Their music and look, Townson notwithstanding, were pure joy.įor me, loving them was the right thing to do, and not just because of their talent. My admiration wasn’t affected by the fact that portly Townson, clearly the odd one out, was holding a pipe in one picture – not some hippie bong thing, but the kind smoked by suburban dads. In keeping with the zodiac theme, the group’s star signs were printed inside The Age of Aquarius’s gatefold sleeve, revealing that LaRue and Townson were actual Aquarians. The 5th Dimension sing One Less Bell to Answer It was, McCoo said later, “a very mellow, overdubbed kind of sound”, while McLemore’s term for it was “champagne soul”. (I barely noticed male members Ron Townson, Billy Davis Jr and Lamonte McLemore they were the worker bees, while McCoo and LaRue were the queens.) McCoo’s soprano and LaRue’s alto were a rich mix – breezy or imploring as the song demanded, or a tangy complement to the men’s baritones. Of the two, the 5th Dimension moved me more: their tremendous harmonies were uplifting and elegant, and the two female singers, Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo, approachably glamorous. My formative albums, then: a Broadway show whose selling point was nudity, and cocktail soul by a vocal group whose smoothness got them a rejection from Motown. My mother bought The Age of Aquarius because she’d been beguiled by the 5th Dimension’s run of gilded pop hits, and was then spurred to investigate Hair because The Age of Aquarius’s title track was a song from the musical. Both arrived in their record collection around 1975, several years after they had been released (in 19, respectively). One was the original Broadway cast recording of the musical Hair, which was famous for a scene in which the entire lot were naked the other was The Age of Aquarius by the 5th Dimension. Originally appearing on The Magic Garden, the single was the band's least successful in three years, due in part to competing with Bell Records' release of new material.My parents owned only two albums that weren’t folk or opera. "The Girls' Song" is the 5th Dimension's final single release on Soul City and was issued specifically to coincide with this album.However, The 5th Dimension's version came first, released on their album entitled The Magic Garden. Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge had a hit with the song in early 1969. " The Worst That Could Happen" was not a hit for The 5th Dimension, as it was not released as a single.The album cover makes no mention of this being a shortened version of the hit. 2 in Billboard's listing of top Hot 100 singles of 1969. The version of " Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" included here is a shortened version of the 4:49 single release which ranked no.Greatest Hits on Earth remained in print for decades. Greatest Hits remained in print until replaced by Bell Records' 1972 compilation album, Greatest Hits on Earth which confirmed The 5th Dimension's enduring popularity by charting at no. 5 on Billboard's Top LP's chart in the summer of 1970, achieving gold record status. The 5th Dimension subsequently signed with Bell Records. Greatest Hits and The July 5 Album were the final two album releases for Soul City Records' distribution deal with Liberty Records. It includes all but two of their charting singles to date: " Go Where You Wanna Go", their first Top 20 record in the USA, would appear on the follow-up compilation, The July 5th Album, released later that year, while "Another Day, Another Heartache" was not included on either compilation. Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American pop group The 5th Dimension, released in 1970 by Soul City.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |