Midnight Train to Georgia 0:30. Neither One of Us 0:30. Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me. Songs about leaving and returning, about loss and redemption, all delivered with Gladys's contralto out front -- elegant and desperate in the same breath -- and the Pips behind her, moving in formation, every step choreographed, every harmony locked.

They won four Grammys. Gladys went solo in 1989 and won more. The Pips stepped back, but the music -- those perfectly arranged, tightly harmonized records from the Buddah years -- is the sound of family. The Empress of Soul earned her title one harmony at a time.