Alex Henderson

Gladys Knight & the Pips
Life  [Expanded Edition]

Gladys Knight & the Pips were one of the most enduring groups in the history of R&B. They began performing together in 1952 (when Knight was only seven), enjoyed their commercial breakthrough with “Every Beat of My Heart” in 1961, and scored a long list of hits in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s before finally breaking up in 1990. The group lasted a total of 38 years, and when Knight became a full-time solo artist in 1990, it was the end of an era. But Knight (b. May 28, 1944) and her three Pips (brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest) certainly went out with a bang: their final album, 1987’s All Our Love on MCA Records, went gold in the United States for sales of more than 500,000 units and spawned the major hits “Love Overboard” (which soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart) and “Lovin’ on Next to Nothin’” (a #3 hit on that chart).  And the Gladys Knight & the Pips album that preceded All Our Love, 1985’s Life, demonstrated that they had no problem adapting to the high-tech urban contemporary sounds of the mid-1980s.

Life is historically important for a number of reasons: it marked the end of their association with Columbia Records, and it was their next-to-last album as a group. Very few of the groups that came out of the doo wop era of the 1950s were able to fit into 1980s urban contemporary, but Gladys Knight & the Pips were an exception—and on synth-funk grooves such as “Strivin’,” “Just Let Me Love You,” “Do You Wanna Have Some Fun” and the single “My Time,” they have no problem fitting into the high-tech urban contemporary world of 1985. However, not everything on Life is aimed at the dance floor. Ballads and romantic slow jams were always a priority for Knight and her Pips, and the quiet storm factor is alive and well on the sleek, medium-tempo “Keep Givin’ Me Love” as well as on the ballads “Till I See You Again,” “Glitter” and “Straight Up.”

The producers on Life include Leon Sylvers III and Sam Dees as well as Gladys Knight and Merald “Bubba” Knight. Sylvers produced “Keep Givin’ Me Love,” “Just Let Me Love You,” “Do You Wanna Have Some Fun” and the sleek “Forever,” while Dees and the two Knight siblings produced “Strivin’,” “Till I See You Again,” “My Time,” “Straight Up,” “Glitter” and the moody title track.  Life was not the first time Gladys Knight & the Pips worked with Sylvers, who had been a member of the family group the Sylvers (best remembered for their 1970s hits “Hotline” and “Boogie Fever”) and produced major hits for the Whispers, Shalamar, Dynasty and others. In 1983, Sylvers produced Gladys Knight & the Pips’ #1 R&B smash “Save the Overtime for Me”—and reuniting with him in 1985 made perfect sense.

Life wasn’t as big a seller as the Gladys Knight & the Pips album that came before it: 1983’s Visions, which went gold in the U.S. and included “Save the Overtime for Me” as well as the #5 R&B hit “You’re Number One (In My Book).” But while Life only made it to #31 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart, it contained some minor and medium-sized hits. “My Time,” the album’s most successful single, climbed to #16 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, while “Keep Givin’ Me Love” (not to be confused with D-Train’s 1983 single) made it to #31 on that chart and “Till I See You Again” stalled at #85 R&B.

Life was originally released as a vinyl LP (back in 1985, LPs were still the dominant format for albums—although CDs overtook them in popularity a few years after that). And in 2013, FunkyTownGrooves generously expands Life by turning into a two-CD set. The first CD contains the original ten-song LP in its entirety, while the second disc is devoted exclusively to bonus tracks. The bonus material includes the single version of “Keep Givin’ Me Love” and four versions of “My Time” (two instrumental versions, the single vocal version, and an extended dance mix). And hardcore Gladys Knight & the Pips collectors will be delighted to know that Disc 2 also contains some previously unreleased recordings from 1984, which include “100 Ways,” “Beverly Hills,” “Running the Race” and “How Deep Is Your Love.” 

This reissue is part of an ambitious, far-reaching series of Gladys Knight & the Pips reissues that FunkyTownGrooves launched in 2013. Other reissues in the series range from some classic 1970s titles for Buddah Records (including 1973’s Imagination—the group’s biggest album ever—and 1974’s I Feel a Song) to 1983’s Visions to In the Beginning, a collection of the group’s pre-Motown output. One of the songs on In the Beginning is their 1961 hit “Every Beat of My Heart”; therefore, anyone who listens to FunkyTownGrooves In the Beginning and Life reissues side by side will be exposed to no less than 24 years of Gladys Knight & the Pips’ long history.

Along the way, Gladys Knight (who is now 69 and is still keeping busy as a solo artist) has experienced a variety of R&B eras. She has seen everything from the glory days of 1950s doo wop to soul in the 1960s and 1970s to urban contemporary in the 1980s and beyond. The avalanche of synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines that overtook R&B in the 1980s was a big change for veteran acts, many of whom didn’t know what to make of all that technology. But Gladys Knight & the Pips were determined to change with the times, and on Life, they continued to do exactly that.

—Alex Henderson, August 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.