"...If you have written a song that stays alive for years and years, it is a wonderful thing. I have missed that writing and the feeling of making a record and 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 with my music."
Born in Tulsa in 1940, the son of a band director and piano teacher, David Gates was surrounded by all the right elements to shape his musical psyche. By the time he was in high school he was proficient on piano, bass and guitar. Backing up Chuck Berry in 1957 when Chuck performed in Tulsa basically put the stamp on David's future aspirations apparently, not to mention that he also had his first "hit" right there in Tulsa with a song written basically to grab the attention of his high school sweetheart and now wife, Jo Rita, called Jo-Baby. (A lot of fans would like to have that single for their Bread collection!!)
Married with children and in school at University of Oklahoma, in late 1961, the temptation to try his by then well sharpened talents in Los Angeles, CA. had David, family and possessions all bundled up in a ten year old Caddie and headed for L.A. under the eye of a concerned Father to whom he made a promise that he would invest no more than two years if things didn't work. "I had an advantage. I knew Rock and Roll, Country, and Rhythm and Blues. I could read and write music. I could do arrangements. I could produce. I could play bass. I could do a lot of different things to make a living."
By the end of two years, David lived up to that promise and by the end of the decade had become a successful arranger and songwriter. Names like Elvis, Bobby Darin, Ann Margaret, Merle Haggard and so many others became part of his growing resume. David Gates was responsible for the sound we heard on Baby the Rain Must Fall, a huge hit and Grammy nominee for Glenn Yarbrough in 1965. He had also racked up his first real hit as a songwriter with the Murmaid's Popsicles and Icicles.
In 1968, the handwriting was on the wall again, and David Gates realized that the best way to get his songs recorded was to record and sing them himself. And Bread came into focus with David and colleagues James Griffin and Robb Royer and later Larry Knechtel and Michael Botts. (See Bread Brief History page on this site...)
David went on to do five additional albums as a solo, two released between 1973 and 1975, and three from 1978-81. Eight singles were released from his solo collection. All of them achieved top ten Adult Contemporary chart status including The Goodbye Girl.
His songs have since been recorded by hundreds of artists including Julio Iglesias who recorded If (bilingual versions) and had huge chart success worldwide with each. Everything I Own, a highly personal tribute to his father whom David calls his greatest influence, was recorded by Nashville artists the Kendalls and Joe Stampley, and again in a completely different musical genre by the British rocker, Boy George. When a song can "cross over" like that in terms of format, you know you have probably written a standard.
For the past many years, David has worn the hat of farmer and rancher with great zeal on his family's Northern California ranch where they moved in the mid-Eighties. He built a recording studio on the ranch realizing he missed the music, and since then has amassed many new songs. Some of his newer efforts can be heard via country artist Billy Dean, with whom David collaborates.
1994 found the prolific David Gates signed to the Discovery label and releasing his most recent solo effort, Love is Always Seventeen. We see him at a place where his lyrics reveal a new maturity and wisdom evolving with the passing of time. As with all great poets and writers, there is no greater influence on the work than the lessons of Life.