An evergreen performer in the music industry being credited with everything from being inducted into the Hollywood Hall of Fame, to recording the theme song to a Bond movie, to writing her biography, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story, in 1998, Gladys Knight has become a mainstay of the music industry over the past five decades.

Gladys Knight was born on May 28^th 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia to Merald and Sarah Knight. Together with her siblings, a brother Merald and a sister Brenda, and two cousins, Gladys formed the Group The Pips in 1953 just one year after winning an amateur TV show contest.

The band became instantly successful and by the end of 1953 they began touring and with the recording of ‘Every Beat of My Heart’ in 1961 the group gained a number one hit on the R&B charts. In 1962 the group renamed its self, Gladys Knight and the Pips and with the parting of Langston George, the band became a quartet.

In 1962 Gladys gave birth to a son and decided to leave the group. But w by 1964 after having a daughter she found the pressure on her to return to the Pips in order to support her family.

After signing with Motown records in 1966 the Pips, with Gladys went on to score sever hit singles including, ‘I heard it through the Grapevine’, If I were your Woman’ and Neither One of Us’ but in 1973 the group signed with Buddha Records and went on to win a Grammy Award for ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ and ‘Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me’.

In the early 1980’s Gladys duetted with Johnny Mathis on two Christmas classics, ‘When a Child is Born’ and ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. But it was in the eighties that Gladys nearly lost everything when she became addicted to gambling until she sought help with Gamblers Anonymous.

At the end of the 1980’s, after a successful tour, Gladys began a solo career and by 1996 Gladys Knight and the Pips had been inducted into the Hollywood Hall of Fame.

It was during Gladys’ solo career that she recorded the charity hit single, ‘That’s What Friends are For’ along with Elton John, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder which won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

It was in 1989 that Gladys was signed to record the theme to the James Bond movie, ‘License to Kill’ which starred Timothy Dalton as Bond. The theme reached the top ten in the UK charts and in Germany.

Throughout the 1980’s Gladys appeared in several television shows including, The Jamie Foxx Show and New York Undercover, created by Dick Wolf and where she starred with Malik Yoba and Jonathan LaPaglia.

1999 brought sorrow to Gladys’ life when her 36 year old son, Jimmy, died in his sleep.

Knight now directs the Grammy-award winning choir Saints Unified Voices and is married to William McDowell. She, her husband and the choir gives presentations at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints throughout the United States.

ABB