Midnight Train to Georgia

"Midnight Train to Georgia" is a 1973 number-one hit single 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" won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus and has become Knight's signature song.

For the Cissy Houston album, see Midnight Train to Georgia (album).
"Midnight Train to Georgia"
Single by Gladys Knight & the Pips
from the album Imagination
B-side
  • "Midnight Train to Georgia" (instrumental)
  • "Window Raisin' Granny" (optional)
ReleasedAugust 1973
Recorded1973
GenreSoul
Length4:38 (album version)
3:55 (single version)
LabelBuddah
Songwriter(s)Jim Weatherly
Producer(s)Tony Camillo & Gladys Knight & the Pips Engineer/Mixer Ed Stasium
Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology
"All I Need Is Time"
(1973)		 "Midnight Train to Georgia"
(1973)		 "I've Got to Use My Imagination"
(1973)
Audio
"Midnight Train to Georgia" on YouTube

Background

The song was originally written and performed by Jim Weatherly under the title "Midnight Plane to Houston", which he recorded on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records. "It was based on a conversation I had with somebody... about taking a midnight plane to Houston," Weatherly recalls. "I wrote it as a kind of a country song. Then we sent the song to a guy named Sonny Limbo in Atlanta and he wanted to cut it with Cissy Houston... he asked if I minded if he changed the title to "Midnight Train to Georgia". And I said, 'I don't mind. Just don't change the rest of the song.'"[1]

Weatherly, in a later interview with Gary James, stated that the phone conversation in question had been with Farrah Fawcett, and he used Fawcett and his friend Lee Majors, whom she had just started dating, "as kind of like characters."[2][3] Weatherly, at a program in Nashville, said he had been the quarterback at the University of Mississippi, and the NFL didn't work out for him, so he was in Los Angeles trying to write songs. He was in a rec football league with Lee Majors and called Majors one night. Farrah Fawcett answered the phone and he asked what she was doing. She said she was "taking the midnight plane to Houston" to visit her family. He thought that was a catchy phrase for a song, and in writing the song, wondered why someone would leave L.A. on the midnight plane — which brought the idea of a "superstar, but he didn't get far."

Gospel/soul singer Cissy Houston recorded the song as "Midnite Train to Georgia" (spelled "Midnight ..." on the UK single) released in 1973. Her version can also be found on her albums Midnight Train to Georgia: The Janus Years (1995), and the reissue of her 1970 debut album, Presenting Cissy Houston originally released on Janus Records.

Weatherly's publisher forwarded the song to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who followed Houston's lead and kept the title "Midnight Train to Georgia." The single debuted on the Hot 100 at number 71 and became the group's first number-one hit eight weeks later when it jumped from number 5 to number 1 on October 27, 1973, replacing "Angie" by the Rolling Stones. It remained in the top position for two weeks. It was replaced by "Keep On Truckin' (Part 1)" by Eddie Kendricks. It also reached number one on the soul singles chart, their fifth on that chart.[4] On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number ten on June 5, 1976.[5]

In her autobiography, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory, Gladys Knight wrote that she hoped the song was a comfort to the many thousands who come each year from elsewhere to Los Angeles to realize the dream of being in motion pictures or music, but then fail to realize that dream and plunge into despair.[6]

In 1999, "Midnight Train to Georgia" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It currently ranks #432 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[16] Silver 250,000

sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

Appearance in other media

The song was featured during a scene in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter by director Michael Cimino, in which the character Nick (Christopher Walken) - having left the military hospital - is visiting a strip club in Saigon as the girls gyrate to "Midnight Train to Georgia". "Episode 210" of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock features an extensive parody of the song, punctuated by a cameo from Knight herself. The song was also featured in the episode "Swimming Pools ... Movie Stars" of Will & Grace.

Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. reenacted The Pips' dance moves from a live performance of the song for the American Idol finale.[17][18]

NBC invited Gladys Knight to the season two finale of Las Vegas. She sang "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" and "Midnight Train to Georgia".

