Anita Pointer

Anita Pointer was a founding member of <a href="spotify:artist:2kreKea2n96dXjcyAU9j5N">the Pointer Sisters</a>, the Oakland sibling vocal group who broke barriers regarding gender, race, and genre as they racked up 16 Top 40 pop hits from 1973 through 1985. Pointer sang lead on many of the group's biggest singles, beginning with their breakthrough popularization of <a href="spotify:artist:63aP18bg2ABSOqSNQcAMNy">Allen Toussaint</a>'s "Yes We Can Can," followed shortly thereafter by an original written by Anita and <a href="spotify:artist:3ywBpweKQY8MosUnAuPAgc">Bonnie Pointer</a>, "Fairytale," the 1975 Grammy-winner of Best Country Vocal Performance. Pointer would go on to co-write other Pointers classics she fronted, such as the funky "How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side)" and effervescent "I'm So Excited." In 1987, a year after Pointer duetted with <a href="spotify:artist:69baNgo5tsg1RjBgotRbEj">Earl Thomas Conley</a> on the number two county hit "Too Many Times," she released her only solo album, Love for What It Is. Produced by <a href="spotify:artist:45WlcmfMU9hHEaulrBOfNe">Preston Glass</a> with a polished pop-R&B sound that continued down the path taken by the Pointers' recordings, it featured an appearance from <a href="spotify:artist:6ZNeppgfBLPUyugks9Yn1u">Philip Bailey</a> and background vocals from Pointer's daughter Jada, and yielded the charting singles "Overnight Success" and "More Than a Memory." Pointer retired from performing with her sisters in 2015, and five years later co-authored Fairytale: The Pointer Sisters' Family Story with brother Fritz. She died of cancer in 2022. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi