Glladys Knight & The Pips "Standing Ovation" lp revisited
I bought this lp in its first release, in fact it was the first GK&TP album I ever bought. I enjoyed it immensely then and it still holds up 52 years later. Their debut Motown album is also excellent but for me this set was their best Motown lp.
Starting with Clay McMurray's glorious Make Me The Woman You Go Home To, the album is off and running. I never understood why this great record didn't do better as I feel it is superior to If I Were Your Woman. Deep bass with chimes and swirling strings just make this song a standout. The guitar work here is outstanding. At one point in the middle Gladys is put in reverb behind some clever guitar licks. This deserved to be a bigger hit.
Johnny Bristol continues the quality with Can You Give Me Love With A Guarantee. Another beautifully orchestrated track with knockout family vocals, this was scheduled to follow Help Me Make It as the third single from the album that had several single possibilities. Apparently Motown waited for Neither One Of Us.
McMurray is back with another winner, Master of My Mind, featuring better backing vocals by the Pips. An interesting medley of He Ain't Heavy and Bridge Over Troubled Water closes Side 1 with a rather maudlin Gladys Knight monologue that maybe doesn't fit the mood, but the idea of combining these two songs worked well.
It Takes A Whole Lotta Man For A Woman Like Me starts off Side 2 with some soulful colorings. Motown chose the outstanding Gladys Knight solo of Kris Kristofferson's Help Me Make It Through The Night as the second single. Gladys was at her emotive best, again with a bit of a corny opening monologue segueing into her soft vocals that crescendo after about 3 minutes into a powerful vocal worthy of a grammy. Johnny Bristol was in his element here backing Gladys with a soft guitar and soaring strings.
If You Gonna Leave [[Just Leave), a track done by other Motown artists is highly listenable but the best track on this album and an overlooked obvious hit record was Johnny Bristol's No One Could Love You More. The Funk Brothers are on fire and backed again by the Detroit Symphony with great interplay between Gladys and her Pips [[you said I do..TOOO) just make this song a real standout. I just assumed it would be a single.
Some covers are here, a nice version of Fire and Rain and a rare vocal by a Pip [[don't know which one) on the Beatles Long and Winding Road.
Although there are two producers here, their sounds were so similar that one would think the whole lp was done by a single producer. It is one of the best early 70s Motown albums, done not long before the company vacated Detroit.
If you don't have this album, get it!
