The group - now known officially as Gladys Knight and the Pips - was riding higher than ever during the mid-1970s with a smoother, more accessible sound, a hit album, Imagination (1973) and three gold singles: 'I've Got to Use My Imagination,' 'Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me' and the Grammy Award-winning No. 1 crossover hit and a Grammy winner for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1973. Ironically, their last Motown single, 'Neither One of Us Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye,' became the Pips' first No. Knight and the Pips left Motown in 1973 for Buddah Records, a subsidiary of Arista (the group later took Motown to court for unpaid royalties). Their popularity increased with the success of singles like 'Nitty Gritty,' 'Friendship Train' and 'If I Were Your Woman,' combined with touring performances with the Motown Revue and numerous TV appearances. In 1967, the Pips' version of Whitfield's 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine'-later a huge hit for Marvin Gaye-crossed over from the rhythm and blues charts to the pop charts. While their first single, 'Whistle My Love,' was released by Brunswick in 1957, the Pips didn't score a bona fide hit until 1961 when they released 'Every Beat of My Heart.” But it was when the group began recording with Motown Records in the mid-1960s, and were teamed with songwriter/producer Norman Whitfield, that their careers really took off.

With young Gladys supplying the throaty vocals and the Pips providing impressive harmonies and inspired dance routines, the group soon earned a following on the so-called 'Chitlin Circuit' in the South, opening for popular acts such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. In 1952, an 8-year-old Knight formed 'the Pips' with her brother and sister, Merald ('Bubba') and Brenda, and two cousins, Elenor and William Guest (another cousin, Edward Patten, and Langston George later joined the group, after Brenda and Elenor left to get married George left by 1960). Not long after, she won a prize for her performance on the televised Ted Mack Amateur Hour. She made her solo debut at the age of 4, singing at the Mount Mariah Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Singer and actress Gladys Knight was born Gladys Maria Knight on May 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, and started out on the road to success at an early age. Today, she's known fondly as the 'Empress of Soul.' Early Years As Gladys Knight and the Pips, they recorded their signature song, 'Midnight Train to Georgia.' Knight left the Pips behind in 1989, and continued to perform and record as a solo artist. Gladys Knight began singing with her siblings at age 8, calling themselves 'the Pips.' The group opened for R&B legends in the 1950s, then headed to Motown and crossed over to pop music.

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