Inside ‘Fairytale,’ the Pointer Sisters’ defiant country kiss-off covered by Elvis

Two years before his untimely demise, Elvis Presley effortlessly tackled the Pointer Sisters’ “Fairytale” on his “Today” album. What did the fourth most successful female group of all time think about the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s engaging cover cut at RCA Studio C in Hollywood? Find out in the second installment of a mammoth interview with eldest sister Ruth Pointer. Seen here looking easier on the eye in a white two-piece suit with blue shoulder ornaments, a 40-year-old Presley performs at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel sometime between March 18 and April 1, 1975. Incidentally, several weeks earlier on March 10 he had nailed “Fairytale.” Image Credit: For Elvis CD Collectors Forum

Growing up, Elvis Presley’s quasi-gospel ballad “Crying in the Chapel” was the first secular recording allowed inside the Pointer Sisters’ strict Church of God in Christ home in West Oakland, California. Ruth, Anita, Bonnie, and June were only allowed to listen to the radio on Sundays. On top of that, it had to be gospel stations. Thank God their mom fancied the song.

Years later, the group — minus an already married Ruth — were struggling backup singers. A brief tour supporting guitarist-songwriter Dave Mason of Traffic fame wound up one night in Woodstock, New York. Trying to get some much needed rest in a dinky motel, Anita was listening to James Taylor croon a gentle ballad on her compact cassette machine.

In an extensive 2006 interview with Ken Sharp regarding Writing for the King: The Stories of the Songwriters, Anita revealed that some melody and lyrics came to her out of the blue — “it was like magic” — and that she had no intentions of writing a country-sounding song.

Basically crafted that night and presented to Bonnie for fine-tuning after the tour was over, “Fairytale” was based on a true story. In the early ’70s the Pointers were writing commercials and selling them for $50. A San Francisco radio station named KSAN loaned their equipment so…