Gladys Knight

Biography

It takes part in a family vocal group as of 1952, under name The Pips , with its Merald older brother known as Bubba , its Brenda sister and two their first cousins, Elenor Guest and William Guest. The group of young singers occurs, during six years, in the area of Atlanta, as artists of varieties in cabarets and dances during the week, and as singers of Gospel in the churches the weekend.

In 1958, they obtain their first engagement near the firm Brunswick Records. The group undergoes a first change on this occasion, integral Edward Patten, another their cousins, and Langston George. The following year, Brenda Knight and Elenor Guest leave the group to go to found a family.

In 1961, the group records, for the small label Huntom, a new version of Every Beat Off My Heart , song created by Johnny Otis. The disc, in which the group reveals a certain talent for the Blues, meets a success of regard, and the rights are yielded to a more important firm, Vee Jay Records and arrives at the top of several American Hit-parade S. Gladys Knight appearing the singer more for group, this one is then renamed Gladys Knight and the Pips , the four men moulting itself in developments of the singer.

They sign an new agreement with the firm Fury Records, which makes them off record a new version of Every Beat My Heart , which is marketed jointly with the initial version left to Huntom. “The simple” following, Letter Full Off Tears and Operator , finish establishing the group like a rising value of the Rhythm and blues.

The rise of the group undergoes however a small crushing argument when an new agreement is signed with the Maxx form, in 1964, while at the same time, Langston George leaves the group, which presents the composition then that it will keep until in the Années 1980: Gladys Knight, Merald Bubba Knight, William Guest and Edward Patten.

It is in 1966 that the decisive turn of their career occurs. They are auditioned by Berry Gordy, which grants to them an engagement of long life in a subsidiary company of its firm Motown, the Soul discs. Berry Gordy entrusts them at once to Norman Whitfield, young type-setter and producer of his “stable”, which writes for them, in 1967, the original version of I Heard It Through the Grapevine , which obtains a great success and will be taken again by a great number of singers of which, in 1969, Marvin Gaye, another singer of Motown, which will still obtain a larger success than had not known the original version, to the international scales this time.

Norman Whitfield writes two more great successes for them, The Nitty Gritty , in 1968, and Friendship Train , in 1969. Entrusted to other composer-songwriters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, with the song Yew I Were Your Woman , in 1970, make carry out in Motown one of its best sales. Their musical style also evolves/moves, passing from clear influences Blues with melodies more “ middle-off-tea-road ”. This evolution is not harmful for them, since the song Neither One Of Custom (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) is without question their greater success.

In 1973, highly dissatisfied with the decision of Berry Gordy to move its studios of recording of Strait (Michigan]]) to Hollywood (California), Gladys Knight and the Pips make the decision to leave Motown. They record three albums with the firm The Right Stuff, before signing an new agreement with the label Buddah Records, in 1974. This decision is temporarily advantageous for them, since their successive discs Midnight Train To Georgia , I' ve Got To Use My Imagination and The Best Thing That Ever Happened To , inter alia, also manages Me to rise at the top of various hit-parades American.

In 1974, Curtis Mayfield writes for them several songs intended for the original soundtrack of the film Claudine . In 1975, it “song-title” of the album I Feel has Song makes them once again reach the best sales. Always in 1975, their album Second Anniversary is also very well accommodated, in particular the medley of songs The Way We Were/Try To Remember .

In 1976, Gladys Knight makes its beginnings as actress, in the film Pipe Dreams , realized by Jerry Ballew and Stephen Verona, film in which it occupies a role of second plan, while the group is charged to interpret the original soundtrack of it.

A legal imbroglio, related to the obscure different ones from the collective agreement between the group and Buddah Records, forces the members of the group to record discs separately, until, the legal horizon being cleared up, they can again meet to sign a contract with firm CBS, in 1980. They “are dealt with” by the duet of composer-songwriters Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, which they had already crossed at the time of Motown, with the turning of the Années 1960 - 1970.

Ashford and Simpson write and produce for them the album About Coils , in which one notices the song Bourgie Bourgie , which is virulent critical social treated in the mode Rhythm and blues.

