By 1959, Brunswick dropped the group, and both Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest left The Pips to begin families. Despite this, the group was now opening for top R&B acts such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. At Brunswick, the group released two recordings that failed to chart. Their success brought them a record contract with Brunswick Records in 1957. By 1955, the group entered the talent show circuit in their hometown of Atlanta, winning each talent show they entered. The group settled on the name The Pips, inspired by the nickname of their cousin James 'Pip' Woods. Soon, the quintet agreed to form a group at the urging of Gladys' mother Elizabeth Knight. That same year, Gladys, her brother Bubba, sister Brenda, and their cousins Eleanor and William Guest began performing together during Bubba's tenth birthday party after a record player malfunctioned. She won Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour TV show contest on Jat the age of eight. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, she sang in the church choir. She has a sister, Brenda, one living brother, Merald 'Bubba' Knight, Jr., and one deceased brother, David 'Billy' Knight.

Knight was born in Atlanta to Merald Woodlow Knight Sr., a postal worker, and Sarah Elizabeth (née Woods). She is also a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Knight among the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. She also recorded the theme song for the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill. Two of her songs (' I Heard It Through the Grapevine' and 'Midnight Train to Georgia') were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for 'historical, artistic and significant' value. She has won seven Grammy Awards (four as a solo artist and three with the Pips) and is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame along with The Pips. Knight has recorded two number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles (' Midnight Train to Georgia' and ' That's What Friends Are For' which she did with Dionne Warwick, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder), eleven number-one R&B singles and six number-one R&B albums. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald 'Bubba' Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten. Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the 'Empress of Soul', is an American singer and actress.

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