Gladys Knight & The Pips Posters

Other soul music songstresses have blazed more brightly or fallen to more scandalous depths, but for sheer pop comfort and danceable graciousness, nobody can match the smooth, soothingly consistent output of Gladys Knight and her redoubtable Pips. Without a trace of the anger that powered much of early '70s soul, and nary a hint of the wrenching passions within someone like Aretha Franklin, Knight nevertheless created a string of vital records--peaking with 1973's "Midnight Train To Georgia"--that offered escape and uplift by virtue of their perfectly crafted grooves.

Knight and a quintet made up of several family members achieved some renown on the R&B circuit, touring throughout the '50s and '60s. The line-up eventually settled on Knight as lead singer and brother Merald Knight, William Guest and Edward Patten providing back-up harmony (named the Pips after a cousin of Knight's).

On the strength of their polished vocals and emphatic dance routines, they scored a contract with Motown Records, and began charting with such breakthrough, late-'60s singles as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "The Nitty Gritty." Their easy-going, consummately professional style garnered the group a string of radio hits and Grammys in the mid-'70s. The end of that decade was less productive--an unfortunate tangle of lawsuits had Knight & The Pips barred from working together for several years.

By 1980, they had re-grouped, but professionalism is about all that recommends most of their later work. The group was pretty much consigned to the oldies bin, though they did rally with a surprisingly energized 1987 album, All Our Love, which put them back on top 20 pop charts with the typically catchy "Love Overboard." Knight began recording Pip-lessly in 1991 with Good Woman, sounding smooth as always, but wrapping her pleasant enough vocals around instantly forgettable songs.