Gladys Knight & the Pips (Motown) 1973
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Axelrod’s onetime collaborator H. B. Barnum was a musical journeyman who lent his formidable talents as an arranger to a huge number of wildly eclectic musical projects. So it’s no surprise that upon making the westward move to Los Angeles, Motown enlisted his aid on this unusually funky Gladys Knight number. Barnum lays a razor-thin acoustic strut under Knight’s vocals, giving the track some much-needed dance-floor appeal.
