Gladys Knight had begun singing at the tender age of four in her Baptist church group along with siblings Bubba and Brenda and cousins William and Eleanor Guest, but she went pro after appearing solo on the American Idol of her day, a national TV show called Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. The seven-year old Knight and her kin then formed a secular singing group, The Pips, named after their manager, another cousin named James Woods, nicknamed Pip. With cousins Langston George and Edward Patten eventually replacing the other two ladies, the group covered Hank Ballard and the Midnighters' slow dance "Every Beat Of My Heart."Success:
It was a regional hit, but the group were cheated out of their royalties; undaunted, they cut another version which went Top Ten nationally. The teenage Knight eventually quit, then rejoined in 1964, but it wasn't until being signed to Motown in 1966 that the hits began to come, including "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," which beat out versions by four different Motown artists -- including Marvin Gaye's -- for release as a single. Despite that, Knight and the Pips often felt unappreciated by Motown, passed over for its best songs in favor of Diana Ross especially. The group left for the Buddah label in 1973.
Later years:
Their take on the situation proved a correct one. The first hit on Buddah was the Grammy-winning smash "Midnight Train To Georgia," and soon the group were elevated to superstardom; Knight's elegant tales of heartbreak and the Pips' patented dance moves (choreographed by dance legend Cholly Atkins) became a national soul monument of sorts. Although disco cut into their sales, the group continued to enjoy hits and scored a major R&B comeback in the mid-Eighties. The Pips retired in 1989, but Knight has had continued success as a solo act, branching out into gospel and jazz and touring behind her classic hits.