A few weeks ago our editorial team had a debate about whether ’70s soft rock standard-bearers Bread were too deep a cut to include in a Sound Round. (Verdict: Maybe?) Now, me being me, any mention of Bread immediately flashes me to two things. First, Homer Simpson outing himself as a square by asking the record store clerk at Suicide Notes (formerly Good Vibrations) where to find the latest releases by Bread. Second, the treacly cover of the Bread song “If” that solidified Mr. Telly Savalas as a bona fide 1970s pop star.

Even if you’re too young to know who exactly Telly Savalas was, you’ve probably seen him referenced at some point. He’s best known as the lollipop-loving title character of the ’70s crime drama “Kojak,” whose catchphrase “Who loves ya, baby?” swept the nation. Telly had been a go-to Hollywood villain for quite a while before that show launched — he got an Oscar nomination playing a prisoner in “Birdman of Alcatraz,” played Blofeld opposite George Lazenby’s sole outing as James Bond, and co-starred in the misfit military ensemble pieces “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” — but “Kojak” made him a legitimate TV hero. (He is also, to my knowledge, the only person whose Wikipedia page includes a section titled “Baldness and Stardom.”)

It’s hard to explain how exactly this led to Telly’s surprisingly successful music career other than to say that the ’70s were different times. During that era there was a certain subset of celebrities who were basically given free rein to try their hand at whatever they felt like, as long as it wasn’t too expensive. If that meant Telly Savalas wanted to pursue a side career as an easy-listening crooner, so be it. His albums aren’t awful if you’re into that sort of thing. He had a decent singing voice, though likely not one that would have landed him a record deal if he wasn’t Kojak.

From what I can learn, his musical efforts were met with a lukewarm reception in the U.S., but not for lack of trying. Music wasn’t just a side project for Telly — he headlined an hour-long primetime musical special named after his self-referential disco-funk tune “Who Loves Ya, Baby?” That special was sponsored, appropriately enough, by Kraft Cheese and featured guest appearances by Diahann Carroll, Barbara Eden, Cloris Leachman, and an assortment of Telly’s brothers, who frequently turned up in his projects. Again, the ’70s were a different time. Even so, that wasn’t quite enough to get audiences to see Telly as anything but a Hollywood tough guy moonlighting as a lounge singer.

Enter Bread, the epitome of the pretty O.K. ’70s soft-rock band that became a huge success. The Bread ethos can be summed up by the story of how they chose their moniker: the band members were trying to think up a name when a bread truck drove past and they realized that, quote, “It began with a ‘B,’ like the Beatles and the Bee Gees.” Anyway, they had a bunch of Top 40 hits in the U.S. throughout the ’70s, including “Make It with You,” “Baby I'm-a Want You,” and “If.”

“If” is a sappy love song full of lyrical metaphors that could charitably be described as, well, iffy, with Bread front man David Gates singing a pleasant falsetto over mellow guitars. I find it thoroughly unmemorable, but I wasn’t around to buy records in 1971. “If” was a big hit in the U.S., topping out at No. 4 on the Billboard chart. (Bonus Bread trivia: “If” held the record for shortest title for a top 10 hit in the U.S. until Prince hit the chart with “7” in 1993, a record later tied by Britney Spears with “3” in 2009.)

“If” didn’t make the same splash in the U.K. in its initial release, but in 1975 along came Telly. His cover is somehow even more sedate than the pulse-slowing original, replacing Bread’s quiet guitars with a weepy string arrangement and Gates’ whispery vocals with Telly slowly reciting the lyrics as a poem. To me it sounds like the weird, self-indulgent spoken-word track that everybody skips over on an otherwise solid album. To the people of 1975 Britain, it sounded like a chart-topper. Yes, a spoken-word Bread cover by TV’s Kojak was the No. 1 single on the U.K. charts for two weeks in March of 1975. I have no explanation for that, especially since his spoken-word cover of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” is plainly superior. Even on the U.S. Easy Listening charts, it topped out at No. 11. Clearly the United Kingdom was going through some feelings. (I can't deny that the music video for “If” is some kind of amazing, though.)

That was pretty much the peak of Telly Savalas’ musical career, although he did score another No. 1 in Switzerland (!) with a 1981 cover of country songwriter Don Williams’ “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend.” “Kojak” likewise wound down by the end of the ’70s, leaving Telly to pursue other curious pursuits. He put his psychology degree to use when he wrote, directed, and starred in the psychotherapy-themed thriller “Beyond Reason,” which got shelved by the studio and dumped onto the VHS rental market years later. (I’ve seen it, and the studio wasn’t wrong.) He hosted a series of U.K. travelogs that were basically only made because studios were required to make a certain percentage of U.K.-produced films each year. He competed in the World Series of Poker. He made an instructional video about playing blackjack and a tourism ad for Duluth, Minnesota. He owned a champion race horse. He went on record about his encounters with ghosts. He was Jennifer Aniston’s godfather.

That’s a lot of claims for one character actor to be able to make, but perhaps none is more impressive than the fact that, for two glorious weeks in 1975, Telly Savalas owned the U.K. music charts, taking his place alongside The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Bread, and other bands whose names start with “B.”