CODA Recorded in a small studio in a Detroit 43 Years Ago parking lot, “Train” gave Knight, then 29, and The Pips their rst and only Hot 100 No. 1 when it reached the top on Oct. 27, GLADYS & THE PIPS 1973. “We were so proud because it was something we had wanted for such a long RODE A ‘TRAIN’ TO NO. 1 time. [Being No. 1 was] telling the world The group’s lengthy journey to the top of the Hot we were valuable.” The tune later earned succeeded only after their exit from the Motown machine them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a duo or group. The act followed “Train” with “MOTOWN WANTED EVERYTHING brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and additional hits in the 1970s before from you, and I didn’t like that,” Gladys cousins William Guest and Edward internal strife and Knight’s renewed Knight, 72, tells Billboard today about Patten — signed to Motown’s Soul imprint ambition for a solo career fueled a the relationship between the group she in search of a smash single. Despite disbanding in 1989, ending a 37-year fronted, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and scoring two Billboard Hot 100 No. 2s with run. The soul legends were inducted into the imprint that was the band’s home the label, Knight recalls that “what we the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. from 1965 to 1973. “They wanted to needed for our career was a megahit.” Knight has been married to William manage you, they wanted to record you ... That elusive triumph arrived in the Jim McDowell for 15 years and continues I didn’t feel like we would get our due.” Weatherly-penned “Midnight Train to to tour. She released her 11th and most After dealing with 12 dierent record Georgia,” and only after the act departed recent solo album, Where My Heart companies, the group — Knight, her Motown for Buddah Records. Belongs, in 2014. TREVOR ANDERSON From left: Guest, Patten, and Merald and Gladys Knight on The Gladys Knight & The Pips Show in . REWINDING THE CHARTS ,...., "'""'_... TITLE-Artist ~UW) ~i ,_,•--~a II i'!=. 34 34 MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGll\-'1,dp ,,..11 , 11ot ,.. sec (T"" _c._i ,. IIP!ht!IJ, -~_, J&l ... 35 42 8 ANGIE-.,.s." 00- IDIP), llocl llua<, lt WBM 36 41 -. - 19105 (Atlulkl HAlF-BREED-Qtl • 37 24 2 13 ts,,Mlt G1rrtn tor Gorrtlt 11- 111q, 111'1 DtH. ~ C.,.~ WCP IIC.\ ~112 57 RAMBUN' MAM-Ml-,,,.._,. Abl, lll!Mn ....,.,i ,. _,. kl\l. 3 10 (lello"J_..,.,. W6M c,.,..., aon tw-,_,.> 39 39 12 KEEP ON TRUCKIN'-w., ,.,_.,1<u 7 10 (f..,l - Lmurd ta,loo). l'11l w-. ~ ...... WCP ._.,. - 1-~ Olatow•l ©~f~~~v:, Copyright1,~~ ~~~~ 6n by~Y.P!~~.!!h_~us Prometheus Global MediMediaa LLC. All rlizhtsrights r~.:;prreserved.vPrl ,..,..No ...part -.~ • ..of , ...this •~ publication. __ , .. may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written p ermission of the publisher.1 BILLBOARD MAGAZINE (ISSN -; USPS -) is published weekly except for two issues in January, March, June and August; three issues in April, May, July, September, November and December; and four issues in October by Prometheus Global Media LLC, Madi- son Ave., Sixth Floor, New York, NY . Subscription rate: annual rate, continental U.S. Continental Europe . Billboard, Tower House, Sovereign Park, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England LE EF. Registered as a newspaper at the British Post Office. Japan ¥,. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send all UAA to CFS. Send non-postal and military facilities changes of address to Billboard, P.O. Box , Congers, NY -. Current and back copies of Billboard are available on microfilm from Kraus Microform, Route , Millwood, NY or Xerox University Microfilms, P.O. Box , Ann Arbor, MI ¢. For reprints, contact Wright’s Media, [email protected], ¢--. Under Canadian Publication Mail Agreement No. return undeliverable Canadian addresses to MSI PM¦, P.O. Box , Mississauga, ON LT A¢. Vol. ¢ Issue . Printed in the U.S.A. For subscription information, call ¢-¢-¢ (U.S. toll-free), ¢-- (international) or email [email protected]. For any other information, call --. COURTESY OF THE EVERETT COLLECTION THE OF COURTESY 96 BILLBOARD OCTOBER 29, 2016.