Anita Pointer, of the sibling hit-making group the Pointer Sisters, died on Saturday at age 74, her household in an announcement.
“Whereas we’re deeply saddened by the lack of Anita, we’re comforted in understanding she is now along with her daughter, Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace,” stated the assertion issued by publicist Roger Neal. “She was the one which saved all of us shut and collectively for therefore lengthy. Her love of our household will reside on in every of us. Please respect our privateness throughout this era of grief and loss. Heaven is a extra loving stunning place with Anita there.”
Sisters June and Bonnie began the unique group in 1969. By 1973, the group had expanded to incorporate their two sisters, Anita and Ruth. The group’s first main pop hit was “Sure We Can Can,” written by Allen Toussaint, “a cool unity anthem.” The Pointer Sisters’s fiddle-driven 1974 ballad, “Fairytale,” written by Anita and Bonnie, was a success on the nation charts and scored the group its first of three Grammys. Within the Seventies and Eighties the group had a string of hits starting with their model of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hearth” that reached Quantity Two on the U.S. pop charts in 1978.
Different large successes included 1980 smash “He’s So Shy” and 1981’s “Gradual Hand,” which reached Quantity Three and Quantity Two respectively. The Anita-led “I’m So Excited,” “Neutron Dance,” and “Soar (For My Love)” established the Pointer Sisters as a chart-ruling group by way of the primary half of the last decade.
The Pointer Sisters additionally recorded the memorable pinball counting tune for Sesame Avenue within the Seventies.
Anita Pointer is survived by her sister, Ruth Pointer, brothers Aaron Pointer, Fritz Pointer, and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer.
Katrina Leskanich, of Katrina and the Waves, tweeted on Sunday that she remembered Anita “was so form and beneficiant along with her friendship and steerage to me,” when she was on tour with Wham! and the Pointer Sisters in 1985. “I realized so much standing facet of stage each evening watching her amaze and excite the group.
“Whereas watching Wham! she advised me one thing I’ll always remember. ‘It’s all about vitality,’” Leskanich wrote. “Thanks in your vitality and fervour and the music that makes me and the world love you a lot.”
Correction: An earlier model of this publish incorrectly listed which Pointer sisters wrote the tune, “Fairytale.”