Customer Reviews

Ultimate Collection

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Pulled this one off the shelf the other night after hearing that Gladys Knight had performed in our town earlier in the week. My wife and I had seen Gladys Knight and the Pips perform in the summer of 1989 and that concert remains one of the finest live performances I have ever witnessed.
Originally released back in 1997, "The Ultimate Collection" features just about every one of the groups charted singles from their highly successful six year stint at Motown. While Gladys Knight and the Pips would achieve their biggest chart success during the mid-seventies at Buddah Records, a good many critics would argue that their best work was probably done at Motown. I would tend to agree with that assessment. Gladys Knight and the Pips were formed way back in 1952 after 8 year old Gladys was the weekly winner on the nationally televised "Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour". From that point on there was simply no holding her back. After a couple of highly successful records in the early 1960's Gladys Knight and the Pips arrived at Motown in early 1967. And before that year was out they had a monster hit with the original version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." Other Top Ten hits would follow including "If I Were Your Woman" and "Neither One of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)" from 1973. As is so often the case some of my personal favorites were not necessarily the biggest hits. Perhaps my very favorite recording is the funky "It Should Have Been Me" which barely cracked the Top 40 in the Summer of '68. And switching gears completely, I was totally mesmorized by Gladys' heart wrenching rendition of the great country standard "Help Me Make It Through The Night". I had forgotten just how great a record that one really was. Add to these other familiar hits like "The End of Our Road" and "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" and you've got yourself a pretty darn good collection.
If you are in the market for the all the great Motown tunes then this single disc collection is still the best option around. I have been waiting for years for a collection that spans the entire forty year career of this legendary group. But for now, pop this one in and enjoy. Highly recommended.

This is the best single disc "hits" collection during their Motown/Soul years. Like many "greatest hits" albums, you can't argue what's here but maybe what's not here. However, I do recommend this album along with "The Soul Survivors: (1973-1988)" if you want just the hits. Very Essential.

Gladys Knight and the Pips made some records before they signed to Motown, but those records were not successful, so these are the earliest important recordings.

I heard it through the grapevine was their first major hit, going to number two in the American pop chart (and topping the R+B chart) and also giving them a minor British hit. Gladys recorded the song at around the same time as Marvin Gaye, but Motown originally selected the version by Gladys and the Pips for single release. Marvin's version was released as a single a year later and topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The two versions are very different despite both being produced by Norman Whitfield. He obviously loved the song as he also produced versions by the Isley brothers and the Miracles.

There are many other classic songs here, including Take me in your arms and love me, It should have been me (revived by Yvonne Fair in the seventies), Every little bit hurts, If I were your woman, Help me make it through the night and Neither one of us.

Gladys Knight is best remembered for the recordings she made after she left Motown for Buddah, including Midnight train to Georgia, but her Motown music is well worth a listen.

If your only exposure to the music of Gladys Knight and the Pips is the slick, adult-contemporary stuff from the '70s and beyond, then you're in for a real surprise. This collection of the group's Motown material is generally more upbeat and more soulful than the smooth lite stuff they're more famous for. Gladys is one of the most underrated soul singers ever, and could really belt it out, as demonstrated on this disc. Her deep alto voice is tailor made for conveying the pain and heartache of the deepest of blues. And her backing singers, The Pips, harmonize beautifully. The highlight of this set (besides the definitive version of "I Heard It Thru The Grapevine") is probably "Didn't You Know You'd Have to Cry Sometime", an aching, soulful blast of pure sadness. But really, there are lots of highlights here. Towards the second half of the disc, the more familiar, slow-burn sound of GK and the Pips comes to the fore, demonstrating the group's transition from Motown ravers to soul-lite groovers. There's plenty of stuff to explore here, and marvel over Gladys Knight's incredible voice.

IT HAS MANY SONGS NOT ON MOST COLLECTIONS, BUT DOES NOT HAVE A NUMBER OF # 1 HITS. THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS MANY OF THE 45'S THAT DID NOT MAKE IT TO THE ALBUM COLLECTIONS. BUT, IF YOU ARE A FAN OF GLADYS KNIGHT YOU'LL ENJOY THIS COLLECTION. IT COVERS SOME OF THE RARE RECORDINGS THAT WERE PASSED OVER BY THE INDUSTRY.

This is the best (so far) of the many hits packages Motown has released on Gladys and her Pips. It's not too brief and not too unwieldly, either. As the liner notes state, all selections are the original 45 rpm versions. That is to say, there are subtle, but noticeable differences between many of these recordings and the versions that have been repackaged previously over the years. For instance, the fade-out is longer on "Didn't You Know" and "Just Walk In My Shoes" contains a vocal section I'd never heard before. These are little things, but they mean a lot to serious fans. The digital remastering makes for excellent sound. One quibble though is the inclusion of "It's Time To Go Now". This unremarkable track from 1968 was a poor choice to end the CD.

