Early days As children in
West Oakland, the Pointer sisters and brothers were encouraged to listen to and sing
gospel music by their parents Reverend Elton and Sarah Pointer, both natives of
Arkansas. However, they were told
rock and roll and the
blues were "the devil's music", and it was only when they were away from their watchful parents that they could sing these styles. They regularly sang at a local
Church of God in Christ congregation in West Oakland, but as the sisters grew older their love of other styles of music began to grow. The sisters were first cousins of NBA basketball player and head coach
Paul Silas, and sisters of
Aaron Pointer. Aaron was one of very few major league baseball players who became less famous than his own sisters; he later officiated in the
National Football League for 17 seasons. The sisters graduated from
Oakland Technical High School: Ruth in 1963, Anita in 1965, and Bonnie in 1968. After leaving school, oldest sister Ruth was already married with two children Faun (born 1965) and Malik (born 1966), Anita, the second-oldest sister, also was married with a child Jada. Bonnie, the third oldest sister, and June, the youngest, sought a show business career and they formed a duo, 'Pointers Au Pair'. Later, Anita quit her job to join the group. They began touring and performing and provided backing vocals for artists such as
Grace Slick,
Sylvester,
Boz Scaggs,
Taj Mahal,
Elvin Bishop and
Betty Davis. In 1976, they were asked to record "
Pinball Number Count" for
Sesame Street, which was a series of educational cartoons teaching children how to count. It made its debut in 1977 and was a feature on the show for many years. They made their television debut performance at the Troubadour nightclub in
Los Angeles on
The Helen Reddy Show. In 1974, they joined Reddy on the track "Showbiz" which appeared on her
Free and Easy album.
Initial success The group's first album
The Pointer Sisters, featuring the backing of Bay Area stalwarts the
Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, was released in 1973 and received strong reviews, with the group being lauded for their versatility and originality. Its first single "
Yes We Can Can" – an
Allen Toussaint-penned song, which had been a minor
R&B hit for Lee Dorsey in 1970 - afforded the Pointer Sisters the first chart hit reaching No. 11 on the
Billboard Hot 100, while both "Yes We Can Can" and the follow-up single: the
Willie Dixon cover "
Wang Dang Doodle" were major
R&B hits The June/Bonnie appearance at San Jose Pride was promoted as a "Pointer Sisters" gig, with pictures of June performing with Anita and Ruth utilized in its promotion, causing Anita and Ruth to sue the promoter and other affiliates of the San Jose Pride gig. Neither Bonnie nor June was named in the suit. She also said, "Anita and I had talked for some time about having Issa and [Anita's] daughter Jada alternate in the third spot in the lineup...Issa was chosen [to go] first because she had experience singing solo at a lot of New England-area functions." The group's next recording was a remake of the
Eurythmics' "
Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" recorded with
Natalia: this track spent sixteen weeks in the Top 20 of Belgium's Flemish chart from October 2005 with a peak of No. 2. In 2008, Anita and Ruth recorded the last Pointer Sisters album to date
The Pointer Sisters Favorites consisting of remakes of ten of the group's biggest hits: recorded in response to the group's failure to receive royalties from the inclusion of any Pointer Sisters' hits on multi-artist hits compilations, "...Favorites" was sold exclusively at the group's live gigs and at the website ThePointerSisters.com, but was added to iTunes in 2013. Most recently in 2007, Tommy Boy recording artist
Ultra Naté has released a dance-pop cover of "
Automatic" that reached No. 1 at the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. The same year,
How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side) was faithfully covered by Queen Latifah on her 2007 album "Travelin' Light". On June 7, 2006, Anita guest-starred on
Celebrity Duets singing with
Olympic gymnast
Carly Patterson on "
I'm So Excited": on the following night's results show the duo's encore was "
Jump (For My Love)". On August 4, 2009, Ruth, Anita and Bonnie stopped by The Kibitz Room at Canter's in Los Angeles and jammed with the band and Ruth's son Malik. They sang "
Fire", "
Yes We Can Can", and "Going Down Slowly". On November 4, 2009, the Pointer Sisters played "
I'm So Excited" and "
Neutron Dance" on
CBS morning show
The Early Show with Ruth's granddaughter, Sadako Johnson. Issa is currently pursuing a solo career. While promoting an October 28, 2010, Detroit gig by the Pointer Sisters –then comprising Anita and Ruth and Sadako Pointer Johnson — Ruth Pointer, asked "Do you [and Anita] plan on recording an album with Sadako?", replied: "Hmm...not really. We talk about it from time to time, but the business has changed so much. It's not like the old days when you just have a record deal and go in the studio and record with a producer and then start promoting." In the same interview Ruth commented on the Pointer Sisters' profile having dropped in recent years: "We've performed a lot in Europe and Asia and Australia, and it's just that we haven't been very visible publicly in the [US]. We still do a lot of corporate parties and private parties because I mean, let's face it, those are the people that are in our own age group and know our songs." Ruth, Sadako Johnson and Issa were the personnel for a February 11, 2012 Pointer Sisters concert in Metairie, Louisiana. At the July 6, 2012 Essence Fest show in New Orleans, Anita had rejoined the group, the lineup for that concert being Ruth, Anita and Sadako Johnson. In an August 2012 interview Ruth stated: "Anita has had some health issues recently so we try to give her a break when she needs it. When that happens we bring my daughter [Issa] in to fill in for her." The Pointer Sisters were scheduled to play six Australian dates in May and June 2016 with the lineup of Ruth, Issa and Sadako Johnson. Media reports indicated that Anita's health issues necessitated her retiring from the group. In a February 25, 2016 interview with News.com.au, Ruth said of the Pointer Sisters recent live performance history: "I'm almost inclined to call [the group's live engagements] pop-up engagements, not tours. We don't do the tours like we used to do back in the day. We'll leave that to the young folks, out on the road in buses for months at a time....We still have a good time, we do a lot of corporate dates, a lot of casinos, special events, fundraisers, that's our audience. We're so glad [the Pointer Sisters's songs are] still relevant and people still want to hear them being sung and we love singing them." The Pointer Sisters were inducted into the
Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005. The Pointer Sisters' song "Hot Together" was featured as the lead soundtrack in the second trailer to the upcoming 2026 video game
Grand Theft Auto VI and will be featured on the soundtrack of the game. == Personal lives==