![]() All I could think about was my mom when I sang that song.” The Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, and Dionne Warwick versionīut while the tune was an emotional challenge for White, one that she pulled off in a profoundly affecting way, it was right in the pocket for Knight who had, at the time, been twice married and divorced. How I made it work for me is, I remember my mom was a superwoman. I wasn’t necessarily that woman in ‘Superwoman.’ I wasn’t married I wasn’t necessarily mentally. So I had to find my own vibe for the song. ![]() ![]() “It was sounding a little country,” White said to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. White, who recorded the song when she was in her 20s, could barely relate to the sentiment. As she sings, “This girl needs more than occasional hugs as a token of love from you to me.” The song – written by the hot production duo of Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, along with “silent partner” Daryl Simmons – plays like one woman’s passionate renegotiation of the emotional terms of her relationship. One number that Gladys Knight was incorporating into the new set was “Superwoman,” the hit 1989 ballad by R&B newcomer Karyn White. “I didn’t want to come out and do a ‘Gladys Knight and the Pips – without The Pips – show,’” she told the Los Angeles Times. As she told the Michigan Citizen, “the group is, so to speak, suspended.” Knight, an always popular attraction on the road, continued to tour, but she tweaked her show, adding and cutting songs so that audiences would understand her new direction. There were a couple of years in the late 70s when contractual issues kept them from performing together, but for many hit-filled decades, Gladys Knight and The Pips had gone together like sweet potatoes and pie.Īfter the 1987 album, All For Love, their first for the MCA label, Knight decided she wanted to go at it alone. Knight's son and then-manager James passed away in 1999 at the age of 37 from heart failure.By 1990, Gladys Knight – whose rich, sometimes raspy vocals cut to the nerve of a song – had been performing with her family backing group the Pips since impressing folks at an Atlanta birthday party in 1952. She then married William McDowell in 2001. In 1995, Knight married motivational speaker Les Brown, but they separated and divorced in 1997. The couple had one son, Shanga Hankerson. In 1974, Knight married producer Barry Hankerson, who is the uncle of the late singer Aaliyah. After being separated for seven years, Knight divorced Newman in 1973, and he died a few years later. Their son, James 'Jimmy' Gaston Newman III was born in 1962, and a year later had her only daughter, Kenya. Newman became a drug addict, and left the family when Knight was 20. She had a miscarriage, but the couple went on to have two children. Gladys Knight has been married four times and has three children in total.Īt 16 years old, she became pregnant and married musician James 'Jimmy' Newman in 1960. Gladys Knight and husband William McDowell in 2013. Gladys Knight spouse and children: How big is her family?. ![]() In 1989, she recorded the theme tune for the James Bond movie Licence to Kill. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia (Audio)Īs part of The Pips, Gladys had big hits with 'Midnight Train to Georgia', 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine', and 'Neither One of Us' among others. What are Gladys Knight's biggest songs?.In 1997, original Pips member Eleanor Guest died of heart failure. William Guest died from congestive heart failure in 2015. Gladys rejoined in 1964, and they continued until their split in 1989.Įdward Patten was later diagnosed with diabetes, and he passed away from the disease in February 2005. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family. In 1952, Gladys, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called the Pips (named after another cousin, James 'Pip' Woods).īy the end of the 1950s, they began touring, and replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys' cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George.Īfter their first single, 'Every Beat of My Heart', they changed their name from The Pips to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. She first found fame by winning Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour TV show contest aged seven in 1952. She has a sister, Brenda, and one living brother, Merald Jr, and one late brother, David. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was the daughter of Merald Woodlow Knight Sr, a postal worker, and Sarah Elizabeth (née Woods). She celebrated her 77th birthday in 2021. Here are all the important facts about the legendary entertainer:
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