Despite the impression left by the album's title, Diana Ross didn't play a role in the "presentation" of The Jackson 5. Her name was included to cross-promote the start of her own solo career with the Five's debut. Gladys Knight, rather, was the first to bring the Jacksons to the attention of Motown brass. Gladys Knight and The Pips released their debut album Letter Full of Tears in 1962 on Fury Records.
Gladys Knight and The Pips had a tumultuous start. They started with a regional hit, "Every Beat of My Heart," that propelled them out of Atlanta to New York. The requisite album that followed didn't find the same success. Disintegration followed as the family band lost all its female members, including Gladys, to the family way. The Pips hung on as a solid live act and Gladys Knight pursued a solo career in collaboration with her husband.
Their debut album is also a tumultuous start to a storied career. Gladys dominates the album with a natural but young voice not yet ready for the forced crescendos in rock 'n' roll ballads of teenage wanting (the kind of songs Lesley Gore would perfect just a year later.) All the same song structure and none too flattering to a young talent. The Pips meanwhile are left to twiddle their harmonies redundantly behind typical pre-Beatles studio production, only getting a chord in edgewise to button a song. The occasional song does show their promise with "What Shall I Do?" highlighting Knight at her best, a soft, nearly spoken delivery that encourages the listener to lean in, and the song even gives The Pips unimpeded "Hey Hey Hey"'s. The song's last line even brings it all back around by slyly invoking the "Letter Full of Tears" that started the album.
Here is the discography surrounding Gladys Knight and The Pips's debut album:
Whistle My Love (1958 single by The Pips)
Every Beat of My Heart (1961 single)
Every Beat of My Heart (1961 single)
Guess Who (1961 single)
Letter Full of Tears (1961 single)
Letter Full of Tears
Operator (1962 single)
Linda (1962 single by The Pips)
Happiness (Is the Light of Love) (1962 single by The Pips)
Come See About Me (1963 single by Gladys Knight)
Queen of Tears (1963 single by Gladys Knight)
"Every Beat of My Heart" by Gladys Knight & The Pips
"Guess Who" by Gladys Knight and The Pips
"Linda" by The Pips
Pass the Headphones!!
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