"Fairytale" is the title of a song introduced on the Pointer Sisters' May 1974 album release That's a Plenty

That's a Plenty

That's a Plenty is the second album released by Oakland family girl group the Pointer Sisters in 1974 on the Blue Thumb label.-History:Mixing the Pointers' brand of soul with rollicking blues numbers and jazz covers, the album also included the country-flavored "Fairytale." The song became their...

; written by group members Anita Pointer

Anita Pointer

Anita Pointer is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter and a member of The Pointer Sisters.-Biography:...

 (lyrics) and Bonnie Pointer

Bonnie Pointer

Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer is an American R&B and disco singer, most notable for being the next-to-youngest member of the 1970s and 1980s family music group, The Pointer Sisters. She scored several moderate solo hits after leaving the Pointers in 1977, including a disco cover of The Elgins'...

 (music), "Fairytale" became the second of the three Top 40 hits scored by the Pointer Sisters in their original embodiment as a quartet

Quartet

In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...

 - Anita Pointer would sing lead on all three of these hits.

Recorded at Quadraphonic Studios in Nashville TN

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, "Fairytale" with its C&W

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 flavor represented an extreme stylistic departure for the Pointer Sisters and was not chosen as its parent album's advance single, that distinction being afforded in March 1974 to "Steam Heat

Steam Heat

"Steam Heat" is a show tune from the 1954 musical The Pajama Game, written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross.The best-known recording was done by Patti Page...

", an exemplar of the group's typical swing era sound which failed to chart. The June 1974 followup single release originally featured "Fairytale" - pared down from the 5:07 length of the album track - as the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 to a remake of the Vibrations

The Vibrations

The Vibrations were an African-American soul vocal group from Los Angeles, California, active from the mid-1950s to 1976. Most notable among the group's hit singles were "My Girl Sloopy" and "Love in Them Thar Hills"...

' 1968 R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 hit "Love in Them There Hills" but after the last-named track failed to attract interest at Pop- or R&B-formatted radio stations its intended B-side "Fairytale" was pitched to C&W-formatted radio stations, a left-field maneuver which paid off with a debut on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

C&W chart

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 dated 27 July 1974; as the Pointer Sisters' label Blue Thumb had no C&W division "Fairytale" was promoted in the C&W market by ABC Dot Records

Dot Records

Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...

 which like Blue Thumb was part of the Famous Music

Famous Music

Famous Music was the worldwide music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom since 1994. Its copyright holdings span several decades and includes music from such Academy Award-winning motion pictures as The Godfather and Forrest Gump...

 group.

The Pointer Sisters began a series of promotional appearances in Nashville with a 16 August 1974 performance at Fairgrounds Speedway and on 25 October 1974 the Pointer Sisters performed "Fairytale" at the Grand Ole Opry

Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...

, marking the inaugural Opry appearance by an African-American vocal group (the personnel for the Pointer Sisters' Opry performance - which also featured "Shaky Flat Blues" - was Anita, Ruth

Ruth Pointer

Ruth Pointer is an American R&B singer, best known for being the eldest member of The Pointer Sisters.-Early life:Pointer was born in Oakland, California. She began her vocal training as a director of a junior choir in her father's church.-The Pointer Sisters:Joining her sisters in 1972, the...

 and Bonnie Pointer; the absence of fourth member June Pointer

June Pointer

June Antoinette Pointer Whitmore was an American Pop/R&B singer and was a founding member/and lead vocalist of the vocal group The Pointer Sisters.-Early life and career:...

 being attributed to physical and nervous exhaustion). Ultimately "Fairytale" had achieved only moderate C&W hit status peaking at #39 on the Billboard C&W chart dated 5 October 1974 but this was sufficient success to effect a crossover

Crossover (music)

Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...

 to Pop radio with "Fairytale" debuting on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 - also dated 5 October 1974 - to ascend to a #13 peak that December. Internationally "Fairytale" reached #30 in Australia and #42 in Canada, also reaching #41 on the Canadian C&W chart.

The Pointer Sisters had introduced "Fairytale" in performance in their 21 April 1974 concert at the San Francisco Opera House; their live version was featured on the Live at the Opera House

Live at the Opera House

Live at the Opera House is the first live album released by the American vocal group The Pointer Sisters, released on the Blue Thumb label in 1974.-History:...

album released September 1974.

Bonnie Pointer would play down the idea of a C&W hit by the Pointer Sisters being a novelty: "People think because we're always trying something different we're not sincere. Like country music. For us it's no joke...Our folks came from Arkansas and we grew up singing country songs. It's part of us." "Fairytale" would win the Pointer Sisters the Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group

Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal

The Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded from 1970 to 2011. The award has had several minor name changes:*In 1970 the award was known as Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group...

 for the year 1974, marking the first awarding of a Grammy

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 to an all-female vocal group, and Bonnie and Anita Pointer would also receive a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song

Grammy Award for Best Country Song

The Grammy Award for Best Country Song has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the writer of the song.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:...

 as the writers of "Fairytale".

In December 1975 the Pointer Sisters recorded five more tracks at Quadrophonic Studios intending to complete an album of all-C&W songs; however only one track was released: "Live Your Life Before You Die" which upon its January 1975 single release only became a minor Pop hit (#89) (although it would garner the Pointer Sisters another Best Country Group Performance Grammy nomination) and the followup studio album to That's a Plenty: the June 1975 release Steppin'

Steppin'

Steppin' is the third studio album by the Pointer Sisters, released in 1975 on the ABC/Blue Thumb label.-History:Steppin, which was more R&B heavy than the sister quartet's previous albums, generated a number one R&B hit with its first single, "How Long ". It also peaked at #20 on the Billboard...

, in fact showed the group moving in a more emphatically R&B direction than previously. Anita Pointer did score a #2 C&W hit in 1986 dueting with a Earl Thomas Conley

Earl Thomas Conley

Earl Thomas Conley is an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, he recorded ten studio albums, including seven for the RCA Records label. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Conley also charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which...

 on "Too Many Times".

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 recorded "Fairytale" on 10 March 1975 at RCA's Hollywood studios.

Credits

• Lead vocals by Anita Pointer
  Anita Pointer
  Anita Pointer is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter and a member of The Pointer Sisters.-Biography:...
  
  
• Background vocals by The Pointer Sisters: Ruth Pointer
  Ruth Pointer
  Ruth Pointer is an American R&B singer, best known for being the eldest member of The Pointer Sisters.-Early life:Pointer was born in Oakland, California. She began her vocal training as a director of a junior choir in her father's church.-The Pointer Sisters:Joining her sisters in 1972, the...
  
  , Bonnie Pointer
  Bonnie Pointer
  Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer is an American R&B and disco singer, most notable for being the next-to-youngest member of the 1970s and 1980s family music group, The Pointer Sisters. She scored several moderate solo hits after leaving the Pointers in 1977, including a disco cover of The Elgins'...
  
   and June Pointer
  June Pointer
  June Antoinette Pointer Whitmore was an American Pop/R&B singer and was a founding member/and lead vocalist of the vocal group The Pointer Sisters.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Produced by David Rubinson and written by Anita and Bonnie Pointer

Charts

Chart (1974)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	13
U.S. Billboard Country Singles	37