NORTHERN SOUL BOX - '60s & '70s GOLD ACTS & RARE GROOVES DISC 1:
TRACK 8: GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS - MORNING, NOON & NIGHT
Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records 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 backup singers.
Forming the Pips:
Gladys Knight was born May 28, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of seven in 1952, she 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 Eleanor Guest with cousins Langston George and Edward Patten in 1959.
Later years:
Knight and the Pips continued to have R&B hits until the late 1980s, very briefly adding a fourth member, Chris Morante, in 1988. 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. In 1977, the Pips (minus Gladys) appeared on comedian Richard Pryor's TV special that aired on NBC. They sang their normal backup verses for the songs "Heard it Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight Train to Georgia;" during the parts where Gladys would sing, the camera panned on a lone-standing microphone. In 1980, the Pips signed to Columbia Records, for which Knight had recorded her second solo album. Teaming up with songwriting husband/wife duo Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Knight & The Pips released the album About Love in 1980, which featured "Landlord" and "Taste Of Bitter Love". Ashford & Simpson continued with Knight and the Pips for the 1981 follow-up, Touch, featuring "I Will Fight" and a cover of "I Will Survive". Also in 1981, the group provided prominent backing vocals for Kenny Rogers on his remake of Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Share Your Love with Me". The Pips had appeared on Rogers' television show with the First Edition several times in the early 1970s. After an international tour, Knight and the Pips recorded the LP Visions (1983), which resulted in a #1 R&B hit with "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and was certified gold. 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 City. In 2007, The Pips appeared in a commercial for the auto insurance company Geico. As Edward Patten had died two years prior, one of Gladys Knight's current backing singers, Neil Taffe, accompanied the remaining Pips.
CREDIT INFO: WIKIPEDIA
Fabulous tune!!
KEVINDAHOUSE1 6 months ago
@KEVINDAHOUSE1 Thankyou Kev! :-)
Soulie70 6 months ago
Just great!!!
BeeƸӜƷ
4BellaHeike 6 months ago
@4BellaHeike Thanks Bella :-) x
Soulie70 6 months ago
It's ok gal, no hard feelings x been listening to some of your tunes, fantastic channel you have x
TrueLoverOfSoul 6 months ago
@TrueLoverOfSoul Thankyou :-) x
Soulie70 6 months ago