The Beauty of Song, Part Seven: Marilyn McCoo

The 5th Dimension were - perhaps disparagingly - called a black group that sounded white when they first appeared back in the late 1960s, but thanks to a clever mix of soul and MOR, they bridged the racial gap as much as Simon and Garfunkel bridged the generation gap.  (And in late-sixties America, that was a big deal.)  And a great deal of the 5th Dimension's success is attributable to its lead female vocalist, Marilyn McCoo.

The New Jersey-born Ms. McCco moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was a little girl; there she took up singing and sing in a groups called the Hi-Fi's, which included singer Lamonte McLemore.  She eventually met another singer, met Billy Davis, Jr., in 1966 at the time he formed the 5th Dimension; she and McLemore joined the new, punningly titled group, which was rounded out by Ron Townson and Florence LaRue. 

The 5th Dimension had a sixth sense for hits, having success almost immediately - beginning with Jimmy Webb's "Up, Up and Away," from 1967.  Subsequent hit singles included "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Wedding Bell Blues" (both written by Laura Nyro), the latter featuring Ms. McCoo's stunning lead vocal..  (Their medley of "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from the musical Hair, a number-one hit in the spring of 1969, featured a great R&B improvisation from Davis, whom Ms. McCoo married that year.)   Success continued into the seventies with Ms. McCoo singing lead on the hits "One Less Bell to Answer," "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," and "If I Could Reach You."

Ms. McCoo and Davis left the 5th Dimension in 1975 and began performing as a duo. They scored their biggest hit with "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" which topped the Billboard singles chart in January 1977.  Later that year they hosted a summer-replacement TV variety show - the first black couple to do so - on CBS.  (Ms. McCoo later became a host of the pop show "Solid Gold" in the early eighties.) Ms. McCoo and Davis continued to make records after their variety show, releasing their most recent LP, The Many Faces of Love, a collection of hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s, in 2008.  They continue to perform together to this day.

Fun fact 1: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr, both born-again Christians, celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in July 2019.

Fun fact 2:  Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr were the first artists to record (in 1978) "Saving All My Live For You," a mid-eighties hit for Whitney Houston. A song with lyrics about having an affair with a married man may same like and odd choice for a married Christian couple, unless you consider the possibility that the line "You've got your family, and they need you there" could just as easily refer to parents rather than a wife and kids.