In their youth the Pointer Sisters listened and sung Gospel music. They were living in West Oakland (USA). Their parents (Reverend Elton and Sarah Pointer) told them that Rock'n'Roll and Blues were the devil's music but later they explored different music styles. The sisters graduated from Oakland Technical High School: Ruth in 1963, Anita in 1965, and Bonnie in 1968. At first Bonnie and the youngest sister June formed a duo named "Pointers Au Pair". Then Anita quit her job and joined them. They began touring and also provided backing vocals for artists like: Grace Slick, Sylvester, Boz Scaggs, Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop and Betty Davis. Then in 1971 they got their first recording contract with Atlantic to release 2 singles which didn't do much but "Send Him Back" became a Northern Soul classic. Ruth joined the group in December 1972 and as a quartet they signed with Blue Thumb Records as the Pointer Sisters. They released their first untitled album with Blue Thumb. They also recorded a song for Sesame Street called "Pinball Number Count". The single "Yes We Can Can" became their first big hit reaching #11 in the US. Their second album "That's a Plenty" also scored a US hit with "Fairytale" reaching #13. At that time they were making Jazz and Be-bop kinda music. Although "Fairtyale" was in country style. The song was also recorded by Elvis Presley. "How Long" from their third album "Steppin'" made it to #20 in the US. The album "Having a Party" would become the last album as a quartet. Bonnie left the band and started a solo career and signed with Motown for a short solo career including one disco hit in 1979 with "Heaven Must Have Sent You".
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| The Pointer Sisters as a quartet |
After a short break the other 3 sisters contined and signed with Planet Records. In 1978 they released a soft rock album called "Energy" including covers of "Fire" (US #2, UK #34, NL #1 ) by Bruce Springsteen, Sly Stone's "Everybody Is a Star" and their own "Happiness" (US #30, NL #11). It gave the sisters world wide hits for the first time.
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| Happiness - single cover |
In 1979 they released an album with heavier rock called "Priority" but that didn't work out well. But in 1980 the album "Special Things" moved to pop music including "He's So Shy" (US #3, NL #14). The next album "Black & White" also gave them some hit singles: "Slow Hand" (US #2, NL #33, UK #10) and "Should I Do It" (US #13, NL #12). The album "So Excited" includes of course "I'm So Excited" (US #30, NL #18). Until so far they managed to have at least one hit single for each album except "Priority".
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| Automatic - single cover |
Then in 1983 they started to work on their biggest hit selling album ever titled "Break Out" (US #8, NL #15, UK #9). They never liked the title of the album because in their words: “We kept thinking of it as a rash or jail,”. It was the time of MTV and that helped to make the album succesfull. The production by Richard Perry (also owner of Planet Recoreds) is also brilliant.
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| Jump (For My Love) - single cover |
Mainly the style here is electro dance. It included my personal favourite song "Automatic" (US #5, NL #9, UK #2), "Jump" (US #3, NL #9, UK #6), the remixed "I'm So Excited" (US #9, NL #19, UK #11) and "Neutron Dance" (US #6, NL #21, UK #31) which was released after it became popular from the Eddie Murphy movie "Beverly Hills Cop. The first copies of the album released in 1983 included a cover of a song from Randy Crawford titled "Nightline" but was dropped by 1984 from the album in favour of the remixed version of "I'm So Excited". "Nightline" was eventually released in 1983 by Randy Crawford on her album also titled "Nightline". This song was officially written for Michael Jackson who recorded it but never released it.
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| Photo from the back of "Break Out" |
After "Break Out" they continue to score some hits in the US but their worldwide career was over. Their career gave us at least 2 albums which are brilliant and full of hits: "Energy" (1978) and "Break Out" (1983/1984). In general they managed to provide a very good album in each decade.
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| Original album cover |
Jump / Automatic / Baby, Come and Get It / I Need You / Dance Electric / Neutron Dance / Easy Persuasion / Nightline / Telegraph Your Love / Operator
Break Out (1984)
Automatic
Neutron Dance
Nightline
Jump (For My Love)