The 5th Dimension

Formation

In the early 1960s, Lamonte McLemore and Marilyn McCoo got together with three friends from Los Angeles — Harry Elston, Lawrence Summers. and Fritz Baskett — to form a group called 'the Hi-Fis' (which later became 'the Vocals'). In 1963, they sang at local clubs while taking lessons from a vocal coach. In 1964, they came to the attention of Ray Charles, who took them on tour with him the following year. He produced a single by the group, "Lonesome Mood", a jazz-type song that gained local attention. However, internal disagreements caused Elston to go his way, eventually leading to his forming the Friends of Distinction, with latter day Hi-Fis member, Floyd Butler.

McLemore sought to form another group and started looking for members to join him and McCoo. McCoo, who had studied with the respected vocal coach Eddie Beal, had appeared in high school and college musical productions and was known for her way with a torch song. McLemore found Florence LaRue, who had received training as in singing, dancing, and violin; and who won the talent portion at the Miss Bronze California contest, which LaMonte was assigned to photograph. (McCoo had won the contest the prior year.) About the same time LaRue was approached to join the group, McLemore recruited an old friend, Ronald Townson, who at age six was singing in choirs and gospel groups in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. His grandmother fostered his career by arranging for private voice and acting lessons as he grew up. In his teens, he toured with Dorothy Dandridge and Nat King Cole, joined the Wings Over Jordan Choir, and played a small part in the film Porgy and Bess. He demonstrated his skill as a classical artist by placing third in the Metropolitan Opera auditions held in St. Louis. After finishing high school, he worked his way through Lincoln University by conducting the school and church choir. After graduating, he organized his own 25-member gospel choir.

Another of McLemore's friends from St. Louis days, Billy Davis Jr., started singing in gospel choirs at an early age. He later saved enough money to buy a cocktail lounge in St. Louis, which he used as a base for experimenting with musical groups. When asked to join McLemore's new group, he agreed, while hoping for a solo contract from Motown.

Major hits

The members began rehearsing as the Versatiles in late 1965 and auditioned for Marc Gordon, who headed Motown's Los Angeles office. Although the group's demo tape was rejected by Motown, Gordon agreed to manage them and brought them to the attention of Johnny Rivers, who had just started his own label, Soul City Records. Their first Soul City single, "I'll Be Lovin' You Forever", was a successful single.

In 1965 The Mamas & the Papas' first single, lead member John Phillips' "Go Where You Wanna Go", failed to open the foursome's chart career. At the suggestion of Rivers and their manager Marc Gordon, the 5th Dimension covered the same song virtually note-for-note (except for the last verse's upward modulation), and their early 1967 version climbed into the top 20 on R&B and pop stations and peaked at #16 on the Hot 100, opening the quintet's chart career.

The budding songwriter Jimmy Webb supplied the group with their breakthrough hit, "Up, Up and Away", a mid-1967 #7 hit that won five Grammy Awards. The following year, the group scored major hit singles with Laura Nyro's songs "Stoned Soul Picnic" (U.S. #3) and "Sweet Blindness" (U.S. #13). The group received a gold record for their album Stoned Soul Picnic.

That album included "California Soul", which peaked at #25 in February 1969. Weeks later the group's success broke wide open, with "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from the musical Hair topping the Hot 100 for six straight weeks in April and May, and another Nyro song, "Wedding Bell Blues", doing the same for the first three full weeks in November. Their cover of Neil Sedaka's "Workin' On a Groovy Thing" went to #20 in between. Those four singles kept the group on the Hot 100 for all but four weeks in 1969. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was the biggest hit single for 1969.

Later top 20 hits included 1970's "One Less Bell to Answer" (U.S. #2), 1971's "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" (U.S. #19) and "Never My Love" (U.S. #12), 1972's "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" (U.S. #8) and "If I Could Reach You" (U.S. #10). The group had seven other top 40 hits, the last being 1973's "Living Together, Growing Together" (U.S. #32) from the film Lost Horizon.

TV appearances

The 5th Dimension performed "Sweet Blindness" on Frank Sinatra's 1968 TV special Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing and sang "Workin' On a Groovy Thing" and "Wedding Bell Blues" on Woody Allen's The Woody Allen Special in 1969. They introduced "Puppet Man" and "One Less Bell To Answer" as guests in the It Takes a Thief episode "To Sing a Song of Murder" in 1970; the latter song was used as a plot device in which its closing notes were to activate a bomb in an assassination attempt of the head of a fictitious country.

