Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Gates, David

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

GATES, DAVID (1940– ).

Primarily known as the front man for the 1970s soft-rock band Bread, David Gates was a composer and session man before his career blossomed. Born in Tulsa on December 11, 1940, Gates graduated from Will Rogers High School, and he played in the school band. In 1958 he began his career, singing and writing Rockabilly tunes, but he switched to studio work when he moved to Los Angeles. He did session work for Duane Eddy, Pat Boone, Glenn Campbell, Bobby Darin, and Ann-Margret. As an arranger or producer Gates cultivated a number of other artists' hit songs, including Connie Stevens's "A Girl Never Knows," Shelly Fabares's "He Don't Love Me," and Dorothy Berry's "You're So Fine."

In 1967 Gates produced a group called Pleasure Fair, featuring Robb Royer and James Griffin. Together they formed the band Bread. In 1969 the band had their first hit when Tulsa-born session drummer Jim Gordon joined the group for "It Don't Matter to Me." In 1970 Mike Botts replaced Gordon. This foursome would go on to score seven top-ten hits with songs such as "Make It With You," "If," "Baby I'm-a Want You," "Everything I Own," and "The Guitar Man." Gates did most of the writing. The band split up in 1973 and reunited briefly in 1976, scoring another hit, "Lost Without Your Love." In 1978 Gates penned the title song for Neil Simon's play The Goodbye Girl. In 1994 the musician released "Love is Always Seventeen," which charted in the top twenty. His soft style and sweet melodies coupled with his sentimental lyrics resulted in seven Gold Record awards and two Gold Single awards.

Whit Edwards

Learn More

Patricia Romanowski Bashe and Holly George-Warren, eds., The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll (New York: Fireside, 1995).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Whit Edwards, “Gates, David,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=GA021.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.