Garry Trudeau did a Sunday color Doonesbury comic strip[19][20] featuring this song, though Georgia was changed to the ignominious "Cranston" in Rhode Island, and an unnamed song/dance group; it was published on July 28, 1974. It has been informally referred to as the "Beats Working" strip.[21]

In the movie He Was a Quiet Man, Elisha Cuthbert and Christian Slater do a gig of this song at a restaurant when Venessa (Cuthbert) gets released to home care from the hospital. Bob McConnel (Slater) does the Pips.

Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) sings along to "Midnight Train to Georgia" to cope with not being given a story he knows plenty about in the 1987 film Broadcast News.

The song was also mentioned in "The Ice of Boston", a song on The Dismemberment Plan's 1997 album The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified.[22]

It was also used in a Series 6 episode of House named "The Choice" when Chase sang it at a karaoke bar with House and Foreman as his backing singers.

The song was featured in an episode of the TV series Mysterious Ways starring Adrian Pasdar. In Season 1 Episode 8, "The Ties That Bind", Miranda, played by Alisen Down, and several strangers inexplicably find themselves drawn together and singing snippets of the song.

In 2013, the song is mentioned and later sung by cast members of the ABC sitcom Modern Family in the episode "The Late Show".

Featured in the 2014 film, The Equalizer, as a nod to a Gladys Knight & the Pips reference made early in the film.

It was also used during an episode of Scandal in 2015.

Covered by Crystal Bowersox in American Idol.

It is performed by Kelly Rowland (starring as Knight) on the upcoming Black Entertainment Television series American Soul to premiere in February 2019.

Personnel

Track details

Initial track recorded at Venture Sound Studios, Hillsborough, New Jersey, 1973:[3]

Overdubs recorded at Venture Sound Studios:

  • Acoustic piano: Barry Miles
  • Hammond organ: Tony Camillo
  • Percussion: Tony Camillo
  • Violin: Norman Carr
  • Cello: Jesse Levy
  • Trumpet: Randy Brecker
  • Saxophone: Michael Brecker
  • Trombone: Meco Monardo
  • Vocals were recorded at Artie Fields Studio[23] in Detroit. Gladys Knight recorded her lead vocals in a single take. She later recorded a punch-in of a single line in New York City.
  • Recorded and mixed by Ed Stasium

Notable cover versions

References
  1. Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Billboard Books. pp. 357–. ISBN 978-0-8230-7677-2.
  2. "Midnight Train to Georgia". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
  3. Junior, Chris M. (14 April 2010). "Hop aboard the midnight train to Georgia with Gladys Knight & The Pips". Goldmine. F+W. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 330.
  5. "Gladys Knight & the Pips". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  6. Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story, by Gladys Knight. p. 187.
  7. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
  8. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1973-12-15. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  9. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  10. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, November 10, 1973". Archived from the original on June 9, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  11. Canada, Library and Archives (July 13, 2017). "Image : RPM Weekly".
  12. Musicoutfitters.com
  13. "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 29, 1973". Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  14. Canada, Library and Archives (January 16, 2018). "Image : RPM Weekly".
  15. "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  16. "British single certifications – Gladys Knight & the Pips – Midnight Train to Georgia". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved October 15, 2018. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Midnight Train to Georgia in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  17. "AMERICAN IDOL Finale: Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr aka 'The Pips'". Give Me My Remote. 2008-05-21. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  18. Video on YouTube
  19. http://www.outpostradio.com/57chevyradio/pix/doonesbury28july1974.jpg
  20. "Pips get no respect".
  21. "All sizes | "Beats workin." Doonesbury on Gladys Knight and the Pips | Flickr - Photo Sharing!".
  22. "The Ice Of Boston Lyrics - Dismemberment Plan". Sing365.com. 2002-08-25. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  23. Austin, Dan. "Alhambra Theatre — Historic Detroit". Historicdetroit.org. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
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