Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Yes We Can Can Edition Part 2
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Today, the Pointer Sisters are mostly remembered for their flurry of ’80s hits, especially the “Excited” one about losing control and liking it. But their musical history is far more varied: jazz standards? Civil rights–era funk? Country music? Yacht rock? The Pointers applied their impeccable sibling harmonies to all of it.
Billboard ranks the Pointer Sisters behind only the Supremes, TLC, and Destiny’s Child among hitmaking girl groups. Yet their versatility has gone relatively unheralded—from the Grammy they won in a country category, to the Bruce Springsteen demo they turned into a smash, to the kiddie bop they recorded for Sesame Street.
How did the Pointers score so many hits in so many idioms? Join Chris Molanphy as he gives the Pointer Sisters their due as harmonizing innovators and genre-defying hitmakers. Here at Hit Parade, we jump (for their love).
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening Ad-Free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:13.7 | Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris |
| 0:22.8 | Malanpi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why is the song number one series? |
| 0:28.6 | On our last episode, we chronicle the launch of the family vocal troupe, The Pointer Sisters. |
| 0:35.6 | Their years as a quartet, trying everything from jazz and big |
| 0:39.7 | band music to strutting funk, children's music, and even twangy country. It's now the turn of the |
| 0:46.9 | 80s. They are a trio of Ruth, Anita, and June Pointer, and their producer and label boss |
| 0:53.9 | Richard Perry is about to guide the |
| 0:56.4 | sisters toward a new wave of synth-pop hits. |
| 1:02.2 | The Pointer Sisters' versatility meant that Richard Perry could throw virtually anything at them. |
| 1:10.0 | Their 1980 album, Special Things, leads off with a post-disco R&B track in high Quincy Jones style |
| 1:18.6 | on Could I Be Dreaming, The Pointers Channel, The Jackson's. |
| 1:23.7 | Could I be dreaming? |
| 1:26.6 | Are you really with me? Are you right here by my side? |
| 1:32.1 | Could I be dreaming managed to reach number 22 on the R&B chart and just miss the pop top 40? |
| 1:41.5 | But the special things track that became the Pointer Sister's first 80s |
| 1:46.7 | blockbuster was driven by a very poppy keyboard hook. When the song's co-writer Tom Snow found |
| 1:54.9 | that synth line, he knew he had a hit on his hands. |
| 2:07.5 | Music knew he had a hit on his hands. He's So Shy, started off as She's So Shy. |
| 2:12.9 | Tom Snow wrote it with Leo Sayer in mind, and he left the bulk of the lyrics to Journey Woman |
| 2:19.5 | songwriter Cynthia Weil, who, by the way, just passed earlier this month. Rest in |
| 2:26.1 | Peace, Miss Weil. When Richard Perry heard Snow and Wiles song, it sounded to him like a smash. |
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