Bread – If …1970’s AM Radio Gold Week

Bread was one of the first bands I found out about. My sister loved them because every time she started to date someone or broke up with someone…out came the Bread albums. She is 8 years older than me so I was just 6 when she was 14 but I knew the dating cycle of a teenage girl rather well at that time.

My sister now…(she will kill me if she finds out I posted this)

May be an image of 1 person, eyeglasses and indoor

Bread was a soft rock band that later on I probably would have never claimed that I liked…but I did…and still do. I called them a guilty pleasure (the guilt-o-meter peaks) for a while but hell…I like them. When I hear the opening guitar in this song, it’s the early seventies again.

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 and #6 in Canada in 1971. It also peaked at #1 in the  Easy Listening chart in America and Canada. The song was on the album Mana that peaked at #21 in the Billboard Album charts and #16 in Canada.

David Gates was the writer who wrote most of the hits. Gates is a very good singer songwriter who knows how to write a good pop melody. In this song there is no chorus to speak of but it works well.

David Gates:  “I wrote that one night at the dining room table, after my kids and my wife had gone to bed. It took me about an hour and a half, with an extra verse left over. If you look at it, there’s a few bizarre lines in there, like ‘you and I would simply fly away’ – that’s kind of an unusual thought. When I was done, I said, ‘That’s the best song I’ve ever written and probably will be the best song I’ll ever write.’ For me it’s really held up over time, more than any of the others.”

One odd fact about this song… Kojak actor Telly Savalas recorded a spoken-word version that went to #1 in the UK in 1975.

If

If a picture paints a thousand words,
Then why can’t I paint you?
The words will never show the you I’ve come to know.
If a face could launch a thousand ships,
Then where am I to go?
There’s no one home but you,
You’re all that’s left me too.
And when my love for life is running dry,
You come and pour yourself on me.

If a man could be two places at one time,
I’d be with you.
Tomorrow and today, beside you all the way.
If the world should stop revolving spinning slowly down to die,
I’d spend the end with you.
And when the world was through,
Then one by one the stars would all go out,
Then you and I would simply fly away

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

64 thoughts on “Bread – If …1970’s AM Radio Gold Week”

  3. Bread was one of the hartbreak goto’s for sure. Your sister is lovely. My brother and I were close growing up, too, me being the younger tag along. I always enjoy your posts.

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      2. LOL….Mom treated me hands off…my sister was a different story. Really wasn’t fair but hey…I got to go a lot of places.

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  4. Sounds like your sister is my age. Before she kills you for posting her picture, tell her I think she’s kind of cute…

    Bread could rock pretty hard, too, but they were mostly into ballads like this one. Still, pretty good band…

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  5. I’m around same age as you so I grew up hearing a lot of Bread on the AM radio as a kid. I always liked them, soft rock definitely but everything about it was pretty good… strong melodies, nice lyrics and great voice from David Gates (who I believe went to school with Leon Russell). Music that could be described as almost- Beatlesque. I’ve started to hear this song sometimes on the oldies station here again. their song “Guitar Man” was one of the very first 45s I bought with my allowance as a little kid.
    If that’s your older sister now… good genes must run in your family.

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    1. She got the looks of us and I got the brains lol. I tell her that all of the time. Yea that is her now…and she is getting up there. I look my age or older.
      I forgot about Guitar Man…there are a lot of songs I like by them. Remember Mother Freedom? It rocks quite a bit…

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      4. “Welcome, Max! Drinks & snacks are on the far table.”

        Your sister’s picture is not showing up on the app. I’ll have to view it later.

        I never figured I’d see Bread, here. I’ve always liked David Gates & Bread, particularly “Guitar Man.”

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      5. Yea they are a guilty pleasure of mine…I do like them and I think of her when I was a kid everytime.

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      7. Well thank you…I’m sure when she reads this she will be happy lol. She has always been a great sister to me.

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      12. You know something strange Vic? This post has gotten more views today than I have had in months on a post for one day. Who in the hell would figure that? A Bread post!

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      14. I know lol! It ended up around 70 views ….not bad for a soft rock band. Promise that the next time I post a Bread song…it will get 30 or 35.

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      4. I sure will….thank you. She didn’t like the cool music but she treated me like a person and not a little brother. We have always been friends.

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    1. I like Everything I Own a lot but it slipped my mind when doing this. This is the first Bread song I ever posted…I’ll get to that one I’m sure.

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  9. I like Bread and I’m not talking about the baked version, though I generally like that as well! 🙂

    While I also have an older sister (six-year difference) who (unknowingly at the time) played an important role in the beginning of my music journey, I know Bread from the radio. During my teenage years, I had a phase during which I was much into softies.

    In addition to “If,” I also liked “Make It With You”, “Guitar Man” and “Everything I Own.” I guess I still do – haven’t heard these tunes in ages.

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    1. Everything I Own may be my favorite song by them….I forgot about that one.

      She helped me also in mine but not in the cool stuff lol. She is a wonderful sister though that had to take me on her dates with no complaints. I saw many R rated movies before I was 9!

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      1. Yet another commonality, Max, an older sister! 🙂

        In my case, luckily, I wasn’t asked to accompany her on dates (she had boyfriends pretty early, like 13 or 14), so there would have been opportunity! But, I do recall a skiing vacation in Italy with my parents, my sister, her boyfriend (who is now her husband) and my grandpa. We rented a small apartment, and I was placed in the same bedroom with the young couple. I wonder why… 🙂

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      2. LOL we were used for the same reason!

        Well it was in the 70s…and I went to some Drive In Theaters back then with Tammy and whoever…and guess where Max was? They would put me in the trunk until we got in (that way they only had to pay for 2 people) and then they would let me out and I would watch the movie in the back seat.

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      4. I was going to ask you that. Have you ever been to one here? They are more rare now to find but after covid they might make a comeback.

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      5. Yep, I’ve actually been to a few – it’s fun! I guess the last time was 10 years ago or so in eastern Pennsylvania about 1.5 – 2 hours away from us. As far as I know there are no drive-ins in my neck of the woods.

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      6. We have one around 50 miles from us…it’s a 4 screen drive in…it’s really nice. It’s been around 10 years for us also.

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  10. chick music to the max. Breakup, makeup, lovey dove, back seat drive-in stuff. If you couldn’t get to third base with Bread on the radio, then you were a lost cause. I wish for all the money those dudes made.

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      1. The 80s?? I sort of remeber that decade. Good stuff Max. In my day, it was stuff by the Supremes and songs like that. Us guys had no choice but to listen and cringe or we wouldn’t even get a good night smooch. My girlfriend blew the one radio speaker in my Malibu playing “Baby Love” at full blast. I never forgave her for that. Well, I finally did, I married her 30 years later.

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    1. Oh Yes…Telly had a huge hit over there with this…I just found that out the other day on UK #1s blog…over here it was Bread.
      I do like a lot of their songs.

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