D.C. music fans are so excited — and we just can’t hide it — for a triple dose of nostalgia next week.
The Pointer Sisters will join The Commodores and The Spinners for a trio of legendary groups at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on July 26.
“This is the first time I’ve worked with both groups at the same time,” Ruth Pointer told WTOP. “The Commodores were special because from what I understand they were all college friends, Lionel Richie was dominant in the group and, of course, we went on to do Lionel’s first solo tour with him, which was probably the best tour we ever did. … The Spinners have so many (hits), they’ve always been one of my favorites, ‘I’ll Be Around,’ that’s one of my favorites.”
Pointer is the last surviving founding member, now performing with her daughter Issa and granddaughter Sedako.
“I’m singing with my daughter and my granddaughter on stage now. I’ve lost all of my sisters,” Pointer said. “I have to say we have some of the greatest fans in the world that are such loyalists that I’m in awe when I walk on stage and see people sitting in the audience and I’m like, ‘Wow, they still come. They still come.'”
Born in Oakland, California, in 1946, Ruth grew up constantly singing with her sisters June, Bonnie and Anita.
“We would sing so much that people would get annoyed,” Pointer said. “We would sing cartoon songs, we would sing commercials. I remember one time, all of us were in the car together and we probably had a friend with us and we were singing along with some stupid commercial on the radio and they were like, ‘Geez, damn, do you guys just sing everything?” And I’m like, ‘Well, we just enjoy music, so we just sing along.'”
The Pointer Sisters initially launched as a duo, then a trio, before Ruth joined in 1972 to complete the quartet.
“We started as a quartet singing in my dad’s church in the very beginning,” Pointer said. “Life comes in and takes us in our separate directions. I was married and had a couple kids, Anita got married and had one child, so Bonnie and June formed the two of them together in the 60s, Anita joined them after that and then I came in last.”
In 1973, the four sisters released their self-titled debut album, while their second album “That’s a Plenty” (1974) delivered the country crossover hit “Fairytale,” which won the Grammy for best country vocal performance.
“Trust me, it was as much a surprise to us as it was to everybody else,” Pointer said. “We’ve always had country roots because my parents are from Arkansas in the South and my grandparents were from Tennessee, so we’ve always been sort of drawn to country music and never really wanted to differentiate between what’s country and what’s not or whatever. If it’s a cute song, it’s a cute song!”
In 1976, they earned two more Grammy nominations for “How Long (Betcha’ Got a Chick on the Side)” and “Live Your Life Before You Die,” while their 1978 album “Energy” spit hits like “Fire” and “Happiness.” Their seventh studio album “Special Things” (1980) earned their fourth Grammy nomination for the song “He’s So Shy.”
Their eighth studio album “Black & White” (1981) earned two more Grammy nods, including best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal for the album itself, then best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for the song “Slow Hand,” which was covered the following year by country legend Conway Twitty.
“Being a girl, me and my sisters talked about that because we had been in some relationships that seemed to just take off and go really fast,” Pointer said. “Let’s just slow it down, OK? That’s how that song spoke to us. We were like, ‘Hey, let’s just slow it down, let’s have a slow hand, just slow, slow. Slow is better.'”
Their ninth album “So Excited!” (1982) was their most iconic, thanks to a high-energy title track with a Grammy-nominated music video. It’s since been referenced all over pop culture from Elizabeth Berkley quoting it in a scary moment of “Saved by the Bell” to Eddie Murphy dancing to it in a workout montage in “The Nutty Professor.”
“Me and my sisters wrote that along with Trevor Lawrence,” Pointer said. “We had a lot of energy and were so excited about our new journey in the music industry. He said, ‘What would you think if you were planning to go out on a weekend? How would you describe your feeling?’ We said we’d say, ‘I’m so excited!’ That’s what everybody says, so we thought ‘a phrase people use all the time and when they use it, they’ll think of The Pointer Sisters!'”
Their 10th studio album “Break Out” (1983) delivered two Grammy-winning hits with “Jump (For My Love)” and “Automatic,” not to mention the chart-climbing hit “Neutron Dance” for the “Beverly Hills Cop” movie (1984) soundtrack. They followed up with yet another Grammy nomination for their 11th studio album “Contact” (1985).
In 1994, The Pointer Sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, followed by their induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005.
Sadly, June Pointer died in 2006, Bonnie Pointer died in 2020 and Anita Pointer died in 2022, leaving Ruth to compete alone in the sixth season of “The Masked Singer” dressed up as a cupcake.
“It was bittersweet for me because Anita and I were supposed to do it together, we were supposed to be two cupcakes and do a different song, ‘It Takes Two,'” Pointer said. “We had just come from a fitting for our costumes. … She went to the phone for a message from her doctor who told her she had Stage IV lung cancer and that changed everything. … I said, ‘Look Anita, I can either not do this … or I can go ahead.’ … She said, ‘Please do it.'”
Now, the legacy continues with Ruth’s daughter and granddaughter, cementing the group’s legacy.
“I don’t even count the hits, I just know we’ve been in this business for 50 years and we have made a major contribution to television as well as music,” Pointer said. “I’m very proud of our legacy and if they accept us in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, yay; but if they don’t, I know what I’ve done and I’m very proud of what I’ve done.”
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
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