The Week of January 8th, 2006: IN BLACK HISTORY
THE ONE AND ONLY: GLADYS KNIGHT

One of the great soul singers, Gladys Knight was a performer from her childhood years, forming the Pips with her brother Merald and a couple cousins. They made the Top Ten in 1961 with the heavily doo wop-influenced "Every Beat of My Heart," and recorded some fine, nowadays overlooked, pop-soul sides for the Fury and Maxx labels in the early and mid-'60s, sometimes under the direction of songwriter Van McCoy. A couple singles from this period, "Letter Full of Tears" and "Giving Up," made the Top 40, but Knight didn't hit her commercial stride until she moved to Motown in 1966. Steeped in the gospel tradition, like so many soul singers, Knight & the Pips developed into one of Motown's most dependable acts, although they never quite scaled the commercial or artistic heights of fellow stars on the label like the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and the Temptations. With Norman Whitfield providing the production and much of the songwriting, the Pips fit into the mainstream of Motown's machine well, scoring big hits with some rabble-rousers (like "Friendship Train" and the original version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"), mainstream mid-tempo soul ("It Should Have Been Me" and "The End of Our Road"), and smooth ballads like "If I Were Your Woman." ....read more

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Six-time Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight came to Heinz Hall for one night only, JANUARY 12, 2006. Very few singers over the last fifty years have matched her unassailable artistry. Ms. Knight has enjoyed #1 hits in Pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary, and has triumphed in film, television and live performance.

Her new CD, tentatively titled "The Great Ladies of Song" is due out in the spring of 2006, where Ms. Knight will pay tribute to music's great female songstresses like Billie Holiday, Etta James and Dinah Washington. She had a full house of black and white folks who enjoyed going down memory lane with Gladys as she belted out hit after hit. It was an evening of "GREAT ENTERTAINMENT". Big shout outs to our BAP winners (Ann, Monica, and David). We also want to shout out everyone who came out to have a great time: Lou Ransom, Donna, Bubbles, Lenore, LeAnn, Linwood, Denise and Harvey Adams. Special Thanks to Yu-Ling from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS RIGHT HERE!!

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