The 5th Dimension

The Fifth Dimension blended refined soul with accessible adult pop, often touched by the flower-power spirit of their time. While their appeal leaned more toward broad mainstream tastes than toward dedicated hardcore R&B listeners, the ensemble showed keen awareness of shifting musical currents; their song choices launched the careers of writers Jimmy Webb and Laura Nyro, and their signature success came via a medley drawn from the counterculture musical Hair, titled “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” Bones Howe supplied expansive, orchestrated arrangements that framed the group’s polished, interlocking harmonies in the style of California sunshine pop. This production approach is one reason the era’s strongest singles still capture the late-’60s and early-’70s atmosphere with striking accuracy.

The ensemble first assembled in Los Angeles in 1965 under the name the Versatiles. Lamonte McLemore, Ron Townson, and Billy Davis, Jr., each originally from St. Louis, arrived in California separately; their backgrounds spanned jazz, opera, and gospel/R&B. Marilyn McCoo became the initial female member, soon joined by Florence LaRue; both women had previously won beauty pageants while attending colleges in the Los Angeles region. After Motown passed on their demo and a lone single appeared on Bronco, singer Johnny Rivers noticed them and offered a deal on his new Soul City imprint. Rivers required a name and image update, and the Fifth Dimension emerged in 1966. Their debut Soul City release, “I’ll Be Lovin’ You Forever,” failed to chart, yet a version of the Mamas & the Papas’ “Go Where You Wanna Go” reached the Top 20.

Young songwriter Jimmy Webb furnished the breakthrough with the 1967 single “Up, Up and Away.” Celebrating the joys of hot-air balloon travel, the track became the group’s first Top Ten hit at number seven, collected five Grammy Awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and lifted the accompanying debut album to gold status. Webb dominated the follow-up LP The Magic Garden, which contained only one track not written by him; “Paper Cup” and “Carpet Man” achieved modest chart success but lacked the earlier single’s impact. Seeking greater variety, the third album incorporated several Laura Nyro compositions. The Nyro-penned title song “Stoned Soul Picnic” climbed to number three during spring 1968, sold more than a million copies, and established Nyro’s reputation. Another Nyro number, “Sweet Blindness,” also entered the Top 20.

The group reached its commercial height in 1969 after attending a Broadway performance of Hair and choosing to record a medley of two numbers from the production. “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” became an era-defining smash, holding the number-one spot for six weeks, selling three million copies, and earning the ensemble a second Record of the Year Grammy. The matching album The Age of Aquarius attained gold and nearly topped the charts, while the subsequent Nyro composition “Wedding Bell Blues” also reached number one. Life imitated art when Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo married that same year and Florence LaRue wed manager Marc Gordon.

Johnny Rivers transferred Soul City to Bell Records in 1970; the first Bell release, Portrait, yielded several modest hits plus the Top Five Burt Bacharach song “One Less Bell to Answer.” A White House appearance that year, featuring the socially conscious “The Declaration,” drew criticism from segments of the Black audience already drifting as the act’s pop-chart peaks outpaced R&B ones. Bell-era recordings increasingly favored soft-pop territory over earlier R&B and psychedelic-leaning textures. Album sales declined, vocal arrangements began spotlighting individual leads rather than collective harmonies, and Marilyn McCoo took center stage on the 1972 Top Ten entries “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All” and “If I Could Reach You.” These proved the final major successes; the 1973 Bacharach track “Living Together, Growing Together” barely cracked the Top 40, and the 1974 album Soul & Inspiration concluded the partnership with producer Bones Howe. A 1975 reunion with Jimmy Webb produced Earthbound, whose conceptual cohesion again failed to generate a major single and marked the original lineup’s final recording. McCoo and Davis departed to perform as a duo, scoring a major 1976 hit with “You Don’t Have to Be a Star.”

The remaining members added replacements and nearly scored again in 1976 with Florence LaRue on “Love Hangover,” yet Motown’s simultaneous Diana Ross version overshadowed it. The Fifth Dimension itself joined Motown soon afterward, issuing two albums in 1978. Ron Townson briefly pursued solo work before returning, after which the group settled into nostalgia touring while McCoo hosted Solid Gold. Phyllis Battle entered in the mid-1980s, and the original five reunited for a 1990 tour. In 1995 LaRue, Townson, McLemore, Battle, and Greg Walker recorded In the House for Click Records. Willie Williams replaced Townson in 1998; Townson died of kidney failure in 2001. Battle left in 2002 and was succeeded by Van Jewel.