One of the things that's great about this song is that the Pips are more than just backing singers. You just know they're going to give Gladys Knight a hard time if she doesn't catch that train.
Midnight Train to Georgia was a track on the group's 1973 album Imagination, but not released as a single in the UK until 1976, when it made the top 10. It had topped the US singles chart in the year the album was released.
The song was written under the title Midnight Plane to Houston by Jimmy Weatherly, inspired by a conversation he once had with Farah Fawcett.
He sent the song to the musician and producer Sonny Limbo, who wanted to record it with the singer Cissy Houston. Limbo asked, in view of the clash of names, if he could change the lyric to 'midnight train to Georgia'.
"I don't mind," replied Weatherly, "just don't change the rest of the song."
Nowt like nostalgia for the old tunes.
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