![]() Gladys Knight and the Pips won their first two Grammys in 1973 - neither, ironically, for “Grapevine.” One was for “Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye,” the group’s last recording for Motown before a contract dispute triggered a move to Buddha Records. Two years later, Marvin Gaye’s version of the same song hit the 4 million mark. There, the group released “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” the label’s biggest single to date with 2.5 million records sold. It was the quartet of Knight, brother Bubba, and cousins William and Edward - reborn as Gladys Knight and the Pips - that first tasted commercial success in 1961 with “Every Beat of My Heart” (Fury Records) before inking a deal in 1966 with Motown Records. In 1959, Knight’s sister, Brenda, and cousin Eleanor, left the group to start families and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a friend, Langston George, who left the group in 1962. The group hit the local talent-show circuit, released its first single (non-charting), and by the late 1950s was touring the South on the so-called “Chitlin Circuit,” opening for the likes of pioneering soul singers Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. That year, Gladys, her brother and sister, and two cousins formed “the Pips” (named for another cousin, Pip). Gladys Knight has been in our midst since 1952, when at age 7 she was a winner on Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour. A writer in Chicago recently opined that Knight’s “soulful voice seemed sent straight from the heavens.” ![]() ![]() On the CMT Music Awards, Knight and groundbreaking country music singer Mickey Guyton earned a standing ovation for a duet of “Friendship Train,” a 1969 hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips.Īnd now that she’s back on the road, Knight continues to send reviewers to their thesauruses in search of new superlatives to describe her seemingly undiminished vocal prowess. A few months later, she belted out the social justice anthem “We Shall Be Free” on the Kennedy Centers Honors broadcast for inductee Garth Brooks, the song’s author. And she has attracted yet another generation of fans by stealing the show from whippersnappers at high-profile televised events.Īt last year’s NBA All-Star Game, for example, Knight absolutely crushed the national anthem. She has resumed her hectic schedule, touring like a garage band touting its first single. Knight is in the 33rd year of a post-Pips solo career that has brought her nine of those Grammy nominations and three wins (two for gospel, one for R&B). Mariah Carey, who presided over the ceremony, called Knight “a singer’s singer - she’s as real as it gets.” The group, which disbanded in 1989 after a final tour and another Grammy-winning single (“Love Overboard”), was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Gladys Knight and the Pips rose to fame at Berry Gordy’s Motown Records, where the roster included Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, the Jackson Five, the Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Diana Ross and the Supremes. 1 albums, seven Grammys (from 22 nominations) and at least two singles in America’s jukebox of eternal classics: “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1967) and “Midnight Train to Georgia” (1973). Knight’s legendary body of recorded work includes 13 No. (She last played Orlando in March 2020, just before the onslaught of pandemic-related closures.) Showtime is at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $39.50. ![]() I’m just happy to be here.”Ī foundational figure in the history of soul, pop, gospel and R&B, Knight brings her power-packed live show to the Walt Disney Theater on Friday, February 4. I’m going to keep singing until the Lord won’t allow me to do it anymore. “I feel my best when I’m moving around on tour, performing on stage night after night,” Knight says. Being the ultimate people person helps explain why this 77-year-old great-grandmother works to improve lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains while maintaining a grueling schedule of concert dates across the United States and Europe. If not for people, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”Īfter all, like the song says, that’s what friends are for. “I’m concerned about everybody,” Knight told the Asheville Citizen Times last winter, as case counts spiked. But at home near Asheville, North Carolina, Gladys Knight is a just a good neighbor who, with her husband, has formed a nonprofit to convert a rural schoolhouse into a civic center and has actively encouraged communities of color to get the COVID-19 vaccine. SHE MAY NOT LITERALLY ARRIVE ON A MIDNIGHT TRAIN, BUT THE EMPRESS OF SOUL IS EN ROUTE.Īround the world, she’s known as the Empress of Soul.
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