Anita Pointer has stated that she wrote this breakup song from personal experience: pre-stardom the Pointer Sisters had written and recorded radio spots, for which purpose they'd borrowed equipment from San Francisco radio station KSAN, and Anita had become romantically involved with a KSAN deejay who'd neglected to mention being married - "He lied to me so when I found out that's when that song 'came out' [ie.

"Fairytale" was written while the Pointer Sisters were on one of their earliest tours as support for Dave Mason: staying at a motel in Woodstock (NY) Anita was listening to a cassette by James Taylor – "I love him.

The C&W- flavored song was not chosen as its parent album's advance single, that distinction being afforded in March 1974 to "Steam Heat."

A June 1974 follow-up single release originally featured "Fairytale" – pared down from the 5:07 length of the album track – as the B-side to a remake of the Vibrations' 1968 R&B hit "Love in Them There Hills."

Eventually, the follow-up studio album to That's a Plenty – the June 1975 release Steppin' – in fact showed the group moving in a more emphatically R&B direction.

In 1986, Anita Pointer returned to the country charts, scoring a number 2 C&W hit with Earl Thomas Conley on the duet, "Too Many Times".