The Fifth Dimension
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The Fifth Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes R&B, Soul, and Jazz.
Career
The Fifth Dimension were best-known during the late 1960s and 1970s for popularizing hits of songwriters like Jimmy Webb, Laura Nyro, Burt Bacharach, Ashford & Simpson, and others, and helping to popularize "flower power" music with both white and black middle-class Americans. Before they were called The Fifth Dimension, they originally called themselves The Versatiles. A picture of them from those days appeared on the back of their album Living Together, Growing Together.The five singing members were Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ron Townson. Ron Townson died of a diabetes related illness in 2000.
They have recorded for several different labels over their long career. For example, their work has appeared on the Soul City label. This label was started by Imperial Records/United Artists Records recording artist Johnny Rivers, strictly for their records, even though he would later re-start the label for his own use when he later recorded for Epic Records and Atlantic Records, plus Bell Records ABC Records and Motown Records.
Some of the songwriters popularised by The Fifth Dimension later went on to careers of their own, especially Ashford & Simpson. The group is also notable for having more success with the songs of Laura Nyro than Nyro did herself, particularly in the cases of "Wedding Bell Blues," "Stoned Soul Picnic," and "Save The Country."
McCoo and Davis gained later fame under their own names, and had some success singing as a duo after leaving the group in 1975, including the chart topper "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)."
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.
Discography
Singles
Some of The Fifth Dimension's most famous hit singles include:- "Up, Up, and Away"
- "One Less Bell to Answer"
- "Wedding Bell Blues"
- "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (their biggest hit, number one for six weeks in 1969)
- "Paper Cup"
- "(Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep At All"
- "California Soul"
- "Stoned Soul Picnic"
- "Workin' on a Groovy Thing"
- "If I Could Reach You"
- "Love's Lines, Angles And Rhymes"
- "A Love Like Ours/Puppet Man"
Albums
- Up, Up and Away (1967)
- The Magic Garden (1967)
- Stoned Soul Picnic (1968)
- The Age of Aquarius (1969)
- Portrait (1970)
- Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes (1971)
- Reflections (1971)
- The 5th Dimension/Live! (1971)
- Individually & Collectively (1972)
- Living Together, Growing Together (1973)
- Soul & Inspiration (1974)
- Earthbound (1975)
- Star Dancing (1978)
- High On Sunshine (1978)
- In the House (1995)
External links
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