The Early Years [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Gladys Knight, Gladys Knight & the Pips | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 21, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Acrobat Music
• ASIN: B001F0V1OS
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #724,605 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-executed collection of early recordings, April 6, 2009

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Early Years (Audio CD)

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.