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Most tourists -- and doubtless a few locals -- see the pyramid, the castle, the digital sparkle from the movie-sized outdoor signs, and feel as though they're entering the most surreal party zone on Earth.

But singer Gladys Knight says: "When I get near Las Vegas, and they start banking to come into the airport, and you look down to see Lake Mead and stuff, a sense in you says you're home.

"When you land here you get a peace. I've lived here and I've felt like that for the longest time."

Knight took her relationship with Las Vegas full circle last month. Though she's lived here since 1978, the singer only recently joined the ranks of "resident headliners" who perform year-round on the Strip, thanks to a one-year deal with the Flamingo.

This trend includes stars who made their names elsewhere before deciding to settle in Las Vegas -- Rita Rudner, Sheena Easton -- as well as those who moved here and then gradually built their fame: Danny Gans, Clint Holmes, the Scintas. Of course, Siegfried & Roy got the jump on all of them back in the '60s.

And then there's Wayne Newton, who bridges both categories. Synonymous with Vegas showmanship in the '70s and '80s, he spent most of the '90s in Branson, Mo., before coming home to a resident deal at the Stardust in October 1999.

Of course, performers have always lived here. Knight's residential office and recording studio is near a stretch of Tomiyasu Lane that's home to Newton and Robert Goulet.

Jerry Vale and Totie Fields called the same neighborhood home back in the '70s, when 26-week contracts fell in between today's extremes of full-time residency or occasional weekend stints. There were even stars who lived here but seldom performed here: B.B. King and the late Joe Williams among them.

The new wave of headliners move into a city that's at least three times bigger, and one where many newcomers feel disoriented by the endless streets of stucco tract houses and by strip malls that weren't here yesterday.

But if you're coming in from the gypsy world of show business? Las Vegas seems stable and somehow normal by comparison.

Paige O'Hara, a musical theater performer best known as the voice of Belle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," likes her neighborhood in The Lakes because she says she and actor husband Michael Piontek "know our neighbors," something that never happened in New York or Los Angeles.

When O'Hara moved here five years ago, children would recognize her voice in public. "It's still happening now with a new generation of kids," she says, thanks to the movie's Imax rerelease and "Beauty" spinoffs she voices at a studio in Las Vegas.

(O'Hara is no longer the only animated Disney voice in town: Ernie Sabella, voice of Pumbaa in "The Lion King," settled here after performing in "Chicago" at Mandalay Bay.)

Holmes made a name for himself in Atlantic City showrooms before deciding to test his viability in Las Vegas in 1999. Though he made his living in the casino world, his wife Brenda was adamant about not wanting to move to Las Vegas.

His daughter Brittany, 16 at the time, was equally blunt upon spotting a highway billboard that showed her father singing in the shower: "I could so not live here."

All five family members quickly changed their minds. "We found a great school for the kids and made a whole set of friends outside the business," Holmes says.

Brenda loves "the spiritual nature of the mountains," while Brittany discovered the easy access to concerts at the MGM Grand, he adds.

"In New York, you'd have to drive her into the city and walk her to the door. Here, you kind of drop 'em off and say, ŒSee ya when the show's over,' " her father says.

Easton spent last summer doing a Las Vegas Hilton run timed to the summer vacation of her 5- and 6-year-old children. Any doubts she had about staying in one place were erased by trying to take them on the road for a brief "Colors of Christmas" tour in December, which she says ended up disrupting schoolwork.

Even though her youngsters spent the fall term of this school year in Los Angeles, teachers at the local school they attended last summer kept two empty seats in the classroom for them through the fall. When Easton came back for a full year at the Hilton in January, the school had banners waiting that said: "Welcome back, Jake and Skylar!"

Entertainers often return the welcome by doing their part for the community. Many lend a hand to various local causes, and there's no shortage of requests. Performers on the entry level of fame, such as Earl Turner, can be just as appreciated as the bigger stars.

"We probably get one request a week for him to do a community event," says Turner's publicist, Laura Herlovich. Turner helps the Special Olympics, and next month will perform at both the Earth Day Birthday in Henderson and the Citizens of Distinction luncheon for the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow.

For a performer such as Turner, the benefits can be "a great promotional opportunity to get exposure and make people more aware of you," Herlovich says. Then, when an entertainer hits the big time, he can lend his name to big-ticket efforts, such as Gans hosting the $300-per-ticket benefit for the Lili Claire Foundation.

O'Hara says the first time she did something for the Ronald McDonald House it was at their request. "I really got attached to what they're doing," she says, and made it a standing commitment.

If entertainers are the "Best of Las Vegas," at least in terms of what the Strip can offer as commercial product, the rest of the city brings out the best in them.