The MARK’S VINTAGE VINYL page features something from Mark’s collection of recordings from over the years. Most of it is on vinyl – hence the name – though there will be a few entries from his CDs (remember those?).
The Best of Bread by Bread
- Compilation greatest hits album released in 1973.
- 50 years after its release, I continue to be embarrassed over how much I still love the songs on this album. Bread was the epitome of early 70s soft rock, with corny mellow hits about love. They put out five studio albums between 1969 and 1972, with five #1 songs on either the Hot 100 or Adult Contemporary charts. A perfect time to release a Greatest Hits album – it was certified 5x platinum, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
- Side one has their biggest hits – Make It With You, Everything I Own, Diary, Baby I’m-a Want You, It Don’t Matter To Me and If. The corniest is my favorite – Diary tells the story of the singer who secretly finds his girlfriend’s diary and starts to read the entries. He’s surprised to read that she loves him so much, since normally she doesn’t show it. Soon, his heart is broken as he realizes that she is writing about another boy and not him. Oh my…the drama! And yet, I can still sing along with every word.
- Interesting to me that Bread never really got into the reunion mode. Their first run lasted until 1973. There was a two year reunion in 1976, and a final 25th Anniversary reunion tour in 1996. Frontman David Gates is the only surviving member – he’s in his eighties and living on a ranch thanks to the royalties he earned as principal writer for the group. For more on Bread, check out my blog post from October 28, 2018.
- Flash back to 1972, and watch Gates croon my favorite Bread song, Diary.