October 23, 1973
The biggest hit in the 33-year recording career of Gladys Knight & The Pips sat at #1 on this day in 1973.
One week prior, Midnight Train To Georgia had run over Angie by the Rolling Stones, only to be derailed two weeks later by Keep On Truckin’, a solo hit by Eddie Kendricks – an ex-Motown Records mate of Knight’s when he and David Ruffin were co-lead vocalists of The Temptations.
The group’s first hit for their new record label, Buddah Records, the song would become their only #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100.
They began as a quintet (with four Pips) in 1953, but by 1959 two Pip members had left and were replaced by one other. From ’59 on, the group was Gladys, her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight, Jr. and Gladys’ cousins William Guest and Edward Patten, who died in 1989.
Patten was posthumously inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame – along with the other group members – in 1996.
The untold but true story of ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ and how the song chronologically got from its writer Jim Weatherly to Knight – via actress Farrah Fawcett and singer Cissy Houston – is best told in an article written by Marc Myers which appeared in The Wall St. Journal in 2013.
Jim Weatherly with Gladys Knight & The Pips – circa 1973
(L-R: Guest, Patten, Weatherly, Knight and brother Knight, Jr.)
Well worth reading, it all began with a phone conversation Weatherly had with Fawcett and her then-boyfriend, actor Lee Majors (who was an ex-college football teammate of Weatherly’s at the University of Mississippi in 1964).
🎵🎵🎵
[Note] Some audio song files may not play on smartphones, tablets or connected devices. A laptop, desktop PC or Mac may be required for optimal enjoyment.
•
MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA
Gladys Knight & The Pips
(Single Version)
[1973]
https://youtu.be/MDcW-zDy6Ck
It’s easy to see why this definitive version became a #1 hit, as opposed to preceding renditions. The increased tempo (versus the ballad approach of the others), Gladys’ soulful voice, plus outstanding musical and backup vocal arrangements – particularly the well-placed interjections by The Pips – made it a classic!
•
‘Midnight Train’ started a string of four consecutive million-selling Top 10 singles for GK&TP, including I’ve Got To Use My Imagination (1973 • #4), the Weatherly-penned Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me (1974 • #3) and On And On (1974 • #5).
Prior to that success, beginning in 1961, they had placed four other records inside Billboard’s Top 10: Every Beat Of My Heart (listed as by The Pips) (1961 • #6), I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1967 • #2), If I Were Your Woman (1970 • #9) and Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) (1973 • #2) – all for Motown’s Soul subsidiary label. Weatherly also had written the latter.
•
DEEP TRAK!
MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA
Cissy Houston
(Original “Georgia” Version)
[1973]
An ex-member of the famed back-up vocal group The Sweet Inspirations (including Doris Troy and Dee Dee Warwick), Cissy Houston approached Weatherly about recording his song – and changing its title to ‘Midnight Train To Georgia.’
With his blessing, she recorded the song for Janus Records in 1973. And it was this version to which Weatherly had Gladys Knight listen.
[Note] Houston also was part of two famous singing families (mother of the late Whitney Houston and aunt to sisters Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick).
https://youtu.be/ZZNLY7f-c5Q
•
DEEP(er) TRAK!
MIDNIGHT PLANE TO HOUSTON
Jim Weatherly
(Original Version)
[1973]
During Jim Weatherly’s phone call with friends Fawcett and Majors, the former had mentioned a phrase she evidently often used when traveling – “we’re taking the midnight plane to Houston.” Picking up on that phrase, he wrote and recorded the original version of the song.
[Note] From a vinyl record source.
https://youtu.be/Et-DF5wGc_g
•
Jim Weatherly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in June of 2014.
BONUS VID!
This is hilarious! It’s spoof of GK&TP on comedian Richard Pryor‘s 1977 TV special. The Pips appear on the show (without Gladys!) doing their usual choreographed routines during segments of ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and ‘Midnight Train To Georgia.’
AND THE PIPS
The Pips (without Gladys Knight)
(Video)
[1977]
https://youtu.be/LdN27HzoyO4
•
Song Source: The Music Vault of HouseoftheHits, Inc.
Billboard® Chart Data: Joel Whitburn’s Record Research (eBook Editions)
Record Sleeve & Label Graphics: Courtesy of 45cat
A special thanks to Dick Rosemont of The Originals Project for ‘Midnight Plane To Houston’ and ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ by Cissy Houston.
