Gladys Knight & the Pips'
Platinum & Gold Collection gathers songs from two very different periods in the group's career. Two of the tracks included are from the very start:
"Every Beat of My Heart" and
"Letter Full of Tears" are from 1961 and feature the group singing in a
doo wop-meets-
girl group style,
Knight sounding very strong on the
Don Covay-penned
"Letter Full of Tears." The rest of the disc is made up of the group's stay with
Buddah Records, which they signed with after leaving
Motown in 1973. Their first couple of years with the label found them sustaining a high level of success. Included on the collection are their only number one hit, 1973's
"Midnight Train to Georgia," and near chart-toppers 1973's
"I've Got to Use My Imagination," 1974's
"The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," and 1974's
Curtis Mayfield-written and -produced
"On and On" from the smash soundtrack to the forgotten film
Claudine. The group had a few middling hits, like a funky take on the
soul rebel
Eugene McDaniels' acidic
"Money" and a syrupy version of
"The Way We Were/Try to Remember" (later sampled by
the Wu-Tang Clan), and made a foray into
disco with the
Van McCoy-produced
"Baby Don't Change Your Mind" and
Tony Macaulay's
"It's Better Than Good Time." Platinum & Gold Collection does a fine job of documenting the later period of
the Pips, the music is top-notch, and
Knight shows herself to be one of the great underrated
soul singers of her time. It also hits just the high points of their early days, certainly enough to get the picture. This is a fine way for the budget-minded fan to get ahold of some classic
soul. (If you are willing to spend a couple bucks more, however,
Hip-O's
Essential Collection from 1999 has the best eight of the 12 songs on
Platinum & Gold as well as
Motown songs and some later tracks, too. It is the best single-disc
Gladys Knight & the Pips collection available.) ~ Tim Sendra
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