Laura Nyro

For the first five years of her career, hits surged from Laura Nyro like steam from a teakettle, then she walked away, cutting all ties with the music business for half a decade. If the basics of her career sound something like the Fifth Dimension songbook, it's because three of these tunes — "Stoned Soul Picnic," "Wedding Bell Blues," and "Save the Country" — were all hits for that group. Barbra Streisand's cover of "Stoney End" hit the Top 10, as did Three Dog Night's version of "Eli's Comin'" and Blood Sweat & Tears' take on "And When I Die."

As Laura completed her four-year stint with Columbia prior to leaving the record business "for good" (even though it turned out to be only five years), she left with Gonna Take a Miracle, an uncharacteristic album of covers, showing that she was as gifted at interpreting hits as she was at writing them. Legendary soul producers Gamble & Huff were at the controls, and Nyro teamed with LaBelle for some exquisite versions of soul classics, like "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and "Jimmy Mack."

They say the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and Laura Nyro passed away at the age of 49, a victim, like her mother, of ovarian cancer. The live recording of "Angel in the Dark" gave a hint as to the direction parts of her last studio album would take, back to an intimacy reminiscent of New York Tendaberry, recorded half-a-lifetime before. But her artistic influence is her greatest legacy, and you can hear in "The Confession" and "Map to the Treasure" seeds being planted for the likes of Rickie Lee Jones and Jane Siberry to harvest years later.

Part Greta Garbo, part Mahalia Jackson, Laura Nyro is one of the great mysteries of pop music. When the spirit moved her, she could belt out a full-throated gospel plea that the angel Gabriel could hear from his perch on high, yet she retired for the first time at the age of 24 (fortunately, she rescinded her departure half-a-decade later). Sophisticated beyond her years, at the age of 19 she penned three Top 10 hits on her first album — none of them hits for herself. Her combination of jazz, pop, gospel, soul, and rock, along with complex and insightful lyrics, made her a critical favorite, but widespread success as a performer remained the one brass ring she couldn't capture.