The following albums alternate the styles rythm and blues and middle off the road , showing the ease of the group in the two kinds, their “tubes” of the time being Save The Overtime (For Me) and You' Re Number One In My Book , in 1983 then, after a new change of recording company to the profit of MCA, Love Overboard , song which makes them obtain Grammy Award in 1989 for their interpretation.

The group separates definitively after this distinction, Merald Knight sometimes continuing to sing as a chorus-singer after his sister, in particular for the song License To Kill , original soundtrack of the film Permis to kill , of the series of the James Bond, which manages to rise among the ten best sales of the year 1989 with the the United Kingdom.

Year in year out, Gladys Knight leaves since then several albums solo, without however joining again with the international success of the beginning of the Années 1970. It also makes several appearances in various roles of second plan to the cinema and on television, of which the film Unbeatable Haold , realized by Ari Palitz according to a part of Randy Noojin, left on the screens in 2005.

Gladys Knight publicly recognized, in 1987, to have suffered from leaning morbid for the play of baccara, going until losing 45 000 dollars in only one evening, which led it to approach association Gamblers Anonymous to cure itself of its defect.

In addition, she united, in 1997, with the Église of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, proximity spiritual whose, since the medium of the Années 1990, one finds the trace in some of its interpretations, in particular in the album Many Different Roads (1999), with which she joined again with her initial training of singer of Gospel.

Gladys Knight was married with Barry Hankerson, uncle of the singer Aaliyah Dana Haughton (1979-2001).

Discography

(Nonexhaustive List)

Gladys Knight & the Pips: 1st time

1961 - 1963: Letter Full Off Tears , compilation, left in 1993, of 25 titles recorded for the label Fury
1967: Everybody Needs Coils , album 12 titles (Motown Records)
1968: Feelin' Bluesy , album 12 titles (Motown Records)
1969: Nitty Gritty , album 12 titles (Motown Records)
1969: Drunk Silk , album 12 titles (Motown Records)
1971: Yew I Were You' Re Woman , album 12 titles (Motown Records)
1972: Standing Ovation , album 9 titles (Motown Records)
1973: Neither One Off Custom , album 9 titles (Motown Records)
1973: Imagination , album 9 titles (The Right Stuff)
1973 - 1978: Blue Lights In The Meanly , album 17 titles (RCA Records, published in 1996)
1974: I Feel has Song , album 9 titles (The Right Stuff)
1974: Claudine , original motion picture soundtrack , album 7 titles (The Right Stuff)
1974: The Lost Live Album , album 12 titles (Buddah Records, published in 1996)
1975: 2nd Anniversary , album 9 titles (Buddah Records)

Gladys Knight in solo: 1st time

1978 : The One & Only , album (nonknown number of titles, Buddah Records)
1979: Miss Gladys Knight , album (nonknown number of titles, Buddah Records)

Gladys Knight & the Pips: 2nd time

1981 : Touch , album 9 titles (Legacy Records)
1983: Visions , album 10 titles (Columbia)
1985: Life , album 9 titles (Columbia)
1987: All Our Coils , album 11 titles (Universal)

Gladys Knight in solo: 2nd time

1994 : Just For You , album 9 titles, including 1 medley of 3 titles (MCA Records)
1997: Workin' Overtime , album 10 titles (Sony Music)
1998: One More Lonely Night , album 20 titles (Pegasus Flight Productions)
1999: Many Different Roads , album 13 titles, Drunk and Gospel (MCA Records)
2000: At Last , album 13 titles, rhythm and blues (MCA Records)
2003: Hall Off Famed: Gladys Knight , album 10 titles (Laserlight)

External bonds

: Repertory “Gladys Knight” on the site of MCA Records
: Official site of the Saints Unified Voices, chorus directed by Gladys Knight
Card “Gladys Knight” on Internet Movie Database

Sources

initial Versions of this article (December 2nd, 2004) adapted article on anglophone Wikipedia, in its version of November 30th, 2005 to 05:47 (THIS)

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