| Product Summary | | Label: Universal Music Group | | UPC: 00602517936522 | | Release Date: 1/27/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 210593682 | | Item#: M4K2H3 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Everybody Needs Love ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips |  | | 2. Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 3. Look Of Love, The ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 4. Do You Love Me Just A Little, Honey ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 5. If I Were Your Woman ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 6. Your Love's Been Good For Me ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 7. Here I Am Again ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 8. Every Beat Of My Heart ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 9. I'll Be Here (When You Get Home) ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 10. Oh! What A Love I Have Found ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 11. Man Is A Woman's Weakness, A ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | | | 12. Help Me Make It Through The Night ~ Gladys Knight & The Pips | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Gladys Knight & the Pips/Gladys Knight: Gladys Knight. | | In 2009, just before Valentine's Day, Motown issued several volumes of the Love Songs series, including discs from the Jackson 5, the Commodores, Diana Ross & the Supremes, and Smokey Robinson. Gladys Knight & the Pips got the same treatment: 12 songs, $10 retail price, decent no-frills packaging. With such a constricted format, plenty of essential material goes missing, but some of the group's biggest and most crucial hits are indeed included, such as "Everybody Needs Love," "If I Were Your Woman," and "Help Me Make It Through the Night." Still, this should be seen as a sampler and not a proper anthology -- it's not much more than an affordable holiday tie-in. ~ Andy Kellman | | Focusing on their post-Motown years, Love Songs is an entertaining but mildly inconsistent look at Gladys Knight & the Pips' softer moments. Some of the hits make their usual appearances: "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," "Midnight Train to Georgia," and "The Makings of You" are all present and stand out more than ever as some of their most important. This notion becomes especially potent when placed in contrast to the minor hits and filler that are included. And though the good definitely outweighs the bad in this instance, most die-hard fans will already own all of this material courtesy of more thorough definitive collections or anthologies. Nevertheless, Love Songs is an ideal sampler for those looking to hear the group's softer side. ~ Rob Theakston | | Over the course of her career, Gladys Knight shifted from straight soul to disco to adult-contemporary music, but some of her finest work has been in the vein of smooth R&B. After a successful tenure with Motown Records, Knight and her backing vocal group, the Pips, moved to Buddah Records in the early 1970s, where they recorded some of their strongest material. Buddah/Legacy's LOVE SONGS cherry picks the act's romantically themed songs, including the smash singles "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me." | | Knight's elastic, gospel-influenced embellishments stretch all over these compositions, and her rich, resonant alto voice cuts straight to the soul. The tight-knit accents of the Pips frame her singing, as do lavish string and horn arrangements. Knight also had the good fortune to perform material by some of the era's finest songwriters--including Bill Withers ("Tenderness Is His Way"), Curtis Mayfield ("The Makings of You"), and Ashford & Simpson ("A Friend of Mine")--and LOVE SONGS offers an excellent cross section of that material as well. The resulting set works as a sampler of Knight's '70s and early-'80s Buddah output, as well as a soundtrack for a cozy, intimate evening at home. |
Producer: Harry Weinger (Compilation) |
| | Compilation Appearances |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 01/27/2009 | | Original Release Date : 2005 | | Catalog ID : B0012456-02 | | Label : Motown Records | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00602517936522 |
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| | Bio | | | Gladys Knight and the Pips Gladys Knight (b. 28 May 1944, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), her brother Merald "Bubba" (b. 4 September 1942, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), sister Brenda and cousins Elenor Guest and William Guest (b. 2 June 1941, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) formed their first vocal group in their native Atlanta in 1952. Calling themselves the Pips, the youngsters sang supper-club material in the week, and gospel music on Sundays. They first recorded for Brunswick Records in 1958, with another cousin of the Knights, Edward Patten (b. 2 August 1939), and Langston George making changes to the group line-up the following year when Brenda and Elenor left to get married. Three years elapsed before their next sessions, which produced a version of Johnny Otis' "Every Beat of My Heart" for the small Huntom label. This song, which highlighted Knight's bluesy, compelling vocal style, was leased to Vee Jay Records when it began attracting national attention, and went on to top the US R&B charts. By this time, the group, now credited as Gladys Knight and the Pips, had signed a long-term contract with Fury Records, where they issued a re-recording of "Every Beat of My Heart" which competed for sales with the original release. Subsequent singles such as "Letter Full of Tears" and "Operator" sealed the group's R&B credentials, but a switch to the Maxx label in 1964 - where they worked with producer Van McCoy - brought their run of successes to a halt. Langston George retired from the group in the early 60s, leaving the line-up that survived into the 80s. In 1966, Gladys Knight and the Pips were signed to Motown Records' Soul subsidiary, where they were teamed up with producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield. Knight's tough vocals left them slightly out of the Motown mainstream, and throughout their stay with the label the group were regarded as a second-string act. In 1967, they had a major hit single with the original release of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", an uncompromisingly tough performance of a song that became a Motown standard in the hands of its author Marvin Gaye in 1969. "The Nitty Gritty" (1968) and "Friendship Train" (1969) proved equally successful, while the poignant "If I Were Your Woman" was one of the label's biggest-selling releases of 1970.
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