Life and Early Career
Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gates was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of a band director and a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, bass and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Gates joined local bands around Tulsa. During a concert in 1957, his high school band backed Chuck Berry. Later, Gates released his first local hit single, "Jo-Baby," a song he had written for his sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1958 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.
In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a music copyist, as a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists — including Pat Boone. Success soon followed. His composition "Popsicles and Icicles" hit No. 3 on the US Hot 100 for The Murmaids in January 1964. The Monkees recorded another of his songs, "Saturday's Child". By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading artists, including Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson. In 1965, Gates arranged the Glenn Yarbrough hit, "Baby, the Rain Must Fall." In 1966, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band which were hits in the Los Angeles area.
In the meantime, Gates had been releasing singles of his own on several labels in the early 1960s. On Mala Records, he released "Manchester 101", "There's a Heaven/She Don't Cry", "You'll Be My Baby/What's This I Hear", "The Happiest Man Alive/A Road That Leads to Love," and "Jo Baby/Teardrops in My Heart". On Planetary, he released "Little Miss Stuck Up/The Brighter Side," and "Let You Go/Once Upon a Time" under the Pseudonym of "Del Asley" in 1965. On Del-Fi, he released "No One Really Loves a Clown/You Had It Comin' to Ya". He also released a single under the name of "The Manchesters" in 1965 on the Vee Jay Label.
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