These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40.

Amazingly, Gladys Knight and the Pips never had a chart-topping single for Motown Records. As towering as the act was, the closest they came was with their version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” which was passed around to all of the label’s stars, including Smokey Robinson. Of course, it was Marvin Gaye who owned that particular number. His take was recorded before Knight’s, but released one year later. Knight and her Pips took the number to the runner-up spot, selling two-and-a-half-million copies, the most for any Motown single to that point. Gaye topped her, taking “Grapevine” to the #1 position for seven weeks across the end of 1968 and the beginning of 1969. The same year Gaye first achieved that position with the song, Knight had her own grouping of modest hits, including “It Should Have Been Me,” co-written by Motown stalwarts William “Mickey” Stevenson and Norman Whitfield, originally for Kim Weston. Thought Knight and her famed backing group never scored a chart-topper for Motown, they did claim that triumph shortly after moving to the MGM subsidiary Buddha Records in the early nineteen-seventies, doing so with a track that became their unquestioned signature song.

Previously…

—“Just Like Heaven” by The Cure.
—“I’m in Love” by Evelyn King
—“Buy Me a Rose” by Kenny Rogers
—“Who’s Your Baby” by The Archies
—“Me and Bobby McGee” by Jerry Lee Lewis
—“Angel in Blue” by J. Geils Band
—“Crazy Downtown” by Allan Sherman
—“I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Rhythm of Love” by Yes
—“Naturally Stoned” by the Avant-Garde
—“Come See” by Major Lance
—“Your Old Standby” by Mary Wells
—“See the Lights” by Simple Minds
—“Watch Out For Lucy” by Eric Clapton
—“The Alvin Twist” by Alvin and the Chipmunks
—“Love Me Tender” by Percy Sledge
—“Jennifer Eccles” by the Hollies
—“Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Olympics
—“The Bounce” by the Olympics
—“Your One and Only Love” by Jackie Wilson
—“Tell Her She’s Lovely” by El Chicano
—“The Last Time I Made Love” by Joyce Kennedy and Jeffrey Osborne
—“Limbo Rock” by The Champs
—“Crazy Eyes For You” by Bobby Hamilton
—“Who Do You Think You’re Foolin'” by Donna Summer
—“Violet Hill” and “Lost+” by Coldplay
—“Freight Train” by the Chas. McDevitt Skiffle Group
—“Sweet William” by Little Millie Small
—“Live My Life” by Boy George
—“Lessons Learned” by Tracy Lawrence
—“So Close” by Diana Ross
—“Six Feet Deep” by the Geto Boys
—“You Thrill Me” by Exile
—“What Now” by Gene Chandler
—“Put It in a Magazine” by Sonny Charles
—“Got a Love for You” by Jomanda
—“Stone Cold” by Rainbow
—“People in Love” by 10cc
—“Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life)” by the Four Tops
—“Thinkin’ Problem” by David Ball
—“You Got Yours and I’ll Get Mine” and “Trying to Make a Fool of Me” by the Delfonics
—“The Riddle (You and I)” by Five for Fighting
—“I Can’t Wait” by Sleepy Brown
—“Nature Boy” by Bobby Darin
—“Give It to Me Baby” and “Cold Blooded” by Rick James
—“Who’s Sorry Now?” by Marie Osmond
—“A Love So Fine” by the Chiffons
—“Funky Y-2-C” by the Puppies
—“Brand New Girlfriend” by Steve Holy
—“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” by Bonnie Pointer
—“Mr. Loverman” by Shabba Ranks
—“I’ve Never Found a Girl” by Eddie Floyd
—“Plastic Man” and “Happy People” by the Temptations
—“Okay” by Nivea
—“Go On” by George Strait
—“Back When My Hair Was Short” by Gunhill Road
—“Birthday Party” by the Pixies Three
—“Livin’ in the Life” by the Isley Brothers
—“Kissing You” by Keith Washington
—“The End of Our Road” by Marvin Gaye
—“Ticks” and “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley
—“Nobody But You Babe” by Clarence Reid
—“Like a Sunday in Salem” by Gene Cotton
—“I’m Going to Let My Heart Do the Walking” by the Supremes
—“Call Me Lightning” by the Who
—“Ain’t It True” by Andy Williams
—“Lazy Elsie Molly” and “Let’s Do the Freddie” by Chubby Checker
—“Second Fiddle” by Kay Starr
—“1999” by Prince
—“I’ll Try Anything” by Dusty Springfield
—“Oh Happy Day” by Glen Campbell
—“I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After
—“Friends” and “Married Men” by Bette Midler
—“Spice of Life” by the Manhattan Transfer
—“You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd” by Roger Miller
—“Don’t Pity Me” by Dion and the Belmonts
—“Ask Me No Questions” by B.B. King
—“Can’t Leave ‘Em Alone” by Ciara
—“All I Really Want to Do” by the Byrds
—“Love Rollercoaster” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
—“Just a Little” by Brenda Lee
—“Sweet Maxine” by the Doobie Brothers
—“Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel” by Barbra Streisand
—“Charity Ball” by Fanny
—“I’m Comin’ Home” by Tommy James
—“I’m Goin’ In” by Drake
—“Your Time to Cry” by Joe Simon
—“We’re Free” by Beverly Bremers
—“The Resurrection Shuffle” by Ashton, Gardner and Dyke