May 13, 2022 —– Chart #143
Have you seen us on Facebook? CLICK HERE to like our page. Welcome to our 143rd Chart of the Week. Today we go back to 1970 and a song that will stretch our acoustic guitar players. “Make It with You” is a song written by David Gates and originally recorded by American pop-rock group Bread, of which Gates was a member. Gates and drummer Mike Botts are the only members of the group to appear on the recording which was a number-one hit.
The song first appeared on Bread’s 1970 album, On the Waters. Released as a single that June, it was the group’s first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and spent the week of August 22, 1970, at number one, their only single to do so; it also reached number five on the UK Singles Chart. Billboard ranked “Make It with You” as the No. 13 song of 1970, and it was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of over one million copies.
Bread was an American soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. They had 13 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1977. The band was fronted by David Gates (vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, violin, viola, percussion), with Jimmy Griffin (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion) and Robb Royer (bass guitar, guitar, flute, keyboards, percussion, recorder, backing vocals). On their first album session musicians Ron Edgar played drums and Jim Gordon played drums, percussion, and piano. Mike Botts became their permanent drummer when he joined in the summer of 1969, and Larry Knechtel replaced Royer in 1971, playing keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, and harmonica.
David Gates was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He released a song in the late 1950s entitled “Jo-Baby”/”Lovin’ at Night”. Gates knew Leon Russell and both played in bar bands around the Tulsa area. Both Gates and Russell headed for California to check out the music scene there. Before forming Bread, Gates had worked with Royer’s previous band, the Pleasure Fair, who recorded one album for the UNI Records label with Gates producing and arranging. Royer then introduced Gates to his songwriting partner, Griffin, and the trio joined together in 1968 and signed with Elektra Records in January 1969. Gates later explained the genesis of the band’s name:
“A bread truck came along right at the time we were trying to think of a name. We had been saying, “How about bush, telephone pole? Ah, bread truck, bread.” It began with a B, like the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Bread also had a kind of universal appeal. It could be taken a number of ways. Of course, for the entire first year people called us the Breads.”
For the guitar players I have included two versions of the chart in the download. The first is harder and may be closer to the original while the second uses a capo on thew second fret and is much easier to play. For you bass players out there, you make this song work. Give it a try, you will have fun.
Bread on The Midnight Special in 1977: https://youtu.be/K4R93xnKink
Keep rockin my friends,
Stan