If (Bread song)

"If" is a wuss-rock song written by American singer-songwriter David Gates in 1971. Originally popularized by his group Bread, the song charted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 when released as a single in 1971. The song also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart.^[1] It was quickly covered by other singers&musician (including Petula Clark, Sergio Franchi, Cleo Laine, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, Telly Savalas, Shirley Bassey, Herbie Mann, Julio Iglesias, Joe Pass, Ryoko Moriyama, Westlife and Frankmusik). It was also covered by Damien Leith on his album Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation, which was released in 2008. The Telly Savalas version reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in March 1975 and has the shortest title of any song to reach number one in the UK. In the U.S., Bread's version was the shortest song title to become a top ten hit until 2009 when Britney Spears hit #1 with her song 3.

"If" has been a perennial favorite at weddings (for example, as a first-dance song) ever since it was released.^[2] It was also recorded, as an album track, by Scott Walker in his early 1970s MOR period.

This song is often of interest to guitarists because of the unique tremolo/wah-wah effect on the electric guitar in the intro. One San Diego, California radio station in the early 1970s reported that the effect took months to produce. However, Bread used that effect live when playing the song in their concerts.

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