Imagination
Working with producers Tony Camillo, Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise, Gladys Knight & The Pips selected some fabulous repertoire and made an extremely consistent record. Taking the lead from the success they had enjoyed with 1972’s Standing Ovation, which contained their show-stopping cover of Help Me Make It Through the Night, Imagination was a near-perfect example of mid-70s soul balladry.
It contained their first ever US number one, Midnight Train to Georgia, a straight lift of Cissy Houston’s then-recent cover version of Jim Weatherly’s country song, Midnight Plane to Houston. Knight’s vocal is appropriately emotive over the swelling southern soul horns. Had this track been sang by, say, Al Green, it would be seen as one of the all-time classics. Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me continues this languid mood, making a case for Knight being the leading female soul balladeer of the mid-70s.
Working with producers Tony Camillo, Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise, Gladys Knight & The Pips selected some fabulous repertoire and made an extremely consistent record. Taking the lead from the success they had enjoyed with 1972’s Standing Ovation, which contained their show-stopping cover of Help Me Make It Through the Night, Imagination was a near-perfect example of mid-70s soul balladry.
It contained their first ever US number one, Midnight Train to Georgia, a straight lift of Cissy Houston’s then-recent cover version of Jim Weatherly’s country song, Midnight Plane to Houston. Knight’s vocal is appropriately emotive over the swelling southern soul horns. Had this track been sang by, say, Al Green, it would be seen as one of the all-time classics. Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me continues this languid mood, making a case for Knight being the leading female soul balladeer of the mid-70s.
