Gladys Knight & the Pips

:"The Pips" redirects here. For the BBC pips, see Greenwich Time Signal.

History

Forming the Pips

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

Related Topics:
1952 - Television show - Bubba - William - Eddie Patten - 1959

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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 mater to Vee-Jay Records and cut the group out of 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 on lead vocals, and the three male members of the group, ususally referred to as "The Pips" by themselves, providing characteristic background vocals.

Related Topics:
1961 - Vee-Jay Records - Bobby Robinson

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

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1962 - 1964

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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.

Related Topics:
Donny Hathaway - 1966 - Motown - 1967 - Berry Gordy - Gary, Indiana - The Jackson 5 - Bobby Taylor - Suzanne de Passe - Detroit, Michigan

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The group's first Motown single was the Top 40 hit "Everybody Needs Love", released in 1967. Another 1967 single, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", became a #2 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a #1 R&B hit. Producer Norman Whitfield recorded four versions of the song with various artists for potential single rleease; 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.

Related Topics:
1967 - I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Billboard Hot 100 - Norman Whitfield - Berry Gordy - 1968 - Marvin Gaye

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Future hits for the group included "The Nitty Gritty" (1968), "Friendship Train" (1969, one of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's "psychedelic soul" songs), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970, later covered by Alicia Keys), and "I Don't Wanna 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.

Related Topics:
1968 - 1969 - Barrett Strong - Psychedelic soul - 1970 - Alicia Keys - 1971 - 1972 - Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus

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"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 reguarded as a second-string act, and that "Diana & 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.

Related Topics:
Buddah Records - 1973 - A&E Network - Biography - Diana [Ross] & the Supremes - The Temptations - Marvin Gaye - Autobiography - Diana Ross - 1966

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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 "You're the 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. Other hits for Buddah included "Part-Time Love", "I Fee a Song (in My Heart)", 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").

Related Topics:
1970s - Midnight Train to Georgia - Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals - Wu Tang Clan - 1993

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In 1974, Curtis Mayfield had Knight and the Pips record 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 episoes on NBC as a mid-season replacement.

Related Topics:
1974 - Curtis Mayfield - Motion picture - Claudine - Television - NBC

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Later years

Knight and the Pips continued to have hits until the late 1970s. From 1978 to 1980, Knight and the Pips were forced to record separately due to legal problems with Buddah. Each half of the act released two albums independently of each other.

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1978 - 1980

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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 1983 LP Visions, resulting in a #1 R&B hit with the single "Save the Overtime (For Me)". In 1987, Knight and the Pips released their final album, All Our Love, on MCA Records. The album's single "Love Overboard" became a #1 R&B hit which won the 1987 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Related Topics:
Columbia Records - Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson - 1983 - 1987 - MCA Records

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Gladys Knight & the Pips embarked on their final tour in 1988 and disbanded upon its conclusion, as Gladys Knight decided she wanted to persue 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). Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and 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 chior. Eddie Patten of the Pips died in February 2005, of complications from his long bout with diabetes.

Related Topics:
1988 - 1991 - 1994 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - 1996 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Saints Unified Voices - February - 2005

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