Pointers hope they can

Hey Mr. Obama, sir, the Pointer Sisters want you to know they’re keeping Jan. 20 open. See, they’re famous for this song called “Yes We Can Can.” It was a big hit when you were in seventh grade.

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Sound familiar, Mr. President-elect? There’s a bit of resemblance to the campaign slogan that put you in the top spot.

Anyway, the sisters are offering their services for your inaugural festivities. They don’t expect to get the inauguration gig itself - we know Aretha Franklin will be singing as you make your way to the podium and Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma will play a new composition by John Williams.

But what about one of the inaugural balls? What do you say? Yes, we can can …

Anyway, the Obama campaign didn’t pick up on the song.

“And we tried our damnedest, too,” says Anita Pointer, laughing on the phone from her home in Los Angeles. “We tried to contact his office and see if we could perform it for him. We really would love to be at that inaugural ball singing ‘Yes We Can Can,’ but we never could get any response from anyone.

“We believe that, and when we started out, that was our theme. You know, yes we can. We found this song [by Allen Toussaint] on an old Lee Dorsey album and said, ‘This is what we want to tell the world.’”

The Pointers still perform the song in their act, of course - it was their first big hit, after all - but they have “medleyized” it with “Betcha Got a Chick on the Side,” which shares the same spare, bass-heavy beat.

“But we’re talking about taking it out and making it a whole song again,” Miss Pointer says. “Cause these words really need to be heard.

“I’m telling you, our first album came out in 1973, and I can’t believe we’re still singin’ those songs and everybody’s lovin’ it.”

The Pointer Sisters are pretty well adjusted to the fact they’re an oldies act.

“We haven’t really added anything new. We’re doing our hits, and once we get through those, the show is over!” Anita Pointer says and chuckles, a husky, infectious sound.

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