Gladys Knight and the Pips spent the entire of the Nineteen Sixties sprucing their fame as one of the vital luminous jewels within the Motown crown. As the last decade turned, their relationship with the corporate might solely have had one other three years or so to run. Nonetheless, their soulful requirements remained sky-high, as underlined by the brilliance of the ballad we bear in mind as we speak, their remaining Motown R&B No.1 “If I Were Your Woman.”
After an preliminary breakthrough on Vee-Jay in 1961 with the chart-topping “Every Beat Of My Heart,” the household group from Atlanta bestowed Berry Gordy’s empire with a succession of superb recordings. They included the pre-Marvin Gaye, 1967 No.1 model of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and quite a few different main R&B and crossover hits together with “The End Of Our Road,” “The Nitty Gritty,” and “Friendship Train.”
1970 had already supplied Knight and the Pips with a High 3 success through “You Need Love Like I Do (Don’t You).” Then a music that chimed in with the then-current rise of the Girls’s Lib motion arrived circuitously at their door. “If I Were Your Woman” was a stirring ballad written by the prolific composer Pam Sawyer and writer-artist Gloria Jones, finest identified for her unique model (and Northern Soul hymn) of “Tainted Love” (and, later, for being Marc Bolan’s accomplice).
The backing monitor for “Woman” was recorded in February 1970 and Jones added a demo vocal some weeks later. When, as The Full Motown Singles Vol.10 recounts, they took it to producer-engineer Clay McMurray, his first selection to chop it was Sondra “Blinky” Williams, and his second the Supremes, then getting used to life with out Diana Ross.
The person who pointed the music in Knight’s path was Norman Whitfield, who was producing and (with Barrett Robust) co-writing the group’s hits of the time. The lyrical sentiment was, at first, a bit of too strident for the singer’s liking, however fortunately she relented. Along with her spine-chilling vocal efficiency and the Pips as dependably soulful as ever, the music entered the R&B chart on November 8, 1970.
On the January 23 survey, the music climbed to the summit to turn into the group’s second Motown, and third total, soul No.1. It acquired two Grammy nominations. The Supremes, for his or her half, did get to document “If I Were Your Woman” in 1971, in a model that wasn’t launched till 2006:
By then, Stephanie Mills had taken the music again into the R&B High 20 in 1988, the identical 12 months that George Michael carried out it on the Nelson Mandela Tribute Live performance at Wembley Stadium in London.
Store traditional Motown music on vinyl and CD now.
