Columnist Joe Delaney: Knight’s career marked by many successes

Joe Delaney

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 9:07 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com

Gladys Knight, appearing at Sam's Town tonight and Saturday, is a true renaissance woman, scoring major successes as a singer; performer with a group, the Pips; solo performer, producer, director; and, most recently, a poet/songwriter commenting on life and her 50-plus years in show business, starting at age 4 as soloist with the famed Morris Brown Gospel Choir.

One of her finest hours was an HBO special, "Sisters in the Name of Love," which she produced, directed and co-starred in with Patti LaBelle and Dionne Warwick, resulting in a No. 1 hit single, "That's What Friends Are For" ... The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager for a film, "Night Shift," starring Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton.

The film version was sung by Rod Stewart and used on the soundtrack long before it became a hit ... Another version, featuring Knight, Warwick, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, as a fund-raiser, was a mega-hit ... "Midnight Train to Georgia," a signature song for Gladys Knight and the Pips was originally headed for Houston, until Knight changed its destination to her home state, Georgia.

Knight also proved that she could take a hit song recorded earlier by a major artist, in this case Barbra Streisand, and make it sell nearly as many records a second time ... The song "The Way We Were." In 2000 she took a Broadway musical, "Smokey Joe's Cafe," starred in it at Caesars Palace and did great business at 10 p.m. and early on headliners' off days.

Knight, her brother Bubba, an original Pip, and an augmented cast could give "Smokey Joe's Cafe," a collection of hit songs by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, a new life ... It was doing excellent business when it closed because Caesars Palace's Circus Maximus was slated for closure.

The Danny Gans Theatre at The Mirage, now being used for five early shows a week, would be ideal with Knight and the musical doing 10 p.m. performances and early shows on Gans' night off ... It would mean that the theater would be operating at full potential, 14 shows in a seven-day week.

Meanwhile Knight fans can enjoy this multitalented lady in concert, tonight and Saturday, at Sam's Town.

Weekend-wrap-up

The flap over Gans not performing in the upcoming concert benefitting USO at Mandalay Bay is a bad rap ... Gans knows his vocal limitations ... That's why he does only five shows a week ... Performing at 2 p.m. on a show night is the equivalent of doing another show in the expenditure of time and effort.

If it were physically possible, Gans would be doing six or more shows a week ... Gans is a charitable man; that check to the Red Cross was a prior commitment, one that continues, not an attempt to get off an unfairly applied hook.

George Carlin's recent best-selling book, "Silly Putty and Napalm," contains some prophetic passages, starting on page 47, dealing with airport security and terrorism ... Carlin, an MGM Grand Hollywood Theatre regular, is a master semanticist and comedic commentator on current events ... You may not like the way he says it, but he will make you think.

Gloria Estefan makes her only Western U.S. appearance of the year Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Mandalay Bay Events Center ... The Asylum Theatre presents an original comedy "Chasing Pirandello" tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (Winchester Center) ..."Opera Goes Prime Time" is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Beam Music Recital Hall, tickets are $8, $5 for students and seniors.

Sunday at 2 p.m. in UNLV's Ham Hall, it's the annual 76+4 Trombones Concert with comedian Cork Proctor back in great form as host-emcee ... Proceeds go to the Abe Nole Scholarship Fund, a most worthy cause ... Recommended: Don and Alicia, the Cunninghams, backed by the Jimmy Wilkins Quartet, Saturday 7-11 p.m., Elks Lodge on West Charleston ... See you next Thursday.