As an award-winning composer/arranger, as the leader of Bread and as singer of records that have sold more than 17 million copies, David has stood for craftsmanship, for individuality and for sweet melody in a world that sometimes seems to have gone utterly mad.
David 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 the1970's David practically defined romantic songwriting.
His devotion to his craft began when he was a child in Tulsa. The son of a band director and piano teacher, David was surrounded by the classical music of his parents. Encouraged by his father he was performing before he was in long pants and he was reading music by age 5. By high school, he was proficient on piano, guitar and bass.
By late 1963, David had his first bonafide smash as a songwriter when The Murmaids warbled his charming Popsicles and Icicles into the national Top-10. By the late 60's rock groups were the rage. He knew that the best way to get his songs recorded was to sing them himself. He formed Bread in 1968 with Jimmy Griffin and Robb Royer, with most of the hits coming from David. 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.
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.
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 version of Everything I Own and the number returned yet again in 1987 when Boy George scored a No. 1 international smash with it.
