Alex Henderson

Gladys Knight & the Pips
2nd Anniversary [Expanded Edition]

In 1975, Gladys Knight & the Pips called their fourth album for Buddah Records 2^nd Anniversary because it marked the second anniversary of their contract with that label. But to fully appreciate just how impressive their commercial success at Buddah was in the mid-1970s, one must examine their relationship with the label they recorded for before Buddah: Motown.

The legendary vocal group was signed to Motown from 1966-1973, and during that seven-year period, Gladys Knight & the Pips enjoyed a long list of major hits that included “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (a #1 R&B/#2 pop smash in Billboard), “If I Were Your Woman,” “Everybody Needs Love,” “The Nitty Gritty” and “I Don’t Want to Do Wrong.”   Anyone with even a casual interest in classic soul needs to hear some of the great recordings that Knight and her three Pips (older brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest) recorded at Motown. But as well as Gladys Knight & the Pips did at Motown, they felt they could do better. Motown, as they saw it, considered them a second-tier act and didn’t give them the amount of promotional and marketing support they gave Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder or the Temptations. So when their contract with Motown was up for renewal in 1973 and Buddah promised them a much more aggressive promotional campaign, Gladys Knight & the Pips took them up on that offer—which turned out to be a very wise decision.

1973’s Imagination, their first album for Buddah, was their most successful album ever and boasted three #1 R&B hits (“Midnight Train to Georgia,” “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”). “Midnight Train to Georgia” became the group’s signature song, hitting #1 not only on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, but on Billboard’s pop singles chart as well. Imagination soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart and was certified gold in the United States for sales exceeding half a million copies. And their winning streak at Buddah continued in 1974 with their next two albums: the soundtrack for the movie “Claudine” and I Feel a Song, both of which also went gold and reached the #1 position on Billboard’s R&B albums chart.

2^nd Anniversary, which made it to #4 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart and became Gladys Knight & the Pips’ fourth gold album in a row, contained two #4 R&B singles: a cover of soft rocker David Gates’ ballad “Part-Time Love” and the late singer Eugene McDaniels’ gritty funk jam “Money.” The latter has often been compared to the O’Jays’ 1973 hit “For the Love of Money.”

Knight performs two other McDaniels songs on 2^nd Anniversary: “Summer Sun” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which is the song he is best remembered for and should not be confused with the song that British hard rockers Bad Company recorded for their Straight Shooter album (another 1975 release). “Feel Like Makin’ Love” was a huge hit for Roberta Flack in 1974, soaring to #1 on Billboard’s R&B, pop and easy listening charts. And while Gladys Knight & the Pips’ version wasn’t the smash that Flack’s was, she offers an expressive performance that received some exposure on quiet storm programs in the 1970s. Back then, DJs at soul radio (later renamed “urban contemporary” radio) in the U.S. enjoyed a lot more freedom than their modern-day counterparts. Program directors wanted their input—and some of the quiet storm DJs, as they came to be called, picked “Feel Like Makin’ Love” for light rotation. Other songs on 2^nd Anniversary that have quiet storm appeal include Jim Weatherly’s “Where Do I Put His Memory,” a cover of Paul Williams’ “You and Me Against the World” (which had been a big soft rock hit for Helen Reddy in 1974) and a live recording of the Hoagy Carmichael standard “Georgia on My Mind” (which was written in 1930—three years after Carmichael wrote his most famous song “Stardust”—and became a big hit for Ray Charles in 1960).

In 1975, it came as no surprise that Gladys Knight & the Pips would include at least one Weatherly song on 2^nd Anniversary.  Several of his songs—including “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,”  “Where Peaceful Waters Flow,” “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)” and “Love Finds Its Own Way”—had been major hits for the group. “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye),” which went to #1 R&B/#2 pop in Billboard, was their last major hit before leaving Motown. And “Midnight Train to Georgia,” of course, was their biggest hit ever. So the decision to include “Where Do I Put His Memory” on this album made perfect sense.

But 2^nd Anniversary isn’t strictly a quite storm album. “Money” and “Street Brother” (another McDaniels song) are among the album’s funkier offerings. Gladys Knight is absent from “Street Brother,” which gives the Pips a chance to sing lead. Although the Pips spent most of their career backing Knight, they occasionally recorded on their own. For example, the Pips recorded some singles without her in the early 1960s, including “Linda,” “Darling,” “To Whom It May Concern” and “Bless the One”—and in the late 1970s, they recorded two albums for Casablanca on their own (1977’s At Last…..The Pips and 1978’s Bunny Sigler-produced Callin’). 

FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded 2013 edition of 2^nd Anniversary contains three bonus tracks: “Rainbow Ride,” “We Don’t Look for Trouble” and “Alone Again,” all of which are from the album’s 1975 recording sessions but weren’t included on the original LP. Knight’s hardcore fans will be delighted to get their hands on those rarities.

Even if Gladys Knight & the Pips’ had never recorded for Buddah Records, their Motown output alone would have caused them to go down in history as soul-pop legends. But thankfully, they did make the decision to sign with Buddah 40 years ago. And their Buddah period continued to be both lucrative and exciting with 2^nd Anniversary.

—Alex Henderson, September 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Salon.com, 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.