| "Midnight Train to Georgia" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Gladys Knight & the Pips | ||||
| from the album Imagination | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | August 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1973 | |||
| Studio | Venture Sound, Somerville, New Jersey | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:38 (album version) 3:55 (single version) | |||
| Label | Buddah | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jim Weatherly | |||
| Producer(s) | Tony Camillo & Gladys Knight & the Pips Engineer/Mixer Ed Stasium | |||
| Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "Midnight Train to Georgia" on YouTube | ||||
"Midnight Train to Georgia" is a song most famously performed by Gladys Knight & the Pips, their second release after departing Motown Records for Buddah Records. Written by Jim Weatherly, and included on the Pips' 1973 LP Imagination, "Midnight Train to Georgia" became the group's first single to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus and has become Knight's signature song.[5]
The song is sung from the perspective of someone whose lover, having failed to become a Hollywood star, is leaving Los Angeles to move back to Georgia, taking the titular "midnight train". The singer expresses her commitment to accompanying him to Georgia: "And I'll be with him (I know you will)/ On that midnight train to Georgia"[6][7]
- ^ Breihan, Tom (April 24, 2019). "The Number Ones: Gladys Knight & The Pips' "Midnight Train To Georgia"". Stereogum. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
Working with the producer Tony Camillo, they gave it a sweltering slow-burn soul arrangement.
- ^ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "This Is My Prayer: The Birth of Soul". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 16]. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
- ^ Rolling Stone Staff (15 September 2021). "500 Best Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
"I never really imagined writing R&B songs," Weatherly admitted. "I really thought I was writing country songs." It reflected the times...
- ^ Kuge, Mara (7 February 2019). "14 Secretly Cruel Soft Rock Love Songs". Ultimate Classic Rock.
- ^ Padgett, Ray (2017). Cover me : the stories behind the greatest cover songs of all time. New York. pp. 96–103. ISBN 978-1-4549-2250-6. OCLC 978537907.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "The Problem With This Song: Midnight Train to Georgia". CBC Radio. July 15, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
- ^ Smith, Danyel (April 19, 2022). "Why Gladys Knight and the Pips' 'Midnight Train to Georgia' is still the perfect pop song". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 3, 2023.