What do the Dixie Chicks, the Judds, and the Pointer Sisters have in common? They’ve all won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
When the Pointer Sisters signed their first record deal back in the early 1970s, they wanted to set themselves apart from the rest of the field and come up with their own unique style, musically and visually. They settled on an R&B, jazz, be-bop fusion and put together 40s-inspired vintage outfits from thrift stores. By the time their second album came out, they had a couple of hits under their belt, but it was “Fairytale” that nabbed the group their first Grammy.
Anita wrote the song about a radio DJ she’d been seeing who turned out to be married, and the label released it as a B-side to the album’s second single, “Love In Them There Hills.” R&B radio was cool on “Love…” and the song wasn’t making many waves, so the label pushed the B-side “Fairytale” to country & western stations instead, where it landed in the Top 40.
Listening to the performance, you can hear the girls laying the Southern on a little thick. They’re from Arkansas, but we know they weren’t singing like that on “Jump” a decade later.
With the success of “Fairytale,” The Pointer Sisters became the first Black group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and ultimately nabbed their first Grammy in 1974. It was the first time the Grammy for Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group had gone to a group of women, paving the way for women to ultimately dominate the category, with the Dixie Chicks and the Judds both winning the award five times a piece.
The Pointer Sisters’ foray into country music was pretty short lived. They attempted to flesh out their sound the next year, recording a few more country tunes, but only one made it to the airwaves — “Live Your Life Before You Die” which was nominated for another Grammy in the same category in 1975.
Ten years later, Anita would find herself at #2 on the Country charts in a duet with Earl Thomas Conley (who I am just now seeing for the first time and wondering if one of his parents was passing…)
But anyway, let me climb back out of that rabbit hole. It was pretty newsworthy when Mickey Guyton nabbed a country nomination at the 2020 Grammys, because it’s so rare to see Black women in that arena. Imagine seeing four standing next to each other on stage in 1974…
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