Track Listing

1. Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me
2. Man I Love
3. Good Morning Heartache
4. Since I Fell for You
5. God Bless the Child
6. This Bitter Earth
7. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
8. Someone to Watch Over Me
9. But Not for Me
10. I'll Be Seeing You
11. Stormy Weather
12. Come Sunday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6515 in Music
• Brand: Verve
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
By now, the list of late-career standards-coverers stretches a mile long--in addition to Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Smokey Robinson, and a host of less-successful others, add Gladys Knight to the tally. Don't just lump her in, though, because Before Me differs from its forebears in ways that won't let you forget it. Here is a flawlessly selected and executed exercise in nostalgia for all the right reasons: Knight, in a voice entirely undiminished, extracts the elegance from each of these legendary numbers and smears it all over the surface, something most listeners would expect only from a master stylist on the order of Tony Bennett. Yet the former Pip leader presides with a light touch. Replacing the powerful pop-soul that launched her legend with the swankiest, most black-tie jazz imaginable, she whispers her way through George and Ira Gershwin's "The Man I Love" and the candy-sweet lament "I'll Be Seeing You." Elsewhere, she smokes up the Lady Day classics "Good Morning Heartache," "The Man I Love," and "God Bless the Child," unintentionally turning the latter into a master course of vocal restraint. If "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" is the disc's wild card--Knight plays it light--the Duke Ellington stunner "Come Sunday," made popular by gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, is its five-star clincher: Knight punches her way through tirelessly, with a true believer's fervor. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Yeahhhhh, but......
I still love Gladys - whenever and for whatever reason she opens her mouth - but, for some reason, I can't get Gladys and these songs to do justice to each other. There's some verve missing, and it may be technique...or it may be that the orchestration and arrangements here are too "finished" for this gutsy and raw soul diva. There are many other Gladys things I like so much better.

YET ANOTHER 60's SURVIVOR STILL MAKIN' MUSIC
I love Gladys Knight's voice. Of all the ladies who were considered her contemporaries in the 60's and 70's she sounds the best. She sounds more like herself than Patti, Diana, Aretha, Dionne, Chaka, Natalie and many others.
Regarding this CD I was somewhat suprised. Verve is a label that is widely known as a jazz label. I don't hear anything that approaches jazz on this project. Gladys does a good job lending her style and dusky voice to some standards but I can almost see her struggling to find a tighter melody line closer to her gospel and R&B roots. The project feels a little awkward to my ears. I don't think Gladys ever dropped into the right pocket on this project. It is not for lack of effort becqause she sings beautifully here; she just does not bring to the table what was needed. Her almost gospelized version of "God Bless the Child" is the purest example of the point I am trying to make. There are 2 songs on which this was particularly frustrating for me; "Do nothing Till You Hear From Me" and "This Bitter Earth". On these Gladys just seems a little out of the groove. I think her take on "Good Morning Heartache" is very good. It's bluesy and smokey; you can feel the resignation the lyrics intend. She comes close to ruining it with her ad-libs and commentary which kinda lightens the mood. Diana Ross's version is more plaintive and is the winner to my ears. All in all its a good job from a r&b and gospel (of late) chanteusse. The best of the lot to my ears are "Stormy Weather" and "Come Sunday". She sounds the most convincing on the latter where she is clearly in touch with her origins. Though I did keep hearing Mahalia's version in the background of my mind. Gladys may have loved and respected these great women of song but she never really approximates their depth or interpretations. Perhaps I'd like this better if she was "LIVE". Gladys is hot live! This CD does nothing to show her versatility. If you love her voice as I do you may enjoy it. If you are looking for something to expand your jazz/standards collection. Try "Blue" by her former label mate Diana Ross or Rod Stewart's American Songbook or something by Michael Buble.

A disappointing mixed bag--not quite up to par. . . .
With "Before Me" Gladys Knight's tries her hand at a number of classic pop standards and show tunes from the 30's, 40's and 50's previously sung by legends such as Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday. Despite the album's high production values, the result is a very mixed bag--although Knight is consistently engaged from start to finish. The album kicks off promisingly enough with the lively strut of Duke Ellington's "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me." But then the rest of the CD slides into mush: the tempos of most of the songs are slow and there is a sameness to her sound here that quickly bores. One MAJOR problem is that when you hear Knight's ill-advised covers of songs like "The Man I Love," and "Stormy Weather," you are constantly reminded of the much better renditions by Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne. It's an unfair but inevitable comparison. More than anything, "Before Me" exposes Knight's limitations: most of the songs require a kind of lightness, an instrumental smoothness, or at least some facility with jazz vocalizing (i.e., scat singing) that she just doesn't have. At her best, Gladys Knight is a first-class R&B singer with a gospel-inspired soul that can rock just about any house. Her greatest songs--"I heard it through the Grapevine," "Friendship Train" and the riveting "Midnight Train to Georgia"--were powerhouse anthems that were at once feisty and vulnerable. "Neither One of Us" (one of the very best pop ballads from the 70's)also showed off Knight's warm, smoky contralto to wonderful effect. In fact, throughout the 1970's and early 80's, Knight showed that she could be a surprisingly versatile (and effective) stylist within the soul, R&B and pop arenas. However, "Before Me" makes it abundantly clear that she is NOT an effective interpreter of jazz standards. I really wanted to like this CD, but I came away feeling that Gladys Knight is out of her depth here and should stick to what she does best.