Own (#5), Diary (#15), The Guitar Man
(#11), Sweet Surrender (#15). Baby I’m-a Want You single earns Gold
Record. The Kendalls cover Everything I Own for the country audience
(#66). Bread LP Baby I’m-a Want You and Guitar Man (Elektra Records).
Albums Manna, Baby I’m-a Want You and Guitar Man all go Gold. Baby
I’m-a Want You LP nominated for a Grammy Award.
1973: Bread hit Aubrey (#15). Bread disbands. David Gates solo hits
Clouds (#47 pop, #3 AC), Sail Around the World (#50 pop, #11 AC). David
Gates LP First Album (Elektra Records). The Best of Bread LP goes Gold.
1974: Ken Boothe scores British hit with reggae cover of If (#1). The Best of Bread Volume 2 goes Gold.
1975:
David Gates hits Never Let Her Go (#29 pop, #3 AC),
Part Time Love (#34 AC). David Gates LP Never Let Her Go (Elektra
Records).
1976: Bread reunites. Bread hit Lost without Your Love (#9).
1977:
Bread hit Hooked on You (#60 pop) becomes 11th
consecutive Bread single to make top-5 on AC charts. David Gates solo
hit Goodbye Girl (#15 pop, #3 AC). Bread LP Lost without Your Love
(Elektra Records) becomes an instant Gold Record. Bread disbands again.
Joe Stampley country hit Everything I Own (#12).
1978: David Gates hit Took the Last Train (#30 pop, #9 AC). David Gates LP Goodbye Girl (Elektra Records).
1980:
David Gates hit Where Does the Lovin’ Go (#46 pop,
#9 AC). David Gates LP Falling in Love Again (Elektra Records).
Stephanie Winslow country hit Baby I’m-a Want You (#35).
1981: David Gates hit Take Me Now (#62 pop, #15 AC), David Gates LP Take Me Now (Arista Records).
1984: Julio Iglesias worldwide hit If.
1986: Gates moves to Northern California to become full-time rancher.
1987: Boy George British hit Everything I Own (#1).
1992: Gates builds own recording studio.
1993: Gates collaborates songwriting with country star Billy Dean. Gates signs with Discovery Records.
1994: Gates releases new album Love Is Always Seventeen (Discovery Records).
1996:
Gates and the three other original members of Bread
get together for world tour taking them to South Africa, Australia, New
Zealand, South East Asia, England and various other countries.
1998: Gates returns home to Tulsa, Oklahoma to play a concert with the Tulsa Symphony on March 21st.
2002: September marks the release of a new album by David in England entitled
David Gates The Songbook – A Lifetime of Work
2002: October, David Gates Songbook reaches #11 in the British charts
2003: March marks the commencement of a world tour starting in England to
celebrate the success of the David Gates Songbook.
2003: The tour culminates at the prestigious Royal Albert on April 6th
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