![]() ![]() on the Billboard country charts, as performed by Texan, Ray Price. The very month Imagination was issued in the USA, "Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me" was already at #1. "Best Thing" is another great track, and was yet another hit single on radio. The little horn and keyboard melody between the verses is really snazzy and makes the song. "Storms" is akin to a lyrical rip of "Bridge Over Troubled Water", but the musical style is totally different, having a slight taste of that Weatherly country style about it, despite the soulful approach of Gladys and the Pips. Good), " Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me" (great classic), and " Once in a Lifetime Thing" (fairly forgettable, unfortunately). superstar into a joyous celebration of fidelity and love. Her voice never goes too far into idiosyncratic scatting or hollering, yet she dramatically ups the passion and intensity as the track progresses, finally singing, with exuberance, " I've GOT to go! I've GOT to go! I've GOT to go! My world, his world, my man, his girl!", somehow turning the narrative of a man's failed bid to be an L.A. Those are iconic vocals of 70s' soul, and were not written by Weatherly or added by Cissy Houston, so let's give the Pips props! And, needless to say, Gladys Knight hits the ball out of the park with her timeless, stupendous, tasteful, natural, raw, passionate voice. But let's give some credit not only to Camillo's excellent arrangement, but also to the Pips themselves, who, I would assume, in full or in part worked out the famous backing vocals, with their " guess who's gonna be right by his side", " I know you will", and " whoo-whoo" parts. The album doesn't list the musicians that play on it, but I gather, from the Internet, that Motown veteran Bob Babbitt is on bass, a cat called Tony Camillo (who worked on a lot of pop/soul records) plays keyboards, and is the co-producer and arranger, Andrew Smith is on skins, and a popular session guitarist named Jeff Mironov is in there, too. Shortly afterwards, Gladys Knight and the Pips (coincidentally from Atlanta) got it, along with a handful of other Weatherly songs, for their first Buddah Records album. Anyway, Weatherly's song ended up being cut first by Cissy Houston (Whitney's mother), whose version was re-titled "Midnight Train to Georgia", presumably because her label, Ichiban, was Georgia-based. However, when a woman sings it, it changes into a more traditional "woman stands-by-her-man", Tammy Wynette-kind of thing. Guitar / sappy recording of it reminds me of Jim Croce, and hearing a man sing it certainly gives the song a different flavor – it becomes the story of a gentle, emotional kind of man with a ponytail – or, in this case, a 70s' porn-stache – following his woman, 'cause that's what a liberated man can do. ![]()
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