Second Cup Café: Gladys Knight
A true living legend, Gladys Knight is one of America's best-loved R&B singers. Her smooth, rich voice has remained strong through a career that spans six decades and has earned her seven Grammys and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
She visits Second Cup Café to sing songs from her holiday album, "A Christmas Celebration," featuring The Saints Unified Choir.
The Georgia-born singer got her start at the age of 7 when she won Ted Mack's "Amateur Hour" television talent show. A year later, at a family party, she joined her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, their sister Brenda, and cousins William and Eleanor Guest to form The Pips.
The group was named after their cousin and manager, James "Pip" Woods.
Brenda and Eleanor left the group in 1959 and were replaced by cousin Edward Patten and Langston George; after that, the group became known as Gladys Knight and the Pips.
George left the group a few years later, leaving Gladys and Bubba Knight, Guest and Patten as the final lineup for the rest of the band's history.
In the mid-1960s, the group made the move to Motown Records in Detroit where they scored hits with "Friendship Train," the original version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," and the classic ballads "If I Were Your Woman" and "Neither One Of Us."
The group scored its biggest hit with "Midnight Train To Georgia" after making the move to Buddah Records in 1973. It became the group's signature song and earned them their only No. 1 record on the pop charts.
In 1988, Gladys Knight and The Pips recorded "All Our Love," which included the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard." It was their last album together.
Knight continued on with a solo career and had a hit with her 1991 album, "Good Woman," which reached No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.
In recent years, her television guest appearances have included "Living Single," "JAG," "The Jamie Foxx Show" and "Las Vegas."
She has continued to record and tour, often branching out to other forms of music. This year, she released an album of jazz standards, "Before Me," and "A Christmas Celebration," her second gospel recording with the Unified Saints Choir.