‘The First Couple of Pop and Soul’ in their own words
John Berlau
When Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. took the stage last month at the Tilles Center concert hall at Long Island University in Brookville, New York, the husband-and-wife performers sported matching colors with sequins, frequently put their arms around each other, and reminisced about their 50-plus years of performing together — both in the supergroup the 5th Dimension and as a vocal duo. The couple received much applause for their smooth renditions of 5th Dimension hits from the ‘60s “Up, Up, and Away” and “Wedding Bell Blues,” as well as for newer material from their 2021 album Blackbird.
“We haven’t stopped singing because we love what we do,” McCoo told me in a phone interview with the two musicians after the show. Performing together since 1965 and married since 1969, McCoo and Davis, 79 and 84, respectively, are having a resurgence. In 2021, the label EE1 released their first major studio album together in more than 30 years. The album puts the singers’ stamp, with elements of funk, gospel, and R&B, on classic songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Blackbird soared to the top of the iTunes R&B Album charts and hit Billboard magazine’s Top Album Sales chart.
The couple also participated as on-screen commentators in the movie Summer of Soul, which in 2022 received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Directed by popular musician and producer Questlove of the band the Roots, the documentary chronicles the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, where McCoo and Davis performed as members of the 5th Dimension.
On top of that, McCoo and Davis appeared as characters in the CW Network’s 2021 and 2022 reboot specials of the ‘70s TV series The Waltons, and the couple announced last month that they will be back in the EE1 studios to record a new album. And they will be performing live concerts on Jan. 21 at the Rialto Center of the Arts at Georgia State University in Atlanta and on Feb. 1 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida. “We’re looking forward to getting back [on tour],” Davis said.
Along with their boom in popularity, there has been a reappraisal among music critics and aficionados about the couple’s historic contribution to pop music. Questlove called McCoo and Davis “the first couple of pop and soul.” Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne declared in the magazine that the 5th Dimension — under its original lineup that included the couple — launched a “quiet revolution” that fused folk, pop, and gospel together. “The quintet were, in a way, a black version of the Mamas and the Papas.” He also credits the group for introducing great contemporary songwriters such as Jimmy Webb and the late Laura Nyro into the mainstream.
Webb, who wrote the 5th Dimension’s first big hit, the multiple-Grammy-winning “Up, Up, and Away,” and wrote most of the songs for the group’s concept album The Magic Garden, had high praise for McCoo and Davis. He has remained friends with the couple since his work with them more than 50 years ago, and he came to their show in Long Island. “They are absolutely amazing human beings,” he told me. “They brought out the best in a lot of people’s songs.” The singer-songwriter, who has written many classic songs, including “MacArthur Park” and “Wichita Lineman,” said that McCoo and Davis rank with Frank Sinatra as some of the all-time great interpreters of music and lyrics. With the 5th Dimension and on their own, he said, “They would mark anything they recorded indelibly as sort of their material. They are certainly on the same track as Mr. Sinatra in that their interpretations have always been magical, unique, and wonderful.”
In the ‘80s, McCoo co-hosted the syndicated pop charts-focused TV variety series Solid Gold. On the show, McCoo regularly sang the songs by other artists that were climbing the charts. Today, YouTube hosts a vault of her renditions of these covers, spanning genres from straight rock (such as Journey) to soul to country. Both Davis and McCoo said that whether a song is from Jimmy Webb or Journey, they perform it by attempting to understand the artist. Davis said that when recording a song someone else has written, “I always put myself and my experience in that particular place and try to interpret it as best I can.”
McCoo added that she and Davis, who became born-again Christians in the early ‘80s, pray, among other things, for empathy and understanding. “We pray, and we’re constantly asking the Lord to show us what we need to see in a situation: to please help us to know what is happening with a person and what we can do to be of encouragement.”
The long-married couple added that understanding and mutual respect are also key to making a marriage work. McCoo said, “You have to respect each other, respect each other’s dreams.” And Davis finished the sentence, “And support each other.”
John Berlau is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of the book George Washington, Entrepreneur.