A search in Music under the heading Ultimate Collection will garner you thousands of hits, and even searching in Album Title will result in quite a few, ranging from Benny Hill and George Formby to 10cc and The Who, and just about everyone in between. Even Motown uses Ultimate Collection on a number of their CDs, but the best of the lot where they are concerned is this series, each with 25 tracks and similar cover art by David Irvin, and involving Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Martha (Reeves) & The Vandellas, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and Mary Wells.

This one covers one of the classiest ladies to emerge in the 1960s and her back-up group which, when first formed in the late 1950's, coonsisted of brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda, and cousins Eleanor and William Guest, named after manager and yet another cousin, James "Pip" Woods. In 1959, Brenda and Eleanor were replaced by cousins Edward Patten and Langston George. They began their long string of R&B hits in 1961 when their initial version of Every Beat Of My Heart was recorded for the tiny Huntom label. After they moved to the Fury label they re-recorded that tune which, billed to Gladys Knight & The Pips, was soon in competition with their original cut which had, in the meantime, been sold to Vee-Jay. Their simultaneous release, billed to The Pips, won out, rising to # 1 R&B and # 5 Billboard Pop Hot 100, whereas the Fury cut stalled at # 15 R&B/# 45 Hot 100. Both had the same B-side, Room In Your Heart.

From that point to 1988 they would add 57 more R&B hits, over 40 of which crossed over to the Pop Hot 100 and 16 to the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts. for seven different labels (Huntom/Vee-Jay, Fury, Maxx, Soul, Buddah, Columbia, and Arista). In 1962, after their third hit, Letter Full Of Tears (# 3 R&B/# 19 Hot 100 on Fury 1054 in December 1961/January 1962), Langston left and from that point on they became a quartet.

Here, of course, the selections concentrate on their output for Motown's subsidiary label Soul and includes, along with the hit singles covered, the hard-to-find It's Time To Go Now, the B-side to their biggest Hot 100 hit [# 2 and # 1 R&B for 6 weeks] I Heard It Through The Grapevine, in late 1967. Also included are the album cuts Every Little Bit Hurts, Just Walk In My Shoes, and Here I Am Again.

The sound quality is excellent and you get several pages of informative liner notes, including a complete discography of the contents and some nice shots of the group. Most definitely a compilation worth having.

Gladys Knight & The Pips have always been a major fave of mine. While at Motown,they never received as much attention as the other major groups but they always managed to hold their own while outlasting many of them. Gladys herself is still knockin' 'em dead in concert and never fails to sing all the major hits and then some. This is a major collection of their timeless classics.

A quote from Gladys herself - "Diana & the Supremes, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye were given all the hits while we took the leftovers." That was on her A&E biography, and she had a point, her group deserved more. They had some great hits though, her version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is one I still listen to, sometimes more than I listen to Marivn Gaye's version. "Neither One of Us" is just a wonderful song, and their version of "I Wish It Would Rain" is just as great as the Temptations' version. "If I Were Your Woman" is a Gladys classic. They had a great sound and Motown should have treated them better.

This CD doesn't really deserve five stars though. Maybe if "Every Beat of My Heart", "Midnight Train to Georgia", "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", etc. were on here, you'd see five stars instead of four.

Gladys Knight was treated a bit torridly by Motown in the 1960's, but it worked to her advantage in the end as being a cutting edge soul queen in the 1970's. In 1969, a struggling news broadcaster named Don Cornelius was starting a show in the Chicago market called "Soul Train" and it was 'Gladys Knight and the Pips' who agreed to perform on the show. It wasn't Aretha, it wasn't Dianna Ross, nor Martha Reeves, or Marvin Gaye (they all wanted a comfortable fee). Gladys embodied what soul music meant, giving it up for the people, and lending a helping hand when you could. An embodiment of the true 1960's spirit. Soul Train toook off, but it was Gladys Knight who performed first.

This comp is excellent. I was at a Mod/Soul DJ night in San Francisco in December 2002 and the DJ spun "Walk In My Shoes" off a 45Rpm and I was gassed instantly. I knew about her work in the 1970's, but this......this was good, danceable raw soul. I looked into Gladys's career and music before the 1970's and stumbled upon this comp. The music is danceable, and Gladys put every effort into what was provided for her, swooning harder, better, than any modern 'diva' could today. The backing by the Pips is stellar, always hitting the beat, and backing up "what she's talking about" and that was in itself something she should be proud of.