Anita Pointer’s Important & Overlooked Role in Country Music (RIP)
The unfortunate news came down on New Years Day that Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters passed away on December 31st, 2022. The second oldest of the four famous sisters, she died surrounded by her family at her home in Beverley Hills, California. Anita was the final founding member of the group after the passing of June Pointer in 2006, and Bonnie Pointer in 2009. Anita was 74 years old.
Though most of the world will be remembering The Pointer Sisters in the coming days for their massive pop, R&B, dance, funk, soul, and disco influence through hits such as “Jump (For My Love),” “I’m So Excited,” and “Neutron Dance” that may all seem like the antithesis of what you think of when you think “country” music, The Pointer Sisters and Anita Pointer specifically played an important part in country music in the 1970s.
Though Anita Porter was born in Oakland, California, her parents were both from Arkansas, and the family would take cross-country trips to the Ozark State annually to visit their grandparents in the tiny town of Prescott. Anita found such favor with the more rural way of life, she decided to to attend fifth grade, seventh grade, and tenth grade in Prescott as opposed to Oakland.
It was during this period when Anita Pointer was exposed and influenced by country music. In 1969 when Anita quit her job as a secretary to form The Pointer Sisters with her two sisters back in California, she brought that roots influence with her, and it very much affected the early incarnations of the group.
The first major single by The Pointer Sisters was “Yes We Can” written by New Orleans rhythm and blues legend Allen Toussaint. Another early hit was “Wang Dang Doodle” written by legendary blues musician Willie Dixon. The Pointer Sisters were taking older songs and paying them forward.
This led to the song “Fairytale,” written by Anita Pointer with her sister Bonnie, and recorded in 1974 at the Quadraphonic Studios in Nashville. At the time, The Pointer Sisters weren’t looking to “go country.” The song was just a natural extension of their influences. “People think because we’re always trying something different we’re not sincere. Like country music,” sister Bonnie Pointer once said in an interview. “For us, it’s no joke…Our folks came from Arkansas and we grew up singing country songs. It’s part of us.”
When the song struggled on the R&B charts, they decided to release it to country, and surprisingly, the group found success. As opposed to being regarded as outsiders, the strength of “Fairytale” saw Anita Pointer and The Pointer Sisters embraced by country music. On August 16, 1974, The Pointer Sisters performed at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville to such a positive reception, they were invited to make their Grand Ole Opry debut on October 25th, 1974—the first Black vocal group to perform on the stage.
Along with “Fairytale,” The Pointer Sisters also played “Shaky Flat Blues,” and unlike another crossover band from California a few years before (The Byrds with Gram Parsons), they weren’t jeered off stage. “Fairytale” became a Top 40 hit in country, and hit #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in part from its support from country, and ended up winning the 1974 Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, and also received a nomination for Best Country Song.
At that point, The Pointer Sisters perhaps could have broke into country, but decided instead to follow a different path, even though that possibility hung around for Anita Pointer throughout her career, and her and her sisters would dabble in country upon occasion. Most notably, in 1986 when Earl Thomas Conley was looking for duet partner for his song “Too Many Times,” Anita Pointer fit the bill. The partnership struck gold, and the song became a #2 country hit.
It’s probably not fair to overhype the role Anita Pointer played in country music, but it’s also patently unfair to overlook it, or disregard it as unimportant. Though the legacy of Black musicians over the years has gone under-recognized in the genre, in the modern era, it’s unfortunately activist academics and journalists who regularly look to downplay the role of Black musicians in country music to make the genre appear more restrictive than it was, including the legacy of Anita Pointer who proved that with the right song, she could bust through country’s color barrier.
January 1, 2023 @ 1:16 pm
Funny, when I saw the headline, I thought that the major focus of the article would be about “Slow Hand,” the Pointer Sisters’ big hit from 1981 that became a huge country hit for Conway Twitty the following year.
That’s the connection of the Pointer Sisters to country music that I was aware of.
I wondered if Conway and the Pointer Sisters ever appeared on the same stage–maybe on a TV program or charity even–and performed “Slow Hand” together, but a search of Youtube suggests that that never happened.
January 1, 2023 @ 2:03 pm
Ha! There’s a degree of separation there, but that’s another good example. If you go back and listen to some Pointer Sisters songs, they’re written and arranged like country songs, just with pop/R&B/soul music. “Slow Hand” is a good example.
January 1, 2023 @ 1:18 pm
Another country connection: The Pointer Sisters and Conway Twitty both had hits with “Slow Hand.”
January 1, 2023 @ 2:43 pm
Correction: There a fourth Pointer sister named Ruth. Bonnie left the group for a solo act and the group, now a threesome, thought of disbanding until they changed directions with “Neutron Dance,” “I’m So Excited,” and “Jump.”
January 1, 2023 @ 4:29 pm
“It’s probably not fair to overhype the role Anita Pointer played in country music…”
I think this comment is an important one. Many times when an artist passes, other genres jump in to claim an how much of an influence they were. It gets kind of over-the-top at times.
This article is a good balance of an artist that had a limited impact on country music, but what minor impact she had was worth noting. Great mention of Earl Thomas. He was a great vocalist that doesn’t get the respect he deserves. Hats off to Blake who frequently mentions him. His duet with Anita was a great vocal offering.
