‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ Was Originally A ‘Midnight Plane To Houston’

Gladys Knight & The Pips reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart 50 years ago today when their recording of “Midnight Train To Georgia” knocked The Rolling Stones’ “Angie” out of the top spot. “Midnight Train To Georgia” spent two weeks at #1 and earned Gladys Knight & The Pips a Grammy Award for what became one of their best-known songs.

“Midnight Train To Georgia” was written by country singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly, though his original version was quite different from the one Gladys Knight & The Pips popularized. After playing quarterback for the University of Mississippi in the early 1960s, Weatherly moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music.

During that time, Weatherly played flag football on a team with actor Lee Majors. A phone call Weatherly made to Majors served as the inspiration for Weatherly to write what became his best-known song.

Majors was not home when Weatherly called, instead, Majors partner at the time, actor Farrah Fawcett, answered the phone. While chatting with Weatherly, Fawcett revealed she was packing her bags before catching a midnight plane to Houston. A Texas native, Fawcett was planning to visit her family back home.

Weatherly was instantly inspired by Fawcett’s mention of a midnight plane to Houston and within an hour completed writing the song titled “Midnight Plane To Houston.” He then recorded the song for his 1972 album, Weatherly.

In 2010, Weatherly — who died on February 3, 2021 at age 77 — talked about writing the song in an interview with Goldmine:

“It was really a relatively easy song to write, because I actually used Lee and Farrah as a mental movie in my mind about a girl who comes to L.A. to make it, and she struggles and then goes back, and the guy she falls in love with goes back with her. Of course, that wasn’t their story, but it made an interesting little song.

“I never knew how it was going to end. I just started singing, ‘She’s leaving on the midnight plane to Houston, going back to a simpler place and time. I’ll be with her on the midnight plane to Houston’ — and then this line hit me: ‘I’d rather live in her world than live without her in mine.’ And that locked it up, and I knew then that it was a really decent song.”

In 1973, R&B/soul singer Cissy Houston was offered the opportunity to record “Midnight Plane To Houston” for Janus Records. Houston, who is Dionne Warwick’s cousin and Whitney Houston’s mother, suggested changing the lyrics and title of Weatherly’s song.

In 2013, Cissy Houston recalled the circumstances surrounding how the song ended up being altered, telling the Wall Street Journal:

“When [producer] Sonny [Limbo] played me Jim’s song, I loved it right away. It was a country ballad that told a good story — about two people in love. But I wanted to change the title. My people are originally from Georgia and they didn’t take planes to Houston or anywhere else. They took trains. We recorded the single in Memphis in 1972 with a country-gospel thing going, and I arranged the background singers. But Janus, my label, didn’t do much to promote it and we moved on.”

Also in 1973, Gladys Knight & The Pips released their album Neither One Of Us. The record’s title track, “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye),” was written by Weatherly and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 while topping the R&B chart. Having left Motown to sign with Buddah Records, and looking to repeat that prior success, Gladys Knight & The Pips took what Houston had done with “Midnight Train To Georgia” and turned it into their signature song.

“I listened to Cissy’s version and loved it,” Knight told the WSJ in 2013. “But I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted an Al Green thing, you know, something moody with a little ride to it. I’ve always liked my tracks full — horns, keyboards and other instruments—to create texture and spark something in me.

“I also wanted to change a few of Jim’s original lyrics — add a word or two and take out a few. So I’d call him every day. I’d say, ‘Hey Jim, what do you think of ‘So he’s leaving a life he’s come to know?’ instead of ‘we’ve come to know?’ Jim was cool with everything. He allowed us that freedom.”

Gladys Knight & The Pips recorded several additional songs written by Weatherly, though none achieved the same success as “Midnight Train To Georgia.” Eight weeks after debuting at #71, “Midnight Train To Georgia” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 27, 1973 and stayed at the top for two weeks, becoming Gladys Knight & The Pips’ first chart-topping hit.

In 1974, Gladys Knight & The Pips’ recording of “Midnight Train To Georgia” won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus. In 1999 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, three years after Gladys Knight & The Pips were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.