Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight was born to Merald Woodlow Knight and Sarah Elizabeth Woods. She first zoomed to minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of 7 in 1952, due to her powerful singing voice. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips. By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Elenor Guest with Gladys Knight's cousins William Guest and Langston George.
Gladys Knight discovered she was pregnant in 1960, and married her boyfriend Jimmy Newman. After a miscarriage, Knight returned to performing with the Pips. In 1961, Bobby Robinson produced the single "Every Beat of My Heart" for the group, which became a #1 R&B and #6 pop hit when released on Vee-Jay Records. In 1962, Langston George left the group, which at that time renamed itself Gladys Knight & the Pips and continued as a quartet.
In 1962, after scoring a second hit, "Letter Full of Tears", Knight became pregnant again, and gave birth to a son, Jimmy, Jr., that year. She retired from the road to raise a family, and The Pips toured on their own. After giving birth to a daughter, Kenya, in 1964, Knight was forced to return to recording and the Pips in order to support her family.
Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967), "The Nitty Gritty" (1969),"Friendship Train" (1969), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970), "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971), the Grammy winner "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (1972), and "Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)" (1973).
The act left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved full-fledged success that year with hits such as the Grammy-winning "Midnight Train to Georgia" (their only #1 pop hit), "I've Got to Use My Imagination", and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me".
During this period of greater recognition, Gladys Knight made her motion picture acting debut in the film "Pipe Dreams," a romantic drama set in Alaska. The film failed at the box-office, but Knight did receive a Golden Globes Best New Actress nomination.
Knight and the Pips continued to have hits until the late 1970s, when they were forced to record separately due to legal issues, resulting in Knight's first solo LP recordings--Miss Gladys Knight (1978) on Buddah and Gladys Knight (1979) on Columbia. During this period, Knight divorced Jimmy Newman, and in 1976 married record producer Barry Hankerson (future uncle of R&B singer Aaliyah). Knight and Hankerson remained married for three years, during which time they had a son, Shanga Ali. Upon their divorce, Hankerson and Knight had a heated custody battle over Shanga Ali.
After a dry spell, they returned to the charts in the 1980s with the #1 R&B hits "Save the Overtime (For Me)" (1983) and another Grammy winner--"Love Overboard" (1987). During this period, Knight became addicted to gambling and the game baccarat. She finally called Gamblers Anonymous when she lost $45,000 in one night and was near bankruptcy.
After a successful 1988 tour, the Pips retired and Gladys Knight began a career as a solo artist. Gladys Knight & the Pips were later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Information courtesy of www.wickipedia.com
