THE HIT HAMMER: Gladys Knight & the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia"

(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)

Gladys Knight & the Pips - "Midnight Train to Georgia"

Hit Number 1: October 27, 1973

Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks

It's hard to hear "Midnight Train to Georgia" as a country song, but in its earliest traces, that's what it was. Jim Weatherly, a fairly well-known country singer-songwriter, is the one credited with writing the song, and the original name of it was "Midnight Plane to Houston". Weatherly recorded a version of his own song, but it wasn't a hit. He sent the song to a producer in Atlanta who wanted to cut the song with Cissy Houston, but there was one change that the producer wanted to make: to change the song title to "Midnight Train to Georgia". Weatherly gave him permission to do so, but not to change the rest of the song.

Weatherly said years later in an interview that the song came from a phone conversation he had with Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett. Weatherly said he was in a rec football league with Lee Majors, and he began to build a friendship with him. Majors had been dating Fawcett at the time, and one night when Weatherly called him, Fawcett answered the phone instead. Weatherly asked what she was up to and she told him she was getting ready to catch the midnight plane to Houston to visit her family. Weatherly immediately knew after hearing that that he had a song title on his hands. He made up a story inspired by Fawcett and Majors, and he used the two as characters for his song.

After Weatherly's version of the song flopped and he sent the song off to Atlanta, it began to pick up a little more steam after Cissy Houston recorded her version. However, the reason you're all here reading this is because Gladys Knight & the Pips got the song and turned it into something else. Gladys Knight was a former artist signed to Motown Records, and though she hadn't hit #1 yet, she still achieved some nice success. She almost got to #1 with her and the Pips' version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", but it couldn't dethrone the Monkees' "Daydream Believer", peaking at #2. (Their version is an 8) Again, her and the Pips almost got to #1 with "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", but that song couldn't get past Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", also peaking at #2. (That one is also an 8) Knight is also the one who discovered the Jackson 5, so she still had an impressive resume before "Midnight Train to Georgia".

By the time her and the Pips recorded "Midnight Train to Georgia", they had left Motown for Buddah Records, and that's where they really became stars, particularly Knight. Though she had plenty of success with Motown, Buddah would provide Knight's peak, which of course is "Midnight Train to Georgia". The song is about a man who went to Los Angeles in search for a life full of fame, but instead grew tired and overwhelmed from that and wanted to go back home to Georgia, to a "simpler place and time." It's apparent that the narrator of the song was a woman who fell in love with him while he was in Los Angeles, and she wants to go with him to Georgia on that midnight train. She'd rather live in his world than live without him in hers. Knight and the Pips were known for their deep-thinking love songs, but "Midnight Train to Georgia" is in a league of its own, largely because of the performance by the group.

Knight of course steals the show. It's amazing to me how natural it all sounds. She doesn't reach for big notes or try too hard to put on a great performance, it all just comes to her. She's also not afraid to let the Pips have a little bit of the spotlight. Normally, the Pips were a little bit comical, as all they really do is repeat what Knight said in the songs. But in "Midnight Train to Georgia", their presence helps make the song. It wouldn't be the same without them. I love the "superstar, but he didn't get far" that they do, and the "woo-hoos" they do in the chorus is glorious. The line "I'd rather live in his world than live without him in mine" before the Pips jump in with "Her world is his, his and hers alone" is a line that can hit you hard. The song makes you feel all kinds of different emotions, namely sorrow and helplessness but also a little bit of delight. You feel bad for the guy and the girl in the song for different reasons, but you're also happy for them in the end. Things didn't work out in L.A. for the dude, but him and his newfound love are going to live a happy, simple life in Georgia. It's an incredible story song, and Knight and the Pips sell it beautifully and perfectly.

Knight and the Pips won't appear in this blog again, but their lone #1 hit was a great one. And to think, perhaps we owe the song's existence to Farrah Fawcett.

GRADE: 10/10