Let’s face it. It was the “in thing” and super-cool to claim how Johnny Cash had an impact on other genres. I definitely believe that. But it got a bit overboard in my opinion and was displayed by every artist and their brother and pet dog wearing Cash T-shirts in the media. It cheapened his influence.
Again, in my opinion, artists like Hank Williams, George Jones, and definitely Waylon Jennings had some of the greatest actual impact on other genres. Cool or not.
This article, which may not seem major to some, is good music journalism that is sorely lacking today. It should be studied from that vein. Trigger, to the more-than-a-casual-reader, we see the value.
January 2, 2023 @ 7:04 am
Johnny Cash shirts are Affliction T shirts for the South
January 2, 2023 @ 4:19 pm
Strait86,
I am referring to the west coast mainly if I understand your reply.
January 1, 2023 @ 5:07 pm
Seems we’ve had a slew of deaths of highly prominent people just before or on the New Year, apart from Anita Pointer and Ian Tyson.
Apparently there are no known connections to country music evinced by Pele, Barbara Walters or Pope (Emeritus) Benedict.
January 2, 2023 @ 4:53 am
it’s always best to assume Illuminati first, then ‘old age’ second.
January 2, 2023 @ 6:48 am
“Apparently there are no known connections to country music evinced by … Barbara Walters.”
She interviewed Dolly Parton (’77) and Willie Nelson (’82).
January 2, 2023 @ 7:43 am
It certainly was another truly heartbreaking loss for the music world as 2022 drew to a close, when we saw so many really great artists suddenly transit from this world to the next.
It’s really noteworthy that, because of Anita’s roots in Arkansas, that she and her sisters were able to have such a big hit with “Fairytale”. Their race and ethnicity aside, this one particular hit of theirs was a lot closer to actual country music than a lot of the stuff the Nashville music machine of the time was putting out at the time. It’s true, as Trigger said, that you can’t overstate the Pointer Sisters’ impact on country, but “Fairytale” did help to bridge a gap that still existed between genres even in the mid-1970’s (IMHO).
January 2, 2023 @ 8:26 am
Best concert forever for me at the Natatorium in Indianapolis. I can’t remember what year guessing the 80s. It was just awesome!!!
January 2, 2023 @ 9:28 am
A bit of perspective from someone that was there in ’74. This is not to discount the considerable talent of the Pointer Sisters but to accurately describe the impact that their Fairytale record had on country music at that time.
Although Fairytale received SOME country radio play it was largely ignored by country programmers. It barely scratched the top 40 on the Billboard country chart [#37] and fared even worse on the Cashbox survey peaking at #45. It received airplay on just a handful of country radio stations. It came and went rather quickly during the Fall of 1974 and was soon forgotten.
Although I personally enjoyed the song myself, the bluesy, soulful style of their vocals was definitely outside the parameters of what most country fans of that era were willing to accept or wanted to hear on their radio stations Although the middle-of-the-road/easy listening orchestrated style of artists like Ray Price, Charlie Rich & Lynn Anderson proved very popular in the country music of that era the same was not true for heavily stylized soul/R&B influenced vocals.
To cite the Country Grammy Award win for that song as any sign of the song’s popularity or impact is misleading. The country music category of the Grammy Awards often has little to do with what the mainstream fans of the genre support on country radio stations or with significant retail sales. That win says more about the Grammy voters than country fans.
Fairytale created just a small ripple within the genre at that time. There was no long-term implication or effect. To conclude otherwise is simply not accurate. Rather than citing it as an “important” record I would argue that it was more of an interesting anomaly. Given the demonstrable failure of that record within country music I find no reason to conclude the Pointers could have had a bright future as a country act.
Clearly the massive pop success that the women ultimately achieved was far greater than anything that country music could have provided.
January 2, 2023 @ 10:27 am
Like I said in the article, I don’t want to oversell the importance of Anita Careter and “Fairytale” specifically. I agree that it wasn’t a huge commercial success in country and shouldn’t be characterized that way. But reading up on the song for this article, the way it was presented to me was that the song was having difficulty finding traction, and when country started playing it, it gave the song a base of support for it to finally find traction in pop where it did quite well.
My greater point and especially when it comes to the Grammy Awards is that Anita Pointer and The Pointer Sisters were generally embraced by the country community, and at a time when it was rare for Black artists to be in the space. The Grammy Awards, the Grand Ole Opry invite proved that even in the early-mid 70s, there was reception for Black artists in country, if they were country. It’s unlikely The Pointer Sisters would have found the same success if they had decided to become a country group. But it is heartening to see that Anita Pointer and her song weren’t shunned.
I also just think it’s cool when any artist unexpectedly reveals themselves as a true country music fan. That is why I love stories like this.
January 2, 2023 @ 6:44 pm
Not so well known was that Elvis did a cover of “Fairytale” the following year, for his “Today” album, and sang it regularly in concert in his last years.
January 3, 2023 @ 4:26 pm
Great article about a great artist.
January 5, 2023 @ 1:33 pm
Loved her duet with Earl thomas Conley, and of course all her pop oriented output with her sisters, but never knew about the history. Thanks for this.