The Guitar Man - Bread (1972( 11/22/22

Sometimes, when a band is having trouble nailing down the BEST version of a song, it's good to shake things up a bit.

The Beatles and Beach Boys did this all the time. Paul McCartney would sometimes take over for Ringo ("Back in the USSR,' and "The ballad of John & Yoko"), and Brian Wilson would assign, and then re-assign, vocals. (He originally was going to sing lead on "God Only Knows," but reassigned it to his brother Carl.)

Today's Great Song of 1972, "The Guitar Man" by Bread was not working well in the studio. Lead singer and guitarist David Gates, who wrote the song, just couldn't seem to figure out the right sound for the guitar part...which was rather important since "Guitar" was part of the title.

(The song is about the relationship a musician has with his fans.)

At first, guitarist James Griffin had given it a try, but in frustration, David tried it himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to come up with anything either.

Finally, they turned to their keyboard player, Larry Knechtal, (who admittedly wasn't much of a guitar [player) to see what he could do.

Larry hooked up a guitar to a wah-wah pedal, and proceeded to NAIL IT!

"The Guitar Man" became one of Bread's biggest hits, not to mention a "Great Song of 1972!" In the US, the song topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart and reached #11 on the Hot 100. In Canada, the matching chart numbers were #7 and #6, respectively.

The moral of the story? "If at first you don't succeed, give it to somebody else! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JbDqOwX0qc