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Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips album)

1973 studio album by Gladys Knight & the Pips

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ17013214 ↗
Source-derived summary

Imagination is the eleventh studio album recorded by American R&B group Gladys Knight & the Pips, released in October 1973 on the Buddah label. The album, the group's first for Buddah after leaving Motown, includes their first and only Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "Midnight Train to Georgia", which also reached number-one on the R&B singles chart. Larry Wilcox was credited for the string and horn arrangements.

The album also produced other successful singles, including "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", with both songs peaking at number-one on the R&B singles chart and top five on the Billboard Hot 100, and the moderately successful single "Where Peaceful Waters Flow". The album was also their second studio album to make the top ten on the Billboard 200 and their second of five R&B albums chart-toppers.

"Window Raisin' Granny", the closing track of the album, would be sampled in two notable popular music tracks of the 2000s - Christina Aguilera's 2007 single "Slow Down Baby" and Silibil N' Brains' unreleased 2004 song "It's All Love", which would only be released in 2014.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips album)” as 1973 studio album by Gladys Knight & the Pips. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Imagination, Gladys and Knight.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1973, 2007, 2004, 2014—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1973. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Imagination, Gladys and Knight providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips album)”, the useful work is to connect “1973 studio album by Gladys Knight & the Pips” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17013214. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 2007, 2004 and 2014.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Imagination (Gladys Knight & the Pips album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.