Search - Gladys Knight & The Pips :: The Early Years

Gladys Knight & The Pips
The Early Years
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Pop, R&B

Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
1. Every Beat Of My Heart
2. Room In Your Heart
3. Guess Who
4. Stop Running Around
5. Letter Full Of Tears
6. You Broke Your Promise
7. Operator
8. I'll Trust In You
9. Morning Noon And Night
10. I Can't Stand By
11. What Shall I Do
12. Giving Up
13. Maybe Maybe Baby
14. Lovers Always Forgive
15. Another Love
16. Either Way I Lose
17. Go Away Stay Away
18. Stop And Get A Hold Of Myself

CD Details

All Artists: Gladys Knight & The Pips
Title: The Early Years
Members Wishing: 3
Total Copies: 0
Label: Acrobat Music
Release Date: 10/21/2008
Album Type: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Pop, R&B
Styles: Disco, By Decade, 1970s, Motown, Soul, Quiet Storm
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 884607000072

Synopsis

Product Description

Gladys Knight is one of the legendary figures of Soul music. Like many great Soul performers, she was church-trained, and was touring in her teens with a family-based, Doo wop-influenced vocal group. By 1957, when she was still only 13, Gladys had already been on the road with Sam Cooke, B.B. King and Jackie Wilson. A 7-time Grammy Award winner, Gladys Knight has one of the most distinctive and stylish voices in the world of R&B, ranking alongside contemporaries like Aretha Franklin.

The Early Years brings together the best of the classic soul recordings Knight made for the Fury and Maxx labels in the years before she joined Motown. Included here are productions by the legendary Van McCoy, with tracks spanning the 1961-64 period. These songs come from Gladys' only 2 albums prior to joining Motown with 11 from her Fury LP and 7 more from her Maxx LP. Includes all of her pre-Motown R&B chart hits: Every Beat Of My Heart, Letter Full Of Tears, Giving Up and Lovers Always Forgive.

Highly regarded UK label Acrobat Music is launching its US operations on October 21st 2008 with this as well as other re-issues that offer high quality and excellent value. All of the Premier Collection titles are showcased in deluxe packages with unique, consistent packaging, which include o-cards, extensive liner notes and either a large number of tracks or lengthy play time. Acrobat will be establishing its presence as the premier independent re-issue label in the US through its distribution deal with TVT Distribution.

CD Reviews

Well-executed collection of early recordings

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 04/06/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gladys Knight and the Pips' hit-making career spanned a full three decades. While there are numerous compilations covering their Motown, Buddah and Columbia years, this new piece from Acrobat Music of the U.K. focuses on their early recordings for the Fury and Maxx labels. Among the 18 tracks are their Fury and Maxx singles plus several album cuts from their lp's on those labels. In an unusual occurrence, Gladys Knight and the Pips had two versions of the same song chart at the same time. "Every Beat of My Heart", originally on Huntom, leased to Vee-Jay and released as by the Pips, was rerecorded and released on Fury as by Gladys Knight and the Pips. The Fury version is the one found here. GK and company went on to have four more top-100 songs including "Letter Full of Tears" and "Giving Up" before moving on to even bigger success at Motown in the later 60's.

Acrobat has done an admirable job here gathering up these early recordings. Sound quality is respectable with six of the tracks (1,2,7,8,10,11) in true stereo, 3-6,9,16-18 in mono and the remainder (12-15) in what seems to be electronically rechanneled mode. The 12-page liner notes booklet contains pics, record images, a detailed history of their early recording days and a reproduction of the liner notes from their first Fury lp.

All-in-all, a desirable and well-executed collection of the early years of one of the most durable acts of the rock era that deserves a place in the shelfspace of any serious collector as well as the casual fan."