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David A. Gates (born December 11, 1940, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American singer-songwriter, best...

David A. Gates (born December 11, 1940, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which during the 1970s peaked the music charts with numerous well known songs. The band is now in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Gates was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of a band director and a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, bass, and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Gates joined local bands around Tulsa. During a concert in 1957, his high school band backed Chuck Berry. Later, Gates released his first local hit single, "Jo-Baby," a song he had written for his’ sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1958 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a music copyist, as a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists — including Pat Boone. Success soon followed. His composition "Popsicles and Icicles" hit #3 on the US Hot 100 for The Murmaids in 1963. The Monkees recorded another of his songs, "Saturday's Child." By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading