''Special Things'' is a studio album by

the Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American female vocal group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. They have had a repertoire with many genres, they have sold around 50 million records throughout their ...

, released in 1980 on Planet Records.

History

The album marked their third venture with producer

Richard Perry Richard Van Perry (June 18, 1942 – December 24, 2024) was an American record producer. He began his musical career as a performer while attending Poly Prep, his high school in Brooklyn. After graduating from college he rose through the late ...

and featured a more stylized R&B/pop production, launching the group into its most successful period. The album spawned their second top three gold-certified single, " He's So Shy". The album also contains minor hit "Could I Be Dreamin’" and two songs written by

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

, "The Love Too Good to Last" and "Where Did the Time Go".

Track listing

Personnel

The Pointer Sisters * Anita Pointer – lead vocals (1, 3, 5, 8), backing vocals, vocal arrangements * June Pointer – lead vocals (2, 4, 6, 7), backing vocals, vocal arrangements * Ruth Pointer – lead vocals (9), backing vocals, vocal arrangements Musicians *

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, vocalist, and arranger. A session musician, Phillinganes has contributed to numerous albums over a broad array of artists and genres. He has toured with artists includin ...

– keyboards (1, 3−5, 7, 9), synthesizers (5),

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

(6) *

Tom Snow Thomas Righter Snow (born 1947 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick "( Even a Fool Would Let Go" with Kerry Chater – a song covered by a number of artists including Kenn ...

– keyboards (2), synthesizers (2), arrangements (2) * Lance Ong – synthesizers (3, 4) *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthes ...

– synthesizer programming (5), synthesizers (8) * John Barnes –

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(6), keyboards (8) * Clarence McDonald – acoustic piano (6) *

– horn arrangements (3), string arrangements (3, 7), keyboards (7) *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American Jazz fusion, fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. In addition to being a recording artist in his own right, Jackson is also a session player, with a career ...

– guitar (1, 3, 5, 9), guitar solo (4) * Tim May – guitar (2, 6, 8) * Ben Bridges – guitar (4) * Marlo Henderson – guitar (4, 5, 7) *

Mark Goldenberg Mark Goldenberg (born October 2, 1952) is an American guitarist and songwriter, noted for his session work and composition of successful songs for Linda Ronstadt, the Pointer Sisters, and others. Biography Early career Raised in Chicago, Illi ...

– guitar (6, 8) * David Williams – guitar (7, 9) * Nathan Watts – bass (1−5, 8, 9), percussion (5) * John Pierce – bass (6) *

James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...

– bass (7) * Ollie E. Brown – drums (1, 3, 5) *

James Gadson James Edward Gadson (born June 17, 1939) is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B. He is also a singer and songwriter. ...

– drums (2, 6, 8) * Raymond Pounds – drums (4) * Ricky Lawson – drums (7, 9) *

Paulinho da Costa Paulinho da Costa (, born Paulo Roberto da Costa on May 31, 1948) is a Brazilian percussionist. Beginning his career as a samba musician in Brazil, he moved to the United States in the early 1970s and worked with Brazilian bandleader Sérgio Me ...

– percussion (1−4, 8) * Jay Hutson –

alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...

(1), saxophone (4) *

Don Myrick Donald Myrick (April 6, 1940 – July 30, 1993) was an American saxophonist. A member of the Phenix Horns, he was best known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire and Phil Collins. He played alto, tenor, and soprano sax as a member of Earth, W ...

– alto flute (1), saxophone (4), alto sax solo (9) * Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone (1, 4) * Dick Hyde – trombone (4) *

Chuck Findley Charles B. Findley (born December 13, 1947, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is an American trumpet player known for his diverse work as a session musician. He also plays other brass instruments such as flugelhorn and trombone. His technical ab ...

– trumpet (1), flugelhorn (1, 3) * Steve Madaio – trumpet (1, 4), flugelhorn (1) * Warren Looney – flugelhorn (3) * Larry Gittens – trumpet (4) * Gary Grant – trumpet (4) * Henry Sigismonti –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

(1) *

Trevor Lawrence William Trevor Lawrence (born October 6, 1999) is an American professional American football, football quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). Considered among the highest-touted college football prospect ...

– arrangements (1, 6, 9), horn arrangements (1, 4, 6, 7, 9), string arrangements (1, 5, 6, 9), conductor (1, 5, 6, 9), orchestration (3) * Sid Sharp – concertmaster (1, 3, 5−7, 9)

Production

* Richard Perry – producer * Trevor Lawrence – associate producer * Gabe Veltri – recording * Tim Dennen – assistant engineer * Jim Küenzi – assistant engineer *

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and distri ...

– assistant engineer * Raven Royce-Jordan – assistant engineer * James Guthrie – remixing * Mike Reese – mastering *

Doug Sax Doug Sax (April 26, 1936 – April 2, 2015) was an American mastering engineer from Los Angeles, California. He mastered three The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six Pink Floyd's albums, including '' The Wall''; Ray Charles' multiple ...

– mastering * The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, CA) – mastering location * Daniel Kushnick – production coordinator * Michael Solomon – production coordinator * John Kosh – art direction, design *

Aaron Rapoport Aaron Rapoport (born May 22, 1954) is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of musicians. Biography In a career that spans over three decades, Rapoport has photographed in a wide variety of areas including commercial photogr ...

– photography

Chart positions

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1980 albums The Pointer Sisters albums Albums produced by Richard Perry Planet Records albums