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player ready...Gladys Knight and Jeffrey Osborne team up for a two-night engagement March 17-18 at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.
Both singers are known for record-selling prowess that springs from soulful material which deftly brims with infectious pop luster.
Knight, a seven-time Grammy winner, boasts a huge catalog of hit singles as the lead singer of Gladys Knight and the Pips.
The success stories include “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1967), “If I Were Your Woman” (1970), “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” (1973) and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” (1974).
Osborne made his big jump into the national spotlight with the soaring ballad “On the Wings of Love” (1982).
He kept the momentum going in 1983 with the feisty “Don’t You Get So Mad.”
The same year, Osborne scored with the danceable and sensual “Stay With Me Tonight.”
Predicting what songs will resonate with the public can be a tricky business.
But Osborne had a sense that “On the Wings of Love” was something special before its release.
However, that sentiment was not shared by producer George Duke, a jazz great and keyboard trailblazer who collaborated with Frank Zappa, Michael Jackson and other big names in the music industry.
“He wasn’t sure of it,” said Osborne, recalling Duke’s reaction to “On the Wings of Love” when it was still being molded and shaped.
“When we finally finished it, that’s when he said, ‘Oh, I hear what you’re hearing,'” said Osborne, who wrote the song with Peter Schless, with Duke serving as producer.
The 1980s was a fertile time for Osborne, who notched another pop-chart hit in that decade with 1986’s “You Should be Mine (The Woo Woo Song).”
Radiating a smooth-soul tropical sound, the silky track built Osborne’s reputation as a skilled purveyor of pop-laced R&B.
His biggest charting success came in the form of a duet with Dionne Warwick titled “Love Power,” which reached No. 12 in 1987 on Billboard’s listing of mainstream singles.
Osborne came from a family that embraced music.
“My father was a great jazz trumpet player,” the balladeer said recently during a phone interview.
Osborne assured that his roots rest in jazz.
“I was around jazz a lot,” related the singer, also citing an older brother who sang and “did his jazz thing.”
Osborne grew up in Providence, R.I., as the youngest of 12 children.
The size of his family is still a source of wonderment for him.
“God bless my mother; that’s, like, almost incredible,” Osborne said with a laugh. “There were a lot of big families back then.”
In promotional material, Osborne notes that despite his love for the Motown sound and doo-wop, he “really grew up listening to jazz and standards,” citing records by the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and Billy Eckstine that were played in his home.
That background is reflected in “A Time For Love,” Osborne’s 2013 album that covers jazz-laced classics and other standards such as “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “The Shadow of Your Smile.”
Produced by the late George Duke, the sophisticated disc fulfilled a craving.
“I had always wanted to do a jazz record,” said Osborne, a Los Angeles resident.
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In the meantime, Osborne is working on a new album that is due out later this year.
It will reflect an old-school approach, with “straight-up” R&B, he said.
Osborne, 69, will be opening for a rhythm-and-blues master named Gladys Knight during the March 17-18 Horseshoe engagement.
Both shows are considered sellouts, with only single seats reportedly available earlier this month.
A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Knight has drawing power.
Osborne believes she is “one of the most incredible vocalists of all time.”
Ranking as one of her most popular efforts is the chart-topping “Midnight Train to Georgia” from 1973.
The Knight-Osborne shows in Hammond are part of the “Legends Series” presented by Chicago’s Concert Management Inc.
Bob Kostanczuk is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Gladys Knight and Jeffrey Osborne
Where: The Venue at Horseshoe Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Hammond
When: 8 p.m. March 17 and March 18
Tickets: $63.50, $85, $112.50; 21 and older only
Information: 219-473-7000, www.horseshoehammond.com