Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a legendary African-American R&B/soul singer and actress. She is better known for a hits she recorded when you took the 1960s and 1970s, for both a Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her class action Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.

Biography
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight was innate to Merald Woodlow Knight & Sarah Elizabeth Outdoors. She foremost zoomed to minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of Sevener within 1952, due to her mighty singing voice. the below month, she, her brother Merlad, sister Brenda, & full cousin William & Elenor Guest formed a musical organisation known as The Pips. Per prevent of a decade, the work got begun to tour, & experienced replaced Brenda Knight & Elenor Guest sustaining Gladys Knight's cousin-german William Guest & Langston George.

Gladys Knight found she was pregnant inside 1960, and married her swain Jimmy Newman. When a miscarriage, Knight returned to performing using the Pips. Around 1961, Bobby Robinson produced the individual "Every Beat of My Heart" for the class action, which became the #1 R&B and #6 pop hit when released on Vee-Jay Records. Inside 1962, Langston George left the class action, which at that instance renamed itself Gladys Knight & the Pips and continued as a quartet.

Within 1962, after scoring another hit, "Letter Full of Tears", Knight became pregnant over again, & gave birth to the boy, Jimmy, Jr., that month. She retired from either A road to raise a personal, & The Pips toured in their have. Fallowing rendering birth to the girl, Kenya, inside 1964, Knight was forced to return to recording & a Pips sequentially to trend lines her personal.

Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967), "The Nitty Gritty" (1969),"Friendship Train" (1969), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970), "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971), "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (1972), and "Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)" (1973).

the work left Motown for a better treat by using Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved good-fledged profits that month sustaining hits like "Midnight Train to Georgia" (their only #1 popular hit), "I've Got to Use My Imagination", & "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me".

Knight & a Pips continued to use at times hits until a late 1970s, whilst it were forced to record severally due to legal issues, resultant inside Knight's foremost solo recordings. When you took this cycle, Knight divorced Jimmy Newman, & married record producer Barry Hankerson (future uncle of R&B singer Aaliyah) in 1976. Knight & Hankerboy remained married for trine years, in the period of which period it got the son, Shanga Ali. Upon their divorcement, Hankerson & Knight experienced the heated custody battle across Shanga Ali.

Fallowing the dry spell, it returned to the stock and index charts in the 1980s with the #1 R&B hits "Save the Overtime (For Me)" (1983) and "Love Overboard" (1987). In the time period of this period, Knight became addicted to gambling and the stake baccarat. She eventually known as Gamblers Anonymous when she lost $45,000 within a single nighttime & was close bankruptcy.

Fallowing the successful 1988 tour, the Pips retired & Gladys Knight began the career as a solo creative person. Gladys Knight & the Pips were later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Solo career
When however by using A Pips, Knight as well joined by owning Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John on the 1986 AIDS benefit single, "That's What Friends Are For". Around 1989, Gladys Knight recorded the title track for the James Bond movie Licence to Kill.

Gladys Knight's third solo LP, Effective Woman, was freed around 1991 and featured the #2 R&B hit "Men". Her 4th solo LP, Good for Busy people, went gold and was nominated for the 1995 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. In the time period of this period, Knight was briefly married to motivational speaker Les Brown. Knight's 2001 LP, At Last, won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.

Knight joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997. She has now and then teased a LDS Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, that his flock needs to inject some "pep" into their music. Ms. Knight created & currently directs a LDS (Mormon) choir Saints Unified Voices [http://www.suvchoir.org]. SUV has released the Video entitled Of these Voice, & from time to time performs at LDS stake firesides.

Solo discography
Albums
1978 : Miss Gladys Knight (Buddah Records) 1979 : Gladys Knight(Columbia Records) 1991 : Good Woman (MCA Records) 1994 : Just For We (MCA Records) 1999 : Many Different Roads (MCA Records) 2000 : At Last'' (MCA Records)

Singles
1978: "I'm Coming Home Again" 1978: "It's A Better Than Good Time" 1979: "Am I Too Late" 1989: "Licence to Kill" 1991: "Meet Me in the Middle" 1991: "Men" (R&B #2) 1992: "Where Would I Be" 1994: "End of the Road" Potpourri: "If You Don't Know Me by Now"/"Love Don't Love Nobody" 1994: "I Don't Want to Know" (R&B #32) 1995: "Next Time" (R&B #30)

Filmography
Save the Children (1973) (documentary) Dream (1976) Twenty Bucks (1993) A Messiah XXI (2000) (documentary) Hollywood Homicide (2003) Unbeatable Harold (2005) (currently inside post-production)