Gladys Knight & the Pips

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Gladys Knight & the Pips
Background information
Also known as The Pips
Origin Atlanta, Georgia
Genre(s) R&B/soul
Years active 1953 - 1989
Label(s) Vee-Jay, Soul/Motown, Buddah, Columbia, MCA
Former members
Gladys Knight
William Guest
Edward Patten
Merald "Bubba" Knight
Brenda Knight
Eleanor Guest
Langston George
"The Pips" redirects here. For the BBC pips, see Greenwich Time Signal.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an R&B/soul musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. Best known for its string of hit singles from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967) and "Midnight Train to Georgia" (1973). The longest-lived incarnation of the act featured Gladys Knight on lead vocals, with The Pips, who included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and their cousins Edward Patten and William Guest, as background singers.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Forming the Pips

At the age of seven in 1952, Gladys Knight won Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour television show contest. The following year, she, her brother Bubba, sister Brenda, and their cousins William and Eleanor Guest started a singing group called "The Pips" (named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods). The Pips began to perform and tour, eventually replacing Brenda Knight and Elenor Guest with cousins Langston George and Edward Patten in 1959.

The Pips scored their first hit in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart." The group had recorded the song for a friend in Atlanta, who promptly sold the master to Vee-Jay Records and cut the group out of the record's profits. The Pips recorded a second version of "Every Beat" with Bobby Robinson as the producer, and the song became a #1 R&B and #6 pop hit . Shortly afterwards, Langston George left the group, and the remaining members continued as a quartet, now billed as Gladys Knight & the Pips. Typically, most of the act's recordings featured Knight's contralto on lead vocals, and the three male members of the group, usually referred to as "The Pips" by themselves, providing characteristic background vocals.

After a second Vee-Jay hit, "Letter Full of Tears", in 1962, Knight quit the group to start a family. The Pips toured on their own for two years, until Knight returned to the act in 1964, in order to support her two children.

The group developed a reputation for exciting and polished live performances that enabled them to work even without the benefit of best-selling records. Choreographer Cholly Atkins designed "fast-stepping" dance routines that became a signature of the Pips' stage presentation.

Gladys Knight & the Pips' Motown long-playing debut, Everybody Needs Love (1967), which includes their hit single "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".
Gladys Knight & the Pips' Motown long-playing debut, Everybody Needs Love (1967), which includes their hit single "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

[edit] Gladys Knight & the Pips join Motown

In spite of another hit with 1964's "Giving Up" (later covered by Donny Hathaway), Knight and the Pips did not achieve widespread success until 1966, after signing to Motown. While at Motown in 1967, Gladys Knight was the first person to suggest that Berry Gordy sign an up and coming act from Gary, Indiana called The Jackson 5. Gordy was reluctant to take on a kid act, however, and the Jackson 5 were not signed to Motown until Bobby Taylor and Suzanne de Passe physically brought the Jacksons to Detroit, Michigan and Motown.

The group's third Motown single was the Top 40 hit "Everybody Needs Love", released in 1967. Another 1967 single, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", provided a career-making breakthrough. "Grapevine" became a #2 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a #1 R&B hit for six weeks. The record sold 2.5 million copies, and at the time was Motown's best-selling single ever [1]. Producer Norman Whitfield recorded four versions of the song with various artists for potential single release; Knight and the Pips' version was the only one that Motown chief Berry Gordy did not veto. In late 1968, "Grapevine" would become an even bigger hit for Marvin Gaye, whose version, recorded before Knight's but released a year afterwards at Whitfield's insistence, became a #1 pop hit for seven weeks.

Future hits for the group included "The Nitty Gritty" (1968), "Friendship Train" (1969), one of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's "psychedelic soul" songs, the #1 R&B "If I Were Your Woman" (1970, later covered by Stephanie Mills and Alicia Keys), and "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971). Their biggest Motown hit was 1972's #1 R&B/#2 pop hit "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", which won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus.

"Neither One of Us" also happened to be one of their last Motown hits, as Knight and the Pips departed Motown for Buddah Records in 1973. While at Motown, Knight & the Pips recorded for Soul Records, a label Motown used for acts that recorded material with more of an R&B flavor than a pop flavor. On the A&E Network television program Biography, Knight stated that she and the Pips were regarded as a second-string act, and that "Diana [Ross] & the Supremes, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye were given all the hits, while we took the leftovers." In Knight's autobiography Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story, she stated that Diana Ross had the group removed from being The Supremes' opening act on a 1966 tour for, according to Knight, being too good.

[edit] Taking the "Midnight Train" to Buddah Records

Recording for Buddah in the mid 1970s, the group hit its popular and critical peak with #1 R&B hits such as "I've Got to Use My Imagination", and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". The most notable hit of their career was their only #1 pop hit, "Midnight Train to Georgia", which won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals of 1973. The song eventually received the Grammy Hall Of Fame Award, which was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.

