Gladys Knight & The Pips: Runnin’ Out

Gladys Knight & The Pips had enjoyed a ten-plus year career before they were added to the Motown roster in 1966. Once they were provided the songwriting talents of the Motown staff writers, the vocal genius of Knight was unstoppable. The most glorious moments of their albums have always been the ballads, but it is the funk tunes that I enjoy most. “Runnin’ Out” is the second track on their 1969 album Nitty Gritty. It was written by the young songwriting team Ashford & Simpson, who were two of the most important members of the Motown stable of songwriters in the late ’60s. The song wasn’t a single, but it presents Motown’s Funk Brothers at their peak. The amount of amazing funk produced by the Motown session musicians in the late ’60s and early ’70s is unbelievable, and songs like this one are treated as throw-away album filler, but this is as good as it gets. Every second of this 2-minute song is deep in the pocket.

To learn more about Gladys Knight, check out her website. Of course, you can always watch the group perform one of the greatest soul songs ever written.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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