Good Woman

by

Gladys Knight

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Miss Knight showed the world in 91 with her first album for MCA and proved that she can start her solo career without her Pips and she succeeds. Using Attala Zane Giles (Vesta's producer) to craft her an album that would push her to the adult contemporary field without sounding trite. Other producers were used as well and they made a bonafide star. Using backing vocalese of Vesta Williams, Alfie Silas, Vonceile Faggett, Patti LaBelle, Dionne Warwick, Alex Brown and a slew of others, they helped her succeed to being a staying force in this crazy business. Songs like Men, Meet Me In The Middle, Where Would I Be, If You Only Knew were cream top confections. Great Job Girl! Grade: A++++++

"Good Woman" was Gladys's 3rd solo album. Unlike the two earlier efforts (from 1978 and '79 respectively), this release was more elaborate, carefully crafted and successful. Gladys, working primarily with little known producers like Zane Giles and D.C. Wilson, co-wrote and co-produced much of the record. It reached #1 on Billboard magazine's R&B album charts and produced the #2 R&B single "Men". Cuts like "Meet Me In The Middle", "Gimme A Chance" and the aforementioned "Men" court the 'new jack swing' sound which was popular at the time. Knight, proving the timelessness of her style, is at home with the busy beats and skittering production flourishes. The ballads do not work as well. Hitmaker Michael Powell provides "Where Would I Be". This languid number might have suited someone like Anita Baker, but it doesn't play to Gladys's declamatory strengths. The lyric to "Superwoman" (a massive hit previously for Karyn White) couldn't be more appropriate for Knight's persona and steel-belted sound, but the vocal rearrangement (to accomodate appearances from Dionne Warwick and Patti Labelle) sabotages the song's momentum. I think Gladys would've handled it better as a solo. "Mr. Love" is a slow number co-written by Gladys that is a cut above. It has a strong melody that Gladys, with what has been called her 'minamilist style', invests with weighty conviction.