David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 17, 2026

Note: August's batch of Quadio releases from Rhino offers four artists who haven't had previous Quadio releases, at least under their own name, with Bread's David Gates being that particular outlier, along with newcomers Herbie Mann, James Taylor and James Gang.

Bread along with The Carpenters (yeah, I know Richard hates the definite article) helped to define easy listening soft rock in the early seventies, though in that regard Bread probably offered at least a soupcon more of an actual rock sound at times. Bread's partnership lasted a good deal less time than the Carpenters experienced, but even so, they managed to amass a pretty impressive number of hit singles and gold albums. Almost all of Bread's hits were the product of David Gates' excellent writing and arranging skills, along with an instantly identifiable vocal sound that could conceivably be thought of as the male equivalent of Karen Carpenter's own burnished tones. Gates didn't experience the same level of success as a solo artist as he had with Bread, but this appealing two-fer offers his first two solo albums, and includes his one kinda sorta pre-Goodbye Girl hit single, the title tune off of the second album.

First's track list can been seen in screenshots 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Never Let Her Go's track list can be seen in screenshots 2, 4. 6, and 8. More information about navigating the menus can be found in the video section, below.

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is another Quadio release with a static menu, or in this case menus, since this is the first Quadio release I've reviewed that has two albums on it. The Main Menu can be seen in screenshot 10, and you need to press either the left or right arrow or direction toggle to choose one of the albums. Once that is done as usual the track listing changes color depending on whether you scroll, chapter skip (which amounts to next track) or actually individually select tracks, and I've offered some examples of the different changes on tap. In what has become an almost maddeningly frustrating aspect to these Quadio releases, this particular one, unlike some of its August "siblings", may not seem like you can toggle between codecs without navigating to the bottom of the menu and selecting one, but in fact that is available by pressing the Audio button on your remote (you can of course also change codecs by using the menu itself). Commendably in this case the song does not start over. I've long ago given up hoping anyone at WMG and/or Rhino pays attention to these complaints, but I know from many reader emails through the years how annoying others feel about this, especially given the inconsistency of how these Quadio discs have been authored. For those who have read the rest of this month's Quadio reviews, my hunch that this would once again be a "two each" authoring scenario in terms of accessibility of audio codecs turned out to be completely correct. This album and James Taylor feature a toggling capability with the Audio button, while the two others do not. I kind of suspect there are two different authoring houses involved with these releases at this point since this has been such a recurrent issue with the series.

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go features DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options. The quad mix gets off to an appealingly immersive start with the string accompaniment for Sail Around the World percolating from the rear speakers with David's typically sweet vocals and the bulk of the rhythm instruments emanating from the front. Songs like Sunday Rider can feature guitars front left and drums toward the rear of the soundstage, with David's vocals splayed throughout all four channels. Never Let Her Go (the single) has some of the most obvious "Bread" sounds, with shimmering major seventh chords opening the song wafting out of the front channels and once again the (maybe slightly saccharine) strings more toward the rear. Throughout both albums there is some nicely discrete channelization of guitars and drums in particular, and David's voice is always nicely prioritized.

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As usual with the Quadio releases, there are no on disc supplements. An insert leaflet reproduces the album's lyrics and credits (get out your magnifying glasses) and also includes Quadio's standard photos of master tape boxes.

David Gates: First / Never Let Her Go Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

True story from my misspent youth: I had a wonderful Honors English teacher at my high school in Utah with the surname Gates, and Mr. Gates kind of hilariously was initially peppered one day about a rumor that he had just gotten engaged (he had), followed by another question asking him to confirm the rumor that he was David Gates' cousin (he was). In true high school student fashion, no more questions about the impending nuptials were asked, but a veritable slew about David certainly were. It may be salient in that regard to note that Bread played its last concert at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, maybe to facilitate a little family reunion as well. David Gates will probably always be better remembered for his inimitable contributions to Bread than for his subsequent solo work, but these first two solo albums prove what a smart writer, arranger and vocalist he was. There's frankly nothing on either of these albums that will probably be as recognizable as Bread's biggest hits, but both albums are appealing easy listening soft rock. Recommended.