Break Out (Pointer Sisters album)

Break Out
Studio album by The Pointer Sisters
Released	November 6, 1983
Recorded	Spring – Autumn 1983[1]
Studio	Studio 55 (Los Angeles, California) Baby 'O Recorders (Los Angeles, California) The Music Grinder (Los Angeles, California) Brian Elliot Studios (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	R&B pop soul
Label	Planet/RCA Records
Producer	Richard Perry Glen Ballard Andy Goldmark Barry Mann Stephen Mitchell Howie Rice Bruce Roberts Gary Skardina Brock Walsh
The Pointer Sisters chronology
So Excited! (1982) Break Out (1983) Contact (1985)
Singles from Break Out
"I Need You" Released: October 10, 1983 "Automatic" Released: January 13, 1984 "Jump (For My Love)" Released: April 11, 1984 "Neutron Dance" Released: December 30, 1984 "Baby Come and Get It" Released: March 31, 1985

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	B+ [3]

Break Out is the tenth studio album by American female vocal group The Pointer Sisters, released on November 6, 1983 on Planet Records. It is The Pointer Sisters' most successful album to date.

Overview

Featuring mostly electro-dance tunes, the album gave the Pointer Sisters the biggest success of their recording career, spawning four U.S. top 10 hits – "Jump (For My Love)", "Automatic", "Neutron Dance" and a remixed version of their 1982 hit "I'm So Excited." The latter was included on later editions of the album in the place of the track "Nightline". "Automatic" also became the group's biggest UK hit, peaking at #2 and certified "Silver" by the BPI. "Jump" also made the UK top 10, peaking at #6.

With the remix of "I'm So Excited" added to pressings of the album in mid-1984, a total of six singles were issued from Break Out. The first release was "I Need You," featuring a shared lead by the three Pointer Sisters. A mid-tempo number, it was atypical of the album's overall dance sound; the choice of the song as lead single was based on producer Richard Perry's hope that the track would reinstate the Pointer Sisters' presence at R&B radio. "I Need You" did become a major hit on the R&B chart in Billboard but did not reach the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, stalling at #48.

The dance track "Jump (For My Love)" (simply "Jump" on the first version of the album) with June Pointer on lead was intended to be the second single off Break Out; however, "Automatic" – another dance track – was substituted due to heavy radio and dance club airplay as an album track.^[4] The first major hit to feature the distinctive contralto of Ruth Pointer on lead, "Automatic" became the first Top 40 hit off Break Out, its #5 peak ending a three-year absence by the Pointer Sisters from the Top 10 of the Hot 100. "Automatic" also became the most successful R&B hit by the Pointer Sisters as a trio – its #2 R&B peak was bested by "How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side)", a 1975 #1 R&B hit by the group in its original four-woman format. "Jump (For My Love)" was afforded a single release as the follow-up to "Automatic" and, with a #3 peak, became the most successful single off Break Out.

The re-release of "I'm So Excited" – the one single from Break Out to feature a lead by Anita Pointer, who sang lead on most Pointer Sisters' hits – resulted in a third consecutive Top Ten hit for the group. Prior to Break Out, the Pointers had accumulated three earlier Top 10 hits over a 12-year recording career. "I'm So Excited" peaked at #9. After the Break Out track "Neutron Dance" with Ruth Pointer on lead was optioned for the soundtrack of the film Beverly Hills Cop, it became the fifth single and the album's fourth consecutive Top Ten hit, reaching #6 on the Hot 100 in February 1985. A sixth single, "Baby, Come and Get It" featuring June Pointer on lead, became a minor hit in the spring of 1985 (#44 Hot 100/ #24 R&B).

Break Out sold over three million copies in the US and won the group two Grammy Awards and two American Music Awards. The original and re-released versions of the album were remastered and issued in a deluxe expanded edition with bonus tracks on CD in 2011 by Big Break Records.

