Mike Botts talks about the time when 'Make It With You' was climbing the charts
There I was, in paradise, working with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers at a major hotel in Honolulu for a three week engagement. Hey!! Can I tell ya'? It was TOO MUCH FUN !!! Anyway, Bill had a burnin' R&B band and I was having a ball playing with the band at night and soaking in paradise, mostly at the beach, during the days.
It was on one of those tropical days that I got a call from David. He told me that, in his words 'I think we've got a hit on our hands' and that I should get back to the mainland as soon as I could. There were offers for concert dates coming in and it looked like we would have to start to do some serious touring to support the record. That's right, a record!! For those of you who can still remember.
Of course, this meant Bread was going to be a 'working' band and that presented a problem. Up to that point, I had been successfully able to work with both Bill Medley and Bread but 'Make It With You' changed all that. I had been with Bill Medley for two years and had no desire to leave. He had become a good friend and playing with that band was a drummers dream. Yet, I knew that I could no longer balance the two. I had to choose. It was going to be Bill Medley or Bread.
Later on that day I ended up at the beach. I was thinking about David's call and still trying to get it through my head that we actually had a hit record. It all seemed somewhat surreal until I heard 'Make It With You' coming out of several portable radios on the beach that happened to be dialed in to the same local station. That's when it really hit me. We've got a hit record!! I had to control myself from jumping up and screaming to everyone on the beach, 'Hey you guys!! That's me playing on the radio!!'. Of course, since no one would know what the hell I was screaming about and would probably think I was a nut case, I wisely resisted the urge.
It was many years later, while on our 25th anniversary world tour, that David reminded me of how it was originally recorded. David and I had gone in to the studio and laid down the basic track with just acoustic guitar and drums and that became the basic arrangement for 'Make It With You'. Who could have known that this was to become our first hit and a signature song of the group for years to come.