Anita Pointer, singer, songwriter and co-founder of the Pointer Sisters, who had a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s – obituary
They fused funk, soul and R&B but were also versatile enough to become the first black female band to perform at the Grand Ole Opry
Anita Pointer, who has died aged 74, was a founding member of the Pointer Sisters, the US vocal group whose hits in the 1980s included Slow Hand, I’m So Excited and Jump.
The first of the siblings to begin performing were Bonnie and June, both older than Anita. In the late 1960s they worked as backing singers for California-based musicians such as Grace Slick and Taj Mahal. Anita was so moved by seeing them on stage one night that she threw in her job and joined the act. The quartet was completed in 1972 by their younger sister, Ruth.
To give themselves an identity, and inspired by the hand-me-downs of their impoverished childhood, they took to wearing vintage dresses. This gave them a look akin to that of the Andrews Sisters, the singing trio of the swing era. It was one copied by the Pointer Sisters’ new fans, albeit the group’s music was a contemporary blend of funk, soul and R&B – all the secular sounds that as children they had been warned off by their religious parents.
The sisters had learnt to harmonise their voices in church, although they had different timbres. Anita excelled at conveying a certain sultry sincerity, but she claimed that there was never a question of who was prima donna. It was always a matter of choosing who had the right voice to sing lead on a particular song.
They celebrated their first hit in 1973. Yes We Can Can, a chunk of New Orleans funk penned by Allen Toussaint, reached No 11 in the US pop charts. Yet from the off, the sisters demonstrated their versatility, as the following year Fairytale – co-written by Anita and Bonnie – rode high in the country charts.
The Pointer Sisters became the first black female group to play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, America’s longest-running radio broadcast. Arriving at the party to mark their achievement, they were taken for waitresses and shown to the kitchen. A consolation was the Grammy award they received for the record.
By the mid-1970s, they had appeared on Sesame Street and in the film Car Wash with Richard Pryor, but faced their first setback when Bonnie quit the quartet for a solo career. Reconfigured as a trio, however, they embarked on their greatest period of success.
In 1978, the slow burning ballad Fire (written by Bruce Springsteen) peaked at No 2 in America, an achievement matched three years later by the similarly sexy Slow Hand. Anita sang lead on both.
By then, pop was becoming electronic, and the sisters switched to a more energetic, synthesiser-driven sound. The LP Break Out (1983) would go triple platinum, riding on the coattails of the hit single I’m So Excited, which spent 10 months on the US chart.
They were also helped by the success of the 1984 Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop, in which Neutron Dance (written by Allee Willis) was used to soundtrack the opening truck chase through the streets of Detroit.
By now, their videos were on heavy rotation on MTV. In 1985, Automatic got to No 2 in the UK and won them a Grammy for Best Vocal Arrangement. That same year, Jump took the award for Best Pop Vocal. The Pointer Sisters toured with Wham! and participated in the US charity record We Are the World.
The fourth of six children, Anita Marie Pointer was born on January 23 1948 in Oakland, California. Growing up around San Francisco, the siblings learnt to sing in the choir where their father was the minister.
They also spent time in Arkansas, at the home of their maternal grandparents, and Anita was educated for three years there. The school was segregated, and she also recalled being paid to pick cotton. After graduating from Oakland Technical School, she became a legal secretary.
In the mid-1980s, as rap came to dominate the charts, the group’s profile declined. Anita went solo and had a No 2 country hit, Too Many Times, with Earl Thomas Conley in 1986, but had little other chart success.
The sisters were given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, and appeared at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta two years later. Away from music, Anita assembled a well-regarded collection of African American memorabilia.
In 2003, however, she lost her only child, Jada, to cancer. Three years later, June, who had been forced to leave the group because of an addiction to crack cocaine, also died of cancer. Ruth had struggled with her own drug addiction for much of the 1970s and 1980s, while Bonnie also had the same affliction.
She died in 2020, while Anita herself had been suffering from cancer for some years and retired from performing in 2015. Both her marriages were dissolved.
Anita Pointer, born January 23 1948, died December 31 2022