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| Name | Gladys Knight & The Pips |
|---|---|
| Background | group_or_band |
| Alias | The Pips |
| Origin | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Genre | R&B;/soul |
| Years active | 1953–1989 |
| Label | Vee-Jay, Soul/Motown, Buddah, Columbia, MCA |
| Past members | Gladys Knight*William Guest*Edward PattenMerald "Bubba" Knight*Brenda Knight*Eleanor Guest*Langston George *Original Members| |
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.
The Pips scored their first hit in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart", a cover of a Hank Ballard & The Midnighters song written by Johnny Otis. The group had recorded the song for a friend in Atlanta, who promptly sold the master to Vee-Jay Records and cut the group out of the 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's contralto on lead vocals and the three male members of the group, usually referred to as "The Pips" by themselves, providing characteristic background vocals.
After a second Vee-Jay hit, "Letter Full of Tears", in 1962, Knight quit the group to start a family with husband James Newman, giving birth to James Gaston Newman III in August of that year. Her second child Kenya Maria Newman was born in November the following year. The Pips toured on their own for two years, until Knight returned to the act in 1964 in order to support her two children.
The group developed a reputation for exciting and polished live performances that enabled them to work even without the benefit of best-selling records. Choreographer Cholly Atkins designed "fast-stepping" dance routines that became a signature of the Pips' stage presentation.
long-playing debut, Everybody Needs Love (1967), which includes their hit single "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".]]
The group's third Motown single was the Top 40 hit "Everybody Needs Love", released in 1967. Another 1967 single, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", provided a career-making breakthrough. "Grapevine" became a #2 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a #1 R&B; hit for six weeks. The record sold 2.5 million copies, and at the time was Motown's best-selling single ever. Producer Norman Whitfield recorded four versions of the song with various artists for potential single release; 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.
Further hits for the group included "The Nitty Gritty" (1969), "Friendship Train" (1969), one of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's "psychedelic soul" songs, the #1 R&B; "If I Were Your Woman" (1970, later covered by Stephanie Mills, Shanice and Alicia Keys), and "I Don't Want To 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.
"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 regarded as a second-string act, and that "Diana [Ross] & 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 1968 tour for, according to Knight, being too good.
Many of Gladys Knight and the Pips' hits in the mid-1970s were written by country songwriter Jim Weatherly. Knight and the Pips charted with five of Weatherly's songs in 1973 and 1974: "Midnight Train to Georgia," "Neither One of Us," "Where Peaceful Waters Flow," "The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," and "Between Her Goodbye and My Hello."
Gladys Knight & the Pips' debut LP on Buddah, Imagination, was certified as a gold record. This began a string of LPs that were awarded gold status: Claudine (1974), I Feel a Song (1974) and 2nd Anniversary (1975). Other hits for Buddah included "Part-Time Love", the R&B; #1 "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)", "Love Finds Its Own Way" and, culled from a live recording, "The Way We Were/Try to Remember".
Curtis Mayfield served as producer in 1974 when Knight and the Pips recorded 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 episodes on NBC as a summer-season replacement. During one installment, comedian George Carlin, seated at a piano, performed the doo-wop song "Cherry Pie", accompanied by the Pips.
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.
Category:Musical groups established in 1953 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Category:1960s music groups Category:1970s music groups Category:1980s music groups Category:American rhythm and blues musical groups Category:American soul musical groups Category:Motown artists Category:Vee-Jay Records artists Category:Fury Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:MCA Records artists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Family musical groups Category:Musical groups from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Grammy Award winners
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