Thursday Open Thread: Famous Black Couples

Marilyn McCoo (born September 30, 1943) is an American singer, actress, and television presenter, who is best known for being the lead female vocalist in the group The 5th Dimension, as well as hosting the 1980s music countdown series Solid Gold. She is the wife of singer Billy Davis, Jr., the founder and co-member of The 5th Dimension, whom she married in 1969.

McCoo was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Waymon and Mary McCoo, who were both doctors.[1] At the age of seven, she moved with her parents, two sisters, and brother to Los Angeles, where she commenced singing, piano and dance lessons. At the age of 15, she joined Art Linkletter’s Talent Show and began modelling.[2] After graduating from high school, she enrolled in UCLA, where she earned a degree in business administration. In 1962, McCoo entered the Miss Bronze California beauty pageant where she came in first place.[3] At this event, she met Lamonte McLemore, a part-time vocalist and photographer for Jet magazine. Her photos, taken by McLemore, were featured in the magazine’s Jet Beauty of the Week section.

In the early and mid-1960s, McCoo was a member of the Hi-Fi’s, who often opened for Ray Charles. She had been invited to join the group by photographer Lamonte McLemore, who would himself join McCoo in The 5th Dimension. Other Hi-Fi members included Harry Elston and Floyd Butler, who would go on to form The Friends of Distinction. She met Billy Davis, Jr. in 1966 when he established The 5th Dimension, then called The Versatiles, which would also include Ron Townson and Florence LaRue (who had won the title of “Miss Bronze California” in 1963). The group’s first big hit was with 1967’s “Up, Up and Away”, written by Jimmy Webb. The song won four 1968 Grammy Awards and was the title track to 5th Dimension’s first hit LP. A year later the group covered Laura Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic”. A medley of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (from the musical Hair) reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April to May 1969 and won the Grammy for ‘Record of the Year’. The group’s cover of Nyro’s “Wedding Bell Blues”, featuring McCoo’s most prominent vocal of that period, topped the Hot 100 in November 1969.

Billy Davis, Jr. (born June 26, 1938; St. Louis, Missouri)[1] is an American musician, best known as a member of The 5th Dimension. Along with his wife, Marilyn McCoo, he had hit records during 1976 and 1977 with “I Hope We Get to Love in Time”, “Your Love”, and “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)”. Davis and McCoo were married in 1969, and were the main entertainers of a television program, The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. Show, in 1977. That same year, “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” won a Grammy Award.

In 1975, McCoo and Davis left The 5th Dimension and began performing as a duo. Landing a contract with ABC Records, they recorded their 1976 debut album, I Hope We Get to Love in Time. The first single was the title track, which was a mid-chart hit. Their follow up, “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” was an even bigger hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1977. McCoo and Davis were awarded a gold single and a gold album as well as a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. They also hosted their own television program, The Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr Show, on CBS in Summer 1977. After one more album on ABC in 1978, the pair signed with CBS Records the following year and released their last album as a duo until October 2008 when the pair released The Many Faces of Love, a collection of hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

Marilyn was the first to record “Saving All My Love for You” in 1978, later sung by Whitney Houston. The album “Marilyn and Billy”, featured that track as well as a disco hit, “Shine On Silver Moon”. The pair decided to go solo professionally in the early 1980s with McCoo hosting the popular American syndicated television series Solid Gold from 1981 through 1984 and again from 1986 through 1988. She also created a successful nightclub and concert act, and went on to appear as Tamara Price on Days of our Lives in 1986, as a friend of Marlena Evans who sang at her wedding. Tamara later became involved with James Reynolds’ character Abe Carver. McCoo left the series in 1987.

Her 1991 album, The Me Nobody Knows, was nominated for a Grammy. She also released a Christmas album in 1994. McCoo won her eighth Grammy for her contributions to Quincy Jones’ Handel’s Messiah.

(SOURCE: Wikipedia)