Gladys Knight & the Pips' debut LP on Buddah, Imagination, was certified as a gold record. This began a string of LPs that were awarded gold status--Claudine (1974), I Feel a Song (1974) and 2nd Anniversary (1975). Other hits for Buddah included "Part-Time Love", the R&B #1 "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)," "Love Finds It's Own Way" (later sampled by Eels on their 1997 hit Susan's House) and, culled from a live recording, "The Way We Were/Try to Remember" (later sampled by the Wu Tang Clan for their 1993 single "Can It All Be So Simple").

Curtis Mayfield served as producer in 1974 when Knight and the Pips recorded the soundtrack to the motion picture Claudine, resulting in a #5 hit in the film's theme song, "On and On". The following year, the group got their own hour-long musical variety television program, The Gladys Knight & the Pips Show, which ran for four episodes on NBC as a summer-season replacement.

[edit] Later years

Knight and the Pips continued to have R&B hits until the late 1980s. From 1978 to 1980, Knight and the Pips were forced to record separately due to legal problems with Buddah. Knight released two solo albums and the Pips released two albums of their own.

Signing with Columbia Records in 1980 and restored to its familiar quartet form, Gladys Knight & the Pips began releasing new material. The act enlisted former Motown producers Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson for their first two LPs--About Love (1980) and Touch (1981). The group's 1983 LP Visions, resulted in a #1 R&B hit with the single "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and was certified gold. In the early 80's the group also provided backing vocals on Kenny Rogers' hit single "Share your love with me". In 1987, Knight and the Pips released their final album, All Our Love, on MCA Records which was also certified gold. The album's single "Love Overboard" became a #1 R&B hit which won the 1988 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In 1988 the band also won a Soul Train Music Award for Career Achievement.

Gladys Knight & the Pips embarked on their final tour in 1988 and disbanded upon its conclusion, as Gladys Knight decided she wanted to pursue a solo career. The Pips retired, while Gladys Knight began scoring hits of her own with singles such as "Men" (1991) and "I Don't Want to Know" (1994).

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 1998. Ms. Knight, now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, continues to tour and record occasionally, and leads the Saints Unified Voices choir. Edward Patten of the Pips died in February 2005, of complications from his long bout with diabetes.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are ranked as the ninth most successful act in The Billboard Top 40 Book of R&B and Hip-Hop Hits (2005). They were also ranked #91 on VH1's Top 100 Artists of Rock n' Roll. In June 2006, Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Apollo Theater's Hall Of Fame in New York.

[edit] Members

[edit] Discography

Gladys Knight & the Pips during the Buddah Records period of the 1970s.
Gladys Knight & the Pips during the Buddah Records period of the 1970s.

For a full listing of albums & singles, see Gladys Knight & the Pips discography.

[edit] Top Forty U.S. and UK Pop Hit Singles

  • 1961: "Every Beat Of My Heart" (credited as The Pips, U.S. #6)
  • 1962: "Letter Full Of Tears" (U.S. #19)
  • 1964: "Giving Up" (U.S. #38)
  • 1967: "Everybody Needs Love" (U.S. #39)
  • 1967: "Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me" (UK #13)
  • 1967: "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (U.S. #2)
  • 1968: "The End of Our Road" (U.S. #15)
  • 1968: "It Should Have Been Me" (U.S. #40)
  • 1969: "Friendship Train" (U.S. #17)
  • 1969: "The Nitty Gritty" (U.S. #19)
  • 1970: "You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You?) (U.S. #25)
  • 1970: "If I Were Your Woman" (U.S. #9)
  • 1971: "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" (U.S. #17)
  • 1972: "Make Me The Woman That You Go Home To" (U.S. #27)
  • 1972: "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (U.S. #33, UK #11)
  • 1973: "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" (U.S. #19)
  • 1973: "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)" (U.S. #2)
  • 1973: "Where Peaceful Waters Flow" (U.S. #28)
  • 1973: "Midnight Train To Georgia" (U.S. #1, UK #10)
  • 1974: "Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me" (U.S. #3, UK #7)
  • 1974: "I've Got to Use My Imagination" (U.S. #4)
  • 1974: "On and On" (from Claudine, U.S. #5)
  • 1974: "I Feel A Song (In My Heart)" (U.S. #21)
  • 1975: "The Way We Were/Try To Remember" (U.S. #11, UK #4)
  • 1975: "Part Time Love" (U.S. #22)
  • 1976: "So Sad the Song" (U.S. #47, UK #20)
  • 1977: "Baby Don't Change Your Mind" (U.S. #52, UK #4)
  • 1987: "Love Overboard" (U.S. #13)

[edit] Top Forty albums

[edit] Sample

[edit] Trivia

  • Gospel singer Vickie Winans remade "Midnight Train To Georgia" as a gospel song with new lyrics including "I'm leavin' on the first trumpet sound to glory." [2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ George, Nelson (1985, rev. 2003). Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-9511-7.
  2. ^ Vickie Winans. NuttinButGospel.com.

[edit] External links

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