3.29.2007

21. Gladys Knight & The Pips - I Heard It Through The Grapevine; 2:54


This R&B/soul act from Atlanta features lead singer Gladys Knight, her brother Merald Knight, Edward Patten and William Guest. The group is known for their excellent entertaining skills, always offering smoothly polished dance routines while singing. In addition to their visual trademark dances, Gladys offered fiery gospel-like lead vocals while the rest of the group sang sweet, soft backups. This quartet joined Motown in 1966 and recorded their best known hit, I Heard it Through The Grapevine, in 1967. The Funk Brothers provided the instrumentation. It reached #1 on the R&B charts and #2 on pop charts. The doo-wop call and response trademark is also used in this song. Marvin Gaye covered this song in 1968 with great success (his version is the most commonly recognized). Gaye's version is used in movies such as Big Chill and Remember the Titans.

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