Gladys Knight's history with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir dates back to June, 2000, when they both performed at the 90th birthday celebration for then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley. She returned later that year as a guest of the Choir for its December, 2000 Christmas concert and again in 2005 for Hinckley's 95th birthday celebration. 

In a recent interview with the Deseret News, Knight recalled the first time she heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in her high school music class. In a lesson about harmony that she has never forgotten, Knight recalled:

"[My teacher] said, 'Now this is harmony, this is pitch, this is the epitome of what a choir should sound like,' and he played the Mormon Tabernacle Choir," Knight said. "I just fell in love with them. To this day, I am a lover of harmony. That started it for me."

When Knight became a musical guest of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2000, she flashed back to that high school memory.

"When I stood in front of them to sing, that blew my mind. It took me back all the way to high school," she said. "I just love their music."

Now at age 70, Knight has just done the unthinkable; for the 30th time in her career, she's had an album crack the top forty. “I’m just on top of the world,” said the 7-time Grammy Award winner in an interview with Billboard.

Her new album, Where My Heart Belongs, is a gospel album on Shadow Mountain Records, which made its debut at No. 20 on Billboard’s R&B Albums Chart. The album includes songs written by gospel artists such as BeBe Winans, Kirk Franklin and Knight herself, as well as the hymn, “There is a Green Hill Far Away.”

The album also contains a song called “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” which Knight performed with the Choir in 2000 for a special episode of Music & the Spoken Word. The Christmas-themed special titled, Sing We Now of Christmas, also featured Knight singing “Mary’s Boy Child,” and is one of the more popular specials on the Choir’s YouTube channel.

Below is the complete episode of Gladys Knight and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's, Sing We Now of Christmas.

For more information of Gladys Knight visit her guest artist page on our website.