Gladys Knight is the best female Soul singer in the world, her work with the Pips remains some of the finest recordings of Soul Music from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Many artists have been inspired by this legend, especially those new Soul comers like Angie Stone, Alicia Keys, Joss Stone, India Arie and others. Gladys was born and raised in the Soul town of Georgia, Atlanta. At an early stage of her life she began winning awards for her vocals including the Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour Award. Her brother’s Bubba and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten began a group, which would later be known as Gladys Knight and the Pips. This begun in the 1950’s, and they would perform together around Georgia for several years, it was only in the early 60’s that they started recording. With independent labels supporting them they reached high on the American charts with songs such as ‘Every Beat of My Heart’ and ‘Letter Full of Tears’. Thankfully the keen ear of Berry Gordy picked up on the new Soul phenomenon and gave them a record deal with Motown in 1965.

Motown would call her the ‘the beautiful Southern darling’ by people on the label, however Knight was not always treated with full respect as an artist, she was considered as a secondary act. When she met with producer Norman Whitfield, she made some more hits such as ‘I Heard It through the Grapevine’, which was later turned into a famous number by Marvin Gaye. Dance tracks such as ‘Friendship Train ‘and ‘Nitty Gritty’ were two other successful tunes recorded with Mr. Whitfield. Her talents of singing were shown when she sung ballads such as ‘If I Were Your Woman’ and her final hit with Motown ‘Neither One of Us’. Having experience what Motown was about, Knight looked for another record deal and landed it with Buddha Records. Her she met her second producer friend Jim Weatherly, and here they created the more mature sound of the Pips and Knights raw balladeer vocals. This was when her career went sky high and her tracks were more established and remembered. For example ‘I’ve Got to Use My Imagination’, ‘I Feel a Song’, ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened’ and the most famous track ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’. With all this success she felt she should give her efforts to acting and featured in a film ‘Pipe Dreams’. The future career for the group and Gladys Knight would continue to grow and keep scoring in the charts and making a firm house hold name in many families across American and the globe.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]