Gladys Knight & The Pips - A Little Knight Music (1975)

It's a familiar pattern: An artist leaves one label, enjoys success at another label, and inspires the previous label to try cashing in with some previously unreleased material. When Gladys Knight & the Pips left Motown for Buddah in 1973, Motown still had some unreleased material in the can. So when the group's Buddah smashes were burning up the charts in 1975, Motown tried to cash in with A Little Knight Music, a collection of previously unreleased material that was recorded in early '70s. The LP, which Motown released on its Soul subsidiary, wasn't a hit A Little Knight Music didn't get much promotion, and the only people who bought the uneven LP were Knight's most obsessive fans. As you might suspect, A Little Knight Music is far from a collection of masterpieces. Nonetheless, most of the material is decent. There are some pleasant Pam Sawyer/Gloria Jones songs (including "Don't Tell Me I'm Crazy" and "No One Could Love You More"), and covers of the Beatles' "Come Together," Jackie De Shannon's "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," and the Archies' "Sugar Sugar" aren't bad either. Those who think of "Sugar Sugar" as pure bubblegum will be surprised to hear how well the tune works as funky Detroit soul. The LP's only previously released track is the Johnny Bristol-produced "Can You Give Me Love With a Guarantee," originally available on the Standing Ovation album of 1971. Overall, A Little Knight Music isn't a bad record it just isn't a great one. And with a singer of Knight's caliber, one hopes for excellence instead of an album that is merely competent. Far from one of Knight's essential releases, A Little Knight Music is strictly for hardcore collectors.