Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown Records roster in 1966 (while the band had no “sure hit”),[ and, although initially regarded as a second-string act, scored several major hit singles, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (recorded first by Marvin Gaye, his version not released until 1968), “Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me” (1967), “Friendship Train” (1969), “If I Were Your Woman” (1970), “I Don’t Want To Do Wrong” (1971), the Grammy Award-winning “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)” (1972), and “Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)” (1973).
In their early Motown career, Gladys Knight and the Pips toured as the opening act for Diana Ross and The Supremes. Gladys Knight stated in her memoirs that Ross kicked her off the tour because the audience’s reception to Knight’s soulful performance overshadowed her. Berry Gordy later told Knight that she was giving his act a hard time.
The act left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved the full-fledged success that year with hits such as the Grammy-winning “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination,” “The Way We Were/Try To Remember” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”. In the summer of 1974, Knight and the Pips recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield.
The act was particularly successful in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom. However, a number of the Buddah singles became hits in the UK long after their success in the US. For example, “Midnight Train to Georgia” hit the UK pop charts Top 5 in the summer of 1976, a full three years after its success in the U.S.
