In the early '70s, Knight & the Pips slowly moved away from their original blues-influenced sound toward a more middle-of-the-road harmony blend. The group enjoyed further R&B and pop hits at the end of the decade with "Didn't You Know (You'd Have to Cry Sometime)," "The Nitty Gritty," "Friendship Train," and "You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You)," while the poignant "If I Were Your Woman" was one of the label's biggest-selling releases of 1970 and provided the group with its third R&B chart-topper. Gladys Knight & the Pips' version topped the R&B chart for six weeks at the end of 1967 and also reached number two on the pop chart. with "Everybody Needs Love," "The End of the Road," "It Should Have Been Me," and "I Wish It Would Rain," but enjoyed most success with the original release of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," an uncompromisingly muscular performance of a song that in 1969 became a Motown standard in the hands of its author, Marvin Gaye. Between 19, they had major R&B and minor pop hits in the U.S. Knight's tough vocals distinguished them from Motown's pop-soul roster. In 1966, Gladys Knight & the Pips signed to Motown Records' Soul subsidiary, where they were teamed up with producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield. A switch in 1964 to the Maxx label - where they worked with producer Van McCoy - generated minor hits with "Giving Up" and "Lovers Always Forgive." Langston George retired from the group in 1962, leaving the four-strong lineup that survived into the '80s. Subsequent singles such as "Letter Full of Tears" and "Operator" sealed the group's R&B credentials. By this time, the group, now credited as Gladys Knight & the Pips, had signed a long-term recording contract with Fury Records, where they issued a re-recording of "Every Beat of My Heart" that competed for sales with the original release. This song, which highlighted Knight's bluesy, compelling vocal style, was licensed to Vee Jay Records when it began attracting national attention, and went on to top the U.S. Three years elapsed before the Pips' next sessions, which produced a version of Johnny Otis' "Every Beat of My Heart" for the small Huntom label. They first recorded for Brunswick Records in 1958, releasing the single "Whistle My Love." Another cousin of the Knights, Edward Patten, along with Langston George, were brought into the group the following year when Brenda and Eleanor left to get married. Calling themselves the Pips, after their cousin James "Pips" Woods, the youngsters sang supper-club material from Monday through Saturday and gospel music on Sundays. Gladys Knight, her brother Merald "Bubba," sister Brenda, and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest formed their first vocal group in their native Atlanta, Georgia in 1952. Among Knight's later releases is the 2014 Top Ten gospel album Where My Heart Belongs. The singer's solitary discography includes an assortment of adult contemporary R&B, gospel, and jazz recordings, highlighted by the Grammy-winning 2001 album At Last and awarded collaborations with Saints Unified Voices and Ray Charles. Having released her first two Pips-less albums during the late '70s, Knight began a full-time solo career during the early '90s. Knight & the Pips remained together through the '80s, a period that entailed the additional R&B Top Ten entries "Landlord," "Save the Overtime (For Me)," and the Grammy-winning "Love Overboard," and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following decade. Steeped in the gospel tradition like so many early R&B groups, Gladys Knight & the Pips topped the Billboard R&B chart for the first time in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart" and later in the decade developed into one of Motown's most dependable acts, responsible for 11 Top Ten R&B hits from 1966 through 1972, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "The Nitty Gritty," "If I Were Your Woman," and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)." The group doubled its quantity of Top Ten R&B hits with the Buddah label through 1978, with second Grammy winner "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Got to Use My Imagination," and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" accounting for a streak of chart-toppers off the gold-selling album Imagination.
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