NEITHER ONE OF US + ALL I NEED IS TIME (9841940)

By 1973 Gladys Knight and her Pips – brother Merald ‘Bubba’ Knight, their cousins William Guest and Edward Patten – had been with Motown for seven years, notched up five UK hit singles and were about to release their 8th and 9th LPs for the label, Neither One Of Us and All I Need Is Time, the former which would deliver with its title track, their last UK hit single on the label, the latter which would become their swansong studio long player for Berry Gordy

Knight, blessed with a vocal that combines emotive intensity with an honesty and subtlety often lacking in her contemporaries, could turn any repertoire to gold. Neither One Of Us hitting the US R&B top spot and the US pop Top 10 that same year. The country tinged, Jim Weatherly penned title track won a Grammy award for best vocal performance after staying at the US Number 1 R&B spot for four weeks and reaching the US pop Number 2 slot. The album also contains fabulous reinterpretations of Bill Withers’ Who Is He (And What Is He To You) and Stevie Wonder’s For Once In My Life, the latter a radical reworking which in Gladys’ hands turns into a smouldering torch song, a simmering monologue oozing sensuality and sexiness.

All I Need Is Time fared similarly well, hitting the R&B Top 15 just four months later. While it spawned no singles it is, nevertheless, a cogent performance. The title track provides the ideal vehicle to show off Gladys’ full vocal range, the plaintive The Only Time You Love Me Is When You’re Losing Me is drenched in horns and penned by Clay McMurray, Pam Sawyer and Marty Coleman, while the lavish Here I Am Again and their take on Sly Stone’s Thank You Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin are equally special.

By the end of the year Gladys Knight and the Pips had quit Motown and were being heralded the new stars on the Buddah label.