According to Ruth Pointer she and her sisters were not happy when Richard Perry advised them he planned to call their upcoming album Break Out: (Ruth Pointer quote:) "We kept thinking of it as a rash or jail[break]."^[5]

Track listing

Production

• Producer: Richard Perry
• Associate Producers: Gary Skardina (track 1); Stephen Mitchell (track 1); Glen Ballard (tracks 2, 5 & 8); Brock Walsh (tracks 2, 5 & 8); Barry Mann (track 3); Howie Rice (tracks 4, 6 & 10); Bruce Roberts (track 7); Andy Goldmark (tracks 7 & 9)
• A&R: Marge Meoli
• Recording Engineer: Michael Brooks (tracks 1–4, 6, 8, 9 & 10)
• Basic Track Engineers: Gary Skardina (track 1), Frances Buckley (track 5) and Brian Elliot (track 7)
• Additional Engineers: Stuart Furusho, Bobby Gerber and Hill Swimmer
• Assistant Engineers: David Dubow, Stuart Furusho and Bobby Gerber
• Remixed by Bill Schnee
• Mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Precision Mastering (Hollywood, CA)
• Art Direction and Design: Kosh and Ron Larson
• Photography: Donald Miller
• Fashion Coordinator: Susan Epstein
• Management: Linda Martinez, Burt Zell, Management III
• Accountants: Kaufman & Bernstein
• Agent: Regency Artists, Ltd.
• Production Management: James C. Tract

Personnel

• Anita Pointer – lead vocals (4, 7, 9, 10), backing vocals
• June Pointer – lead vocals (1, 3, 4, 8), backing vocals
• Ruth Pointer – lead vocals (2, 4, 5, 6), backing vocals

Musicians

• Glen Ballard – drum machine programming (5, 8), synthesizer (5)
• Francis Buckley – drum machine programming (5)
• Paulinho da Costa – percussion (1, 4, 5), tambourine (6)
• Tommy Faragher – synthesizer (5, 8), bass (8), theremin (8)
• Paul Fox – E-mu Emulator (2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)
• Mark Goldenberg – guitar (2), synthesizer (8)
• Andy Goldmark – drum machine programming (7, 9), synthesizer programming (7)
• Reek Havok – electronic drum programming (3, 4, 6, 8)
• Dennis Herring – guitar (2), lead guitar (5)
• James Ingram – drum machine programming (3), synthesizer (3), backing vocals (3)
• David Katay – guitar (3)
• Barry Mann – drum machine programming (3), synthesizer (3)
• Vince Melamed – Fender Rhodes (4)
• Stephen Mitchell – drum machine programming (1), synthesizer programming (1, 6, 10), synthesizer (1, 2, 4)
• Bob Mithoff – drum machine programming (4, 6, 10)
• Greg Phillinganes – Minimoog (8)
• Howie Rice – additional synthesizer (1), Minimoog (1, 5, 9, 10), electronic drums (3, 8), drum machine programming (4, 6, 10), bass (4), guitar (4, 6, 7, 8), percussion (4, 6, 8, 10), synthesizer (4, 5, 6, 9, 10), E-mu Emulator (6), acoustic piano (6), organ (6)
• Bruce Roberts – drum machine programming (7), synthesizer programming (7)
• Richard Ruttenburg – additional synthesizer (7)
• John Van Tongeren – Minimoog (2), synthesizer (2, 4)
• Brock Walsh – drum machine programming (2, 5), synthesizer (2, 5)
• Eddie Watkins Jr – bass (2)

Singles released

• "I Need You" (7" Version)/Operator (Alternate Version) [12" single included extended mix of "I Need You"]
• "Automatic" (7" Version)/Nightline (LP Version) [12" single included extended mix of "Automatic"]
• "Jump (For My Love)" (7" Remix)/Heartbeat [12" single included extended mix of "Jump (For My Love)"]
• "I'm So Excited" (7" Remix)/Dance Electric [12" single included extended mix of "I'm So Excited"]
• "Neutron Dance" (7" Version)/Telegraph Your Love [12" single included extended mix of "Neutron Dance"]
• "Baby Come and Get It"/"Operator" (LP Version) [12" single included extended mix of "Baby Come and Get It"]

Misc notes

• "Nightline", the track dropped from Break Out as originally formatted to allow inclusion of "I'm So Excited", was originally written for and recorded by Michael Jackson but was never released, though a leaked recording has been circulating for many years. The Pointer Sisters' version was utilized as the B-side of the single "Automatic".

Chart positions

References

External links

• Break Out at Discogs (list of releases)