“I was always getting kicked out of school for being overdressed. I would wear a hat and look like Bette Davis or Greta Garbo.” — Bonnie Pointer

“We’ve decided. We want to sing everything.” — Bonnie Pointer, when early labels tried to push The Pointer Sisters into a strict genre

Bonnie Pointer, who just died last year at the age of 69, was born on this day.

The Pointer Sisters sang big-band swing, gospel, disco, Broadway, country, pop, jazz, soul … It was a melange, a mish-mash, a pouring-together of all of their influences into one eclectic truly ECCENTRIC whole. There was literally nobody else like them.

Bonnie Pointer, one of the founding members of the quartet, eventually broke off and had a solo career, and by the time I was aware of The Pointer Sisters – this would be in high school – the quartet had become a trio. I had a couple of their albums, and gravitated towards the Andrews-Sisters-big-band-swing harmonies – SO TIGHT! – and tried to sing along with this or that line, and found it very challenging, but it was a fun challenge! They dressed so colorfully, with big hats, huge flowers in their hair, tight dresses with flared skirts and colorful prints, and their movements were HUGE, but also perfectly coordinated. They were thrilling to watch. The old-fashioned and out-of-style and yet SO NECESSARY definition of “an act.” They had an amazing ACT. You couldn’t look away. There was nobody else like them.

More on Bonnie Pointer after the jump:

It was only later I became aware of their history, their earlier years. They emerged from Oakland. They sang in the church choir, but they listened to all different kinds of music. Sam Cooke. Elvis. Nina Simone. They listened to everything. Bonnie and June formed the first iteration of what would eventually be the Pointer Sisters. They were a singing duo, re-vamping and re-vitalizing the standards and songs they loved. They played out at clubs in the Oakland/San Francisco area. Anita soon joined. They got gigs as back-up vocalists for some pretty big singers. Ruth soon joined and The Pointer Sisters were now complete. Their early shows were, apparently, electrifying. They were so unique, so themSELVES, and all of them such out-sized performers, people were riveted. And that’s not even mentioning the music, the wide array of songs they covered, as well as original songs they wrote.

Labels soon came a-calling. But, as the story often goes, “the suits” didn’t know what to do with them. They knew the women “had something,” and were packing the clubs in Oakland/San Fran … but what exactly WERE they? So the labels tried to shoe-horn this eclectic unique group into one container, tried to maneuver them into a strictly r&b and/or soul sound. Because God forbid you do more than one thing. God forbid you take your influences from EVERYTHING (as Bonnie said up above).

Finally, they signed with an independent label who let them do whatever the hell they wanted. And what they wanted to do was FIRE. They did CRAZY SHIT, that only made sense once they pulled it off. This is the kind of innovators they were. Bonnie was the galvanizing force, the fearless one, the true eccentric, the rebel. The material they found to cover – and then what they DID with it … just insane.

Off that first album was “Yes We Can Can” – their first hit. It’s gospel, it’s funk, it’s r&b, it’s swing. Here they are performing it in 1973 on Soul Train.

Also off that album is a raging cover of Willie Dixon Blues’ “Wang Dang Doodle” which is one of my favorites in their entire catalog. Here they are in a 1974 concert (the whole thing is on Youtube, and I so recommend watching it). This performance is INSANE. Like … who DOES this but them? Nobody COULD do it, because they are sisters, they are family, their harmonies come from decades of doing it, their styles come from within, from their deep associations and love with all kinds of music. It can’t be imitated. ENJOY.

Watch where that performance starts … watch where it goes … and then watch how it ends. It is so perfectly structured, they know exactly where it’s going – and yet WITHIN that structure is complete freedom – improvisation – call and response – each woman stepping forward to have her moment – the band riffing behind them – and the energy generated by these women is INSANE. And then when it comes time to wrap it up, they all settle back town to the same energy level, where it needs to end. They are just so perfectly in sync. Dazzling.

Off of that same album was a country & western tune, written by Bonnie and Anita. Now, “country” is not known for its black singers – we’re talking mainstream industry country, that is – and Bonnie and Anita were unapologetic about their love of country music. Remember: “We’re going to sing everything.” So they wrote “Fairytale.” It’s a great breakup song, and one of the things I love about “Fairytale” is it inverts expectations. The expected thing is for the woman to sing about how she was hoping for the fairytale romance, or that she realized the fairytale wasn’t real, and how sad it is. But that’s an adolescent’s view of love. “Fairytale,” as written by Bonnie and Anita, is a grown woman’s song. This is adult shit. No teenagers need apply. In “Fairytale,” she says goodbye because she realizes her romance was a “fairytale” – i.e. FAKE. So you see the difference. This is a song sung by a woman who knows the score, who doesn’t want the fake kids-stuff “fairytale” but the real thing. And her kiss-off is: “You’re gonna miss me when I go.” Damn straight.

From the same 1974 concert: here’s “Fairytale.” Notice the tepid response from the audience when she asks “Who here likes country?” The Pointer Sisters’ love of country music was not ironic, it did not have quotation marks around it.

They recorded “Fairytale” in Nashville – they weren’t messing around – using A+ country musicians as backup, including a fiddle, and a pedal steel guitar – giving the song its classic country sound. It became a crossover hit, the first of its kind. It crossed over onto the pop charts, and also made it onto the COUNTRY charts. The Pointer Sisters were invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, the first time a group made up solely of black women performed there. They played at country-music festivals, garnering enthusiastic responses. They were nominated for a Grammy in the Best Country Song category (again: the first time African-American women were nominated for a country song), and THEN they WON a Grammy for Best Country Group Vocal Performance, another first. Firsts, firsts, firsts.

And you know I had to mention it: The song got Elvis’ attention. He loved country music. And he himself recorded a cover of it in 1975. I love how he hits the word “BET.” Listen for it. There’s a lot of bitterness in that word.

This would not be the last time country music “noticed” them. In the 1980s, Conway Twitty recorded a cover of “Slow Hand” which became a #1 hit for him. Anita Pointer reached the country charts on her own in the 1980s too.

Watch this performance of “Cloud Burst” from 1974 … and prepare to have your mind BLOWN.

The CONTROL, the shared CONTROL, of those vocals and harmonies … and yet you never feel the effort. The amount of rehearsal it must have taken to solidify this, to get it into shape … had to be astronomical. But you never ever see the effort with them. Also, I love their diva-style individual entrances. These ladies put on a show.

Bonnie left for a solo career, signed with Motown, and had a number of hits in the disco world, including “Heaven Must Have Sent You,” which had already been recorded back in the 60s, but Bonnie gave it a disco sheen and fire.

As great as it is to hear the sisters’ harmonies – and they are perfection – it’s also fun to hear Bonnie’s own voice, out in front all alone. It’s fantastic.

Innovator. Pioneer. As the other sisters said about her, Bonnie was the fearless one, the one who stayed out til dawn dancing while the rest of them slept in the hotel, the one who had the vision first, who knew what she wanted to do, who created the space in which to do it, with the no-limits parameter:

“We want to sing everything.”

And boy, they did.