Back in 1974, Gladys Knight — a woman in possession of one of the most instantly recognizable and loved voices in popular music — stepped away from her group The Pips for a solo medley of “Try to Remember/The Way We Were” with orchestra. This version, recorded live at the Pine Knob Theatre in Detroit for the tellingly-titled album I Feel a Song, is famous for many reasons, not the least of which is Knight’s spoken preamble that finds her musing on nostalgia and ”the good old days.” “Oh, why does it seem that the past is always better?” she queried that evening. Thirty-two years later, the lady who can plumb misty watercolor depths of emotion from any lucky song she chooses to sing, shifts her focus to gems from the golden era of song on her Verve Records debut, Before Me.