So the answer to one of the most popular questions related to this dynamic musical group, is that it came from a cousin’s nickname—now why someone’s nickname is Pip, I do not know!  What I do know however, is that Gladys Maria Knight is an Alien from Planet Thatbi@#cansang. 

 

Is there any other voice like Gladys Knight?  It’s like syrup, butter, hot-sauce, and Bourbon.  Emotional, gritty, funky, and beautiful all at the samedamntime.  As I listened to You Need Love Like I Do Don’t You? the other day in my car, I realized I was dancing the same way I dance to Aretha Franklin and James Brown, so I knew a shout-out here on WWF was in order. 

 

I believe most of us are familiar with her love ballads like If I Were Your Woman, and Midnight Train To Georgia, but Gladys Knight and the Pips also made you dance with hits like I Heard It Through The Grapevine, and Love Overboard.  Of course it’s categorized as R&B, Soul, and Pop, but once again, WE KNOW.  Oh the Funk is just so threatening!  Cause no matter what else our people can do, we can usually do that too!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with great producers and song-writers like Norman Whitfield and Ashford & Simpson of course gave them a great foundation starting out at Motown Records.  They won their first Grammy in 1973 with the amazing remake Neither One of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) originally recorded by Jim Weatherly.  And did you know that it was actually Gladys Knight that recommended Berry Gordy signed The Jackson 5 after she and the Pips performed with them in Gary, Indiana, and not Diana Ross?  Mmm hmm. 

 

Gladys has gone on to have a long and illustrious career after she and The Pips parted, and at 73 years young, she is still the beautiful, doe-eyed, lovely brown Empress of Soul that she has always been. Gladys Knight is a native ATLien, so we can claim her as one of our own here on WWF, and as one of the greatest Gospel, Funk, Soul, R&B, and Pop singers of all time.  This is the Grape Vine right here.