Gladys Knight Biography

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Gladys Knight & The Pips
Pop Music | 3 CD Set
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Gladys Knight is one of the most enduring singers in show business. Blessed with a beautiful voice and captivating style, she has been a mainstay in the pop, R&B, soul and even gospel camps since early childhood. How early? She began singing in church in her native Atlanta at the age of four. Knight was born May 28, 1944, joining a family that already included brother Merald (Bubba) and sister Brenda. That's notable because Gladys, Bubba and Brenda were joined in time by cousins Elenor and William Guest and the quintet of young singers became known as the Pips. Fame came Gladys' way at age seven when she won $2,000 from a performance on the then popular Ted Mack Amateur Hour program. They took on the "Pips" name in 1952 when Gladys was eight. The name came from another relative James (Pips) Woods, who took over management of the increasingly popular singing group. But it did not become Gladys Knight and the Pips until 1958, when the group was signed to the Brunswick label. Performances until that time had been based on supper club material during the week and gospel on Sundays. Evolution of the group continued as Brenda and Elenor left to marry and another cousin, Edward Patten, and a friend, Langston George, joined in 1959, George leaving in 1962. After three years with Brunswick, the group signed with the Huntom label and released "Every Beat Of My Heart." This single attracted enough attention for it to move to the larger VeeJay label and move rapidly up the charts in 1961 to No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 6 on the pop Top 40. Next came a contract with Fury Records, which released the group's next hit, "Letter Full of Tears, in 1962, all of this confirming solid status as an R&B act. Yet another label, Maxx, got into the act and in 1964, its "Giving Up" made No. 38 in pop but nothing much happened elsewhere. Then the Motown subsidiary, Soul Records, signed the by-now quartet and put producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield in charge of their musical fortunes. Said to be a little tougher sounding than the usual Motown sound of the '60s, Gladys Knight & The Pips still attracted major attention and in late 1967 scored big with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." The Marvin Gaye hit (recorded a year before Gaye's monster hit) toped the R&B charts for six weeks and also roared up to No. 2 on the pop chart. More hits were coming into the '70s, including "If I Were Your Woman," which was No. 1 in R&B and No. 9 in pop in 1970 and later in 1973 came "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)," which spent four weeks at the top of the R&B chart and hit No. 2 in pop, leaving no question that Gladys Knight and the Pips were a successful crossover group. They left Soul after one more hit and unhappy with Motown's move from Detroit to Hollywood – they moved in 1973 to Buddah Records, gaining immediate success with "Midnight Train to Georgia." Another crossover hit, it topped R&B for four weeks and was No. 1 for two weeks in pop. Through 1975, hits were all over the map, topping the R&B chart and scoring seven more times on the pop Top 40, three in the Top 5. In all, the group had 25 pop chart hits and many more in R&B before the Pips retired in 1989, sending Gladys on a successful solo career. The Pips went out in style, however, their finale "Love Overboard" single scoring big enough to get the group the 1988 Grammy award for best R&B song. It was not the first Grammy. They won in 1973 for "Midnight Train to Georgia." Gladys won a Grammy in 1986 as part of the group that sang "That's What Friends Are For," with Elton John, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder. She won in 2001 for best traditional R&B vocal for "At Last." Several "greatest hits" collections have been released featuring the group, including 2002's "Every Beat Of My Heart" CD. Knight was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, called "a legend in her own time," Also in 1996, she hit the charts with a group of singers for "Missing You", singing with Brandy, Tamia and Chaka Khan on the song from the Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett movie "Set It Off."

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