The 5th Dimension appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice in 1969. The group performed and sang a medley consisting of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" on February 23, 1969 and performed and sang "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" on May 18, 1969, the day after the medley fell from the Hot 100 summit. That same year the group appeared on the British show This Is Tom Jones, singing "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Got My Mojo Workin'."

The 5th Dimension: An Odyssey in the Cosmic Universe of Peter Max, a television special, aired on CBS on May 21, 1970.

During the last season of The Ed Sullivan Show, Sullivan dedicated the entire February 21, 1971 episode to the fifth anniversary of the 5th Dimension. The group opened the show with "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" and later joined Connie Stevens for "Puppet Man". They came back for the last 15 minutes of the show and sang their hits "Up, Up and Away", "One Less Bell to Answer", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Wedding Bell Blues", and finished up with "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". This appearance was the group's last on Sullivan.

The 5th Dimension Traveling Sunshine Show, a television special, aired on August 18, 1971.

The 5th Dimension made memorable appearances on Soul Train, American Bandstand, The Flip Wilson Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Regrouping

In 1975, McCoo and Davis, who had married on 26 July 1969, left the group to do collective and individual projects. They went on to have success as a duo with "Your Love" and the chart topper "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" which won them their seventh Grammy award.

McCoo served a lengthy '80's stint as the host of the TV show Solid Gold. The remaining trio carried on with new members, and nearly had a hit in 1976 with the LaRue-sung "Love Hangover"; however, Motown issued Diana Ross' original version shortly after the 5th Dimension's hit the charts, and hers soared to the top of the charts. The group signed with Motown not long after, releasing two albums in 1978. R&B singer Lou Courtney was in the group briefly in 1978 and 1979, Joyce Wright joined in 1979, and Phyllis Battle joined in 1988.

Reunion and departure

The original quintet reunited in 1990 and 1991 for a tour. Townson left the group to try a solo career, but soon returned, as the group resigned itself to the nostalgia circuit. In 1995, the quintet of LaRue, Townson, McLemore, Battle, and Greg Walker recorded a new album, In the House, for Click Records. In 1998, Willie Williams replaced Townson, who died in 2001 due to kidney failure. Battle departed in 2002, to be replaced by Van Jewell. McLemore left the group in March 2006.

Today

As of April 2009, the group was actively touring as "The 5th Dimension featuring Florence LaRue", led by LaRue, with Willie Williams, Leonard Tucker, Patrice Morris, and Floyd Smith.

Celebrating 45 years of marriage, McCoo and Davis continue to tour separately from the 5th Dimension as their own act: "Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr." In October 2011, McCoo and Davis were featured on the Cliff Richard album Soulicious, appearing live on stage in the tour of the same name, reprising several of their hits as well as dueting with Richard. In 2013, McCoo and Davis released their own double-CD project: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Live.

On February 14, 2015, McLemore released an autobiographical memoir, From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension: A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography and Music.

On June 21, 2016, The 5th Dimension featuring Florence LaRue performed in The Villages, Florida, just days after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. Band leader Florence LaRue took the opportunity to share her thoughts on the tragedy: "We will not be terrorized. We know what’s happening in the world, but this is a song about good health, love, peace and happiness. We still believe in those things today," she stated before the group performed "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".

Honors

The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.

They have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted August 9, 1991, and the St. Louis Walk of Fame, inducted on March 18, 2010.

Membership

McCoo and Davis left the group in November 1975. Since then, other members have included:

Singles

US charts are from Billboard. Canadian charts are taken from the weekly surveys of CHUM in Toronto.

Compilation albums

There have been several 5th Dimension compilations issued in recent years. In 2004, Arista issued Ultimate 5th Dimension, a single disc containing 20 hit singles plus a previously unreleased McCoo-led take on "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye". In 2011, Sony/Legacy reissued the two-CD The Definitive Collection as The Essential 5th Dimension, with a few changes to the repertiore. Legacy issued, in 2014, the group's entry in their "Playlist" series of single disc releases, including the radio edit of "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (which was issued on the 1970 Greatest Hits vinyl album) and a few mono single versions. Finally, in December 2016, Real Gone Music issued the three-disc set The Complete Soul City/Bell Singles 1966-1975.

DVDs