The story of Bread's 'Make It With You'

At first glance, you may be mistaken into thinking that this is an article for an unleavened bread recipe. It isn't. In fact, this is an article about the 'soft-rock' band who called themselves Bread. More specifically, the following article is going to outline the history of one of the most popular songs by Bread - 'Make it with you'.

The band

Bread was formed in the late sixties and comprised of singer, guitarist and violinist David Gates, singer, guitarist and keyboardist Jimmy Griffin, bassist and percussionist Robb Royer and drummer Mike Botts. Larry Knetchtel replaced Royer on the bass in 1970. Soft rock
The band was an example of the ‘soft-rock’ type band that was typical of their Los Angeles origins. While their debut album of 1969 simply entitled ‘Bread’ only reached number 127 on the Billboard 200 between 1970 and 1977, an impressive 13 of their songs made a major impact on the Billboard Hot 100. Among the most well-known of these songs, besides ‘Make it with You’, were the classic tracks ‘Baby I’m a Want You’ and ‘Everything I Own’.

The song

The song ‘Make It with You’ was written by David Gates and was originally released as part of the 1970 album ‘On the Waters’. The song was subsequently released as a single in June of that year. It soon became the band’s first top ten single and eventually went on to become their first and only number-one single in the U.S. In total, it spent one week at number one during the middle of August, 1970.

Further chart success

Meanwhile, in the UK, the song climbed to number five on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, it received a Gold certificate from the RIAA, having sold more than one million copies. The song enjoyed an instant success within the world of easy-listening. The soft-rock leanings characteristic of the song had become widely popular in the early 70s. So, it was well-received by many easy-listening stations upon its release. In fact, it was to reach number four on the Billboard Easy Listening Top 40.

Cover versions

The song was subsequently covered on numerous occasions by a huge variety of other artists. Among the most notable here included Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Dusty Springfield, Let Loose and Andy Williams. Endnote The song has even been recorded in several other languages such as Spanish, whence it became 'Quiero Hacerte El Amor'.