![]() ![]() ![]() Steeped in the gospel tradition like so many early R&B groups, Gladys Knight & the Pips topped the Billboard R&B chart for the first time in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart" and later in the decade developed into one of Motown's most dependable acts, responsible for 11 Top Ten R&B hits from 1966 through 1972, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "The Nitty Gritty," "If I Were Your Woman," and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)." The group doubled its quantity of Top Ten R&B hits with the Buddah label through 1978, with second Grammy winner "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Got to Use My Imagination," and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" accounting for a streak of chart-toppers off the gold-selling album Imagination. ![]() His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, dynamic charisma, and flamboyant stage shows, became his calling cards many of his songs became contemporary pop standards. Over the ensuing decades, he delved into soul, disco, and country, as well as classic pop balladry, progressive rock, and even musical theater, writing songs for Disney's The Lion King and collaborating with Tim Rice on Aida. John's earliest records were part of the moody, introspective post-'60s singer/songwriter movement, but once he had a hit with "Your Song," the pianist revealed he could also craft Beatles-like pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. He had a Billboard Top 40 hit single every year between 19, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times and mold the times to fit him. As "Your Song," "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Bennie and the Jets" - songs John wrote with his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin - climbed into the Top Ten on either side of the Atlantic, John was inescapable during the first half of the '70s, five years that turned out to be the first act in a remarkable career that kept him at the top of the charts for decades. Elton John exploded like a supernova in the early 1970s, generating headlines and hits with ease. ![]()
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