Gladys Knight Biography

Gladys Knight and her back-up singers, The Pips, had their first hit record in 1961, when Gladys was still a teenager.

Together they became famous on the Motown record label during the 1960s, and after jumping over to the Buddha record label in 1973 the group peaked with the album Imagination. The album yielded three gold singles, including “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a number one hit and their most famous tune.

With the Pips, Knight’s first hit was 1961’s “Every Beat of My Heart.” It was another five years before the group hit their stride, after group changes and time out to start a family. They then had a string of hits, from “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” in 1967 to “If I Were Your Woman” in 1970-71.

Gladys Knight was sometimes called the “Empress of Soul” as she won multiple Grammys during her career. Her hits with the Pips include “Neither One of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye),” “Love Overboard,” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.”

The group finally formally disbanded at the end of the 1980s, and Knight went on to a solo career that began with the theme song for the James Bond movie Licence to Kill (1989). Knight’s solo albums include 1991’s Good Woman, 1994’s Just For You and 2014’s Where My Heart Belongs.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.