When Sister Sledge is belting the group’s enduringly exuberant 1979 hit “We Are Family,” they’re just speaking the truth. Ever since the 1960s, when Philadelphia-born siblings Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathy Sledge declared themselves a vocal harmony quartet, the Sledge girls have treasured kinship as a lodestar. They revel in the inimitable way that shared DNA enables relatives’ voices to achieve a spine-tingling quality rarely encountered anywhere else. The Sledges’ version has powered them through decades of success and record sales topping 20 million. The saga began at home in Philly in 1965, with the four teens guided by their grandmother, Viola Williams, an opera singer, and their mother Flo providing management. The girls sang in church and secular settings, first landing at a regional label then signing with Atco, the start of a fruitful relationship with the Atlantic family of labels. In the studio and onstage, the group developed a facility for blending R&B, pop, and disco channeled through the increasingly sophisticated Philly soul genre. Working with aces like Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and honing their live show they developed a repertoire that came to include the top 10 hits “Love Don’t You Go Through No Changes on Me” and “Pain Reliever.” They became a worldwide phenomenon with their third LP, “We Are Family,” whose title number achieved global earworm status, beloved not only of radio listeners and dancers but moviegoers for its joyous booty-shaking presence canter stage during the denouement of “The Birdcage.”—Michael Dolan

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