SILK’N’SOUL + THE NITTY GRITTY (9841939)

Motown boss Berry Gordy decided that Gladys Knight and the Pips’ third LP should be a covers album. Silk N Soul contains 12 tracks and shows how Gladys could take both soul and pop songs and make them her own. The album kicks off with their bold reinterpretation of the Temptations’ I Wish It Would Rain. They further plunder the Motown catalogue tackling the Four Tops’ Baby I Need Your Loving, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ The Tracks Of My Tears, The Temptations’ You’re My Everything and the album standout, a plaintive, expressive take on Brenda Holloway’s Every Little Bit Hurts, that rivals the original for passion and pain. The rest of the material comes from further afield – Bacharach and David’s perennial The Look Of Love, Little Anthony and the Imperials’ Goin’ Out Of My Head, the Beatles’ Yesterday, the Rascals’ Groovin’, the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling and Dionne Warwick’s Theme From The Valley Of The Dolls, each styled inimitably and musically brought together by the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers.

Their fourth LP, The Nitty Gritty spawned one of their greatest moments with the funky title cut, an exquisite cover of Shirley Ellis’ infectious nursery rhyme-esque slice of soul. But it’s their renditions of the Temptations’ Cloud Nine and (I Know) I’m Losing You that are most notable; pinned to a lysergic soul funk Whitfield produced backdrop, the former track proved despite being schooled in the church that Gladys when given the opportunity was more than capable of moving with the changing musical times.!