William Guest (singer) William Guest (singer) William Franklin Guest (July 2, 1941 – December 24, 2015) was an American R&B/soul singer best known as a member of Gladys Knight & the Pips. Guest was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was a cousin of Gladys Knight. Following his stint with The Pips, he and fellow Pip Edward Patten formed Patten and Guest Productions, and following Patten's death in 2005, he continued to manage artists though the Crew Entertainment company he formed with members of Patten's family. Guest died on December 24, 2015, of congestive heart failure in Detroit, Michigan, his home for fifty years.
Gladys Knight & the Pips single, "Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me", also reached the charts in England. Their third single, "Everybody Needs Love", became the group's first American charted single in two years, reaching number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number three R&B after its release in 1967. On the A&E Network television program "Biography", Knight stated that she and the Pips were regarded as a second-string act, and that "Diana (Ross) & the Supremes, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye were given all the hits, while we took the leftovers." In Knight's autobiography, "Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: