Bread in Song

Some readers might be old enough to remember the American band “Bread” who hailed from Los Angeles in California. It’s certainly an unusual name for a rock band, but the story goes that on the night they were trying to come up with a name for the band, a bread truck passed by (very early in the morning in fact), and it struck a chord (excuse the pun!).

So what about songs? Well, there is a lot of potential for puns here – “As Long as He Kneads Me”, Bread Sheeran, “Rise” by Gabrielle, anything be Meatloaf, (is that taking things a bit far?!)

There are so many songs that feature bread in the title or in the lyrics, just take a look at our list below. The Beach Boys mention bread in “I Get Around” when they say “I'm a real cool head (get around round round I get around), I'm makin' real good bread…” or Etta James sings: 

“All I want you to do is to make your bread
Just to make sure that you're well fed“.

A lesser known song by Elton John harks back to an earlier blog of ours about how dough is a euphemism for money when he says “I'm not in it for the bread” referring to his love of music and singing on stage.

Then there’s Prince who said “There'll be bread for all of us” in his song of hope called The Cross. One of our favourites though is “Breaking Bread” by Johnny Cash – “it’s the meeting and the sharing that makes this meal complete” which describes how people gather to “break bread”, sit and eat together in community or family. It is a lovely image.

It seems bread is a theme that musicians really like to use. It refers to family, comfort, money, sharing, and it is recognised as such across the world. We hope you enjoy some of the songs we’ve selected here:

  • “Breaking Bread” by Johnny Cash https://youtu.be/eXimWl8KLdI
  • “Baking Bread with Blippi” by Blippi https://youtu.be/CHB558HyWq8
  • “Bread of Heaven” by Wales Forever https://youtu.be/HmQGeLRkgYA
  • “Toast” by Streetband https://youtu.be/WJmKStqugMc
  • “Baking Bread” by Nóirín Lynch https://nirinlynch.bandcamp.com/track/baking-bread
  • “Shortin’nin’ Bread” by the Andrews Sisters
  • “The Cross” by Prince https://youtu.be/_REFPbBnGJk
  • “Ego” by Elton John https://youtu.be/s7Qxm9n54iU
  • “Friday on my Mind” by David Bowie
  • “Don’t Be Messin’ With My Bread” –a stern warning from John Lee Hooker! https://youtu.be/qeycEQReDzM
  • “Rise” – Gabrielle - https://youtu.be/na93MI5NFy0