Alex Henderson

Gladys Knight & the Pips
In the Beginning (Expanded Edition)

No discussion of the history of Motown Records would be adequate, let along complete, without some mention of Gladys Knight & the Pips. From 1966 to 1973 (the year they left Motown for Buddah Records), Knight and her Pips were exciting contributors to the Motown sound. But the legacy of Gladys Knight & the Pips didn’t begin with Motown any more than it ended with Motown, and this reissue takes a rewarding look at their pre-Motown output.

In the Beginning, one could say, is a reissue of a reissue of a reissue. Back in 1968—when Gladys Knight & the Pips were signed to Motown—Bell Records took advantage of their popularity with Tastiest Hits, an LP containing 11 of their pre-Motown recordings. Then, in 1974, Bell reissued Tastiest Hits as In the Beginning, offering the same 11 songs in the same order but with a new title and new art work. And now, in 2013, FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded 16-song CD edition of In the Beginning presents those 11 recordings in that same order followed by five bonus tracks from the pre-Motown period: “(There Will Never Be) Another Love,” “The Devil in Me,” “Why Don’t You Love Me,” “Who Knows? (I Just Can’t Trust You)” and “Go Away, Stay Away.” Knight’s hardcore fans will be delighted to get their hands on those rarities.

Many of the people who bought the In the Beginning LP back in the 1970s had discovered Gladys Knight & the Pips through their Motown and Buddah hits, but to view these 1961-1965 recordings as merely a prelude to Knight’s Motown period doesn’t do them justice. This collection demonstrates that they had already great soul-pop instincts even before Motown.

The very beginning of Gladys Knight & the Pips can be traced back to 1952, when Knight (b. May 28, 1944) was only seven years old and performed the Nat King Cole hit “Too Young” on “Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour” (a 1950s equivalent of “American Idol”). The Atlanta group’s original 1952 lineup was a quintet consisting of Knight, her older brother Merald “Bubba” Knight (b. September 4, 1942), her sister Brenda Knight and cousins William Guest (b. July 2, 1941) and Eleanor Guest—and at first, they were called simply the Pips (a name inspired by cousin James “Pip” Woods). Their first single, “Whistle My Love,” was released by Brunswick Records in early 1958.

After some lineup changes, the group’s most famous lineup—Gladys Knight on lead vocals with backing vocals from Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins Edward Patten (b. August 27, 1939, d. February 25, 2005) and William Guest—came into place in 1963. They were busy in the early to mid-1960s, recording for independent labels that included Fury, Hunton/Vee-Jay and Maxx.

In the Beginning boasts the three biggest hits of their pre-Motown period: the sentimental ballad “Every Beat of My Heart,” the melancholy “Letter Full of Tears” and the equally melancholy “Giving Up.” Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded two different versions of “Every Beat of My Heart” in 1961: one for Hunton/Vee-Jay, the other for producer Bobby Robinson’s Fury Records. They were listed as simply the Pips on the Hunton/Vee-Jay 45 but as Gladys Knight & the Pips on the Fury 45. And both versions were hits: the Hunton/Vee-Jay version was a #1 R&B/#6 pop smash in Billboard, while the Fury version went to #15 R&B/#45 pop hit in Billboard. 

Gladys Knight & the Pips were not the first ones to record “Every Beat of My Heart,” which was written by singer Johnny Otis and had been recorded by his group the Royals (later the Midnighters) in the early 1950s. But they made the song even more famous, and they also fared quite well with Don Covay’s “Letter Full of Tears” (a #3 R&B hit) and the late Van McCoy’s “Giving Up” (a #6 R&B hit). “Giving Up” was subsequently covered by the Ad-Libs in 1969 and Donny Hathaway in 1971, but Gladys Knight & the Pips’ version is by far the most famous. 

During that 1961-1965 period, Knight and her Pips recorded their share of singles that weren’t chartbusters but were pleasing nonetheless—and many of them can be found on In the Beginning, including 1962’s exuberant “Operator” and 1965’s sentimental “If Ever I Should Fall in Love.”  Meanwhile, the lovely "Daybreak” demonstrates Knight’s ability to handle jazz-influenced traditional pop along the lines of Dinah Washington and Lena Horne. Other pre-Motown highlights of this reissue include the funky “Maybe Maybe, Baby” from 1964 and the emotional “Tell Her You’re Mine” from 1965.

This collection underscores Van McCoy’s prolific nature: he not only wrote “Giving Up,” but also, 1964’s tearful “Either Way I Lose,” 1964’s hopeful “Lovers Always Forgive” and 1965’s snappy “Stop and Get Ahold of Myself.” McCoy wrote plenty of soul gems that were big hits for other artists, including “Baby, I’m Yours” (a huge hit for Barbara Lewis in 1965) and Brenda & the Tabulations’ 1971 single “Right on the Tip of My Tongue.” But among disco lovers, McCoy is best remembered for his 1975 smash “The Hustle.” Sadly, McCoy was only 39 when he died of a heart attack in 1979.

Although Knight and her Pips had some hits before Motown, signing with Motown in 1966 certainly gave them a boost commercially. 1967 was a great year for them thanks to the success of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (a #1 R&B/#2 pop smash in Billboard) and “Everybody Needs Love,” which reached #3 on Billboard’s R&B singles—and those gems were followed by a long list of major Motown hits that included “The End of Our Road” in 1968, “The Nitty Gritty” and “Friendship Train” in 1969, “If I Were Your Woman” in 1970 and “I Don’t Want to Do Wrong” in 1971. After leaving Motown for Buddah Records in 1973, Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded their biggest album ever: Imagination, which included the beloved “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

But in order to appreciate where you are and where you’re going, it’s important to understand where you’ve been—and as In the Beginning demonstrates, Gladys Knight & the Pips had a lot to be proud of during their pre-Motown years.

—Alex Henderson, August 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.  



Gladys Knight & the Pips circa 1961

Gladys Knight in 1954 at the age of ten.