Midnight Train to Georgia
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| “Midnight Train to Georgia” | |||||
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| Single by Gladys Knight & the Pips from the album Imagination |
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| B-side | "Midnight Train to Georgia (Instrumental)" | ||||
| Released | August 1973 | ||||
| Format | 7" vinyl single | ||||
| Recorded | 1973 | ||||
| Genre | Soul | ||||
| Length | 3:44 | ||||
| Label | Buddah | ||||
| Producer | Tony Camillo & Gladys Knight & the Pips | ||||
| Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology | |||||
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"Midnight Train to Georgia" is a 1973 number-one hit single by Gladys Knight & the Pips, their second release after departing Motown Records for Buddah Records. Written by Jim Weatherly, and included on the Pips' 1973 LP Imagination, "Midnight Train to Georgia" won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus and has become Knight's signature song.
The theme of the song is how romantic love can conquer differences in background. The boyfriend of the song's narrator is a failed musician who left his native Georgia to move to Los Angeles to become a "superstar, but he didn't get far". He decides to give up, and "go back to the life he once knew." Despite the fact that she's settled and secure in herself, the narrator decides to move to Georgia with him:
- "And I'll be with him
- On that midnight train to Georgia
- I'd rather live in his world
- Than live without him in mine."
The song was originally recorded by singer Cissy Houston (the mother of Whitney Houston) and released as a single a year earlier. Jim Weatherly had recorded one of his own songs, "Midnight Plane to Houston," on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records. "It was based on a conversation I had with somebody... about taking a midnight plane to Houston," Weatherly recalls. "I wrote it as a kind of a country song. Then we sent the song to a guy named Sonny Limbo in Atlanta and he wanted to cut it on Cissy Houston... he asked if I minded if he changed the title to 'Midnight Train to Georgia.' And I said, I don't mind. Just don't change the rest of the song.'" Cissy Houston, first cousin of Dionne Warwick and mother of Whitney Houston, took Weatherly's song into the R&B chart. Her version can be found on the CD Midnight Train to Georgia: The Janus Years.
Weatherly's publisher forwarded the song to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who followed Houston's lead and kept the title "Midnight Train to Georgia." Their second single for Buddah, it debuted on the Hot 100 at number 71 and became the group's first number one hit eight weeks later.
"Midnight Train to Georgia" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Rolling Stone ranked it #432 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song was featured with great poignancy and effect during a scene in the 1978 film "The Deer Hunter" by Michael Cimino. In the scene, the character Michael (Robert DeNiro) searches for his friend Nick (Christopher Walken) in a strip club in Saigon as the girls gyrate to "Midnight Train To Georgia". The scene is a masterfull use of music in film, creating an extraordinary sense of pathos.
The song was also featured prominently in a 1986 episode of Growing Pains and in a 2001 episode of Will & Grace and in a 2008 episode of 30 Rock, the latter of which featured Knight in a guest role. The song also formed the basis of a Sunday Doonesbury comic strip, in which the Pips have a conversation while performing the song on stage, interrupted by their background vocals.
X Factor Series 2 Contestant Maria Lawson used a sample of the song for her track entitled 'His World' on her 2006 debut album Maria Lawson.
[edit] Credits
- Lead vocals by Gladys Knight
- Background vocals by Merald "Bubba" Knight, Eddie Patten, and William Guest
- Written by Jim Weatherly
- Produced by Tony Camillo
- Co-produced by Gladys Knight, Merald "Bubba" Knight, Eddie Patten, and William Guest
| Preceded by "Angie" by The Rolling Stones |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single October 27, 1973 — November 3, 1973 |
Succeeded by "Keep on Truckin' (Part 1)" by Eddie Kendricks |
| Preceded by "Keep on Truckin' (Part 1)" by Eddie Kendricks |
Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number one single October 20 - November 10, 1973 |
Succeeded by "Space Race" by Billy Preston |
