Tag Archives: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis

Inspiration from Billy & Marilyn!

Posted on December 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

Joyful News! The Soldiers for the Second Coming ministry with Pastor Billy Davis, Jr. and Marilyn McCoo just signed with the Your Home TV network featured on Roku for an 8-episode season in 2024. Billy & Marilyn also have a new YouTube channel in conjunction with the ministry…enjoy their Christmas season perennial, “It Wouldn’t Be Christmas,” and be sure to subscribe!

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Marilyn & Billy’s Cool n’ Diverse Concert Dates, Just In!

Posted on May 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

#CoolConcertsFirstCouple The 1st Couple of Pop n’ Soul, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. have an amazingly diverse lineup of upcoming concert dates by popular demand, including a Jazz festival in NY, the Cerritos Center in CA, Tulsa, Georgia, S. Carolina, Illinois and an appearance with the Southeast Texas Symphany!! Receiving the best reviews of their career, experience the magic of #MarilynBilly! Go to their website for all the exciting details at www.mccoodavis.com

(Special thanks to the Deniserose Torres Photo Collection, all rights reserved, used by permission; and Steve Rosenblum, Sterling/Winters – KIWW Management)

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Happy Birthday, Billy Davis, Jr. — Gentleman of Soul

Posted on June 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

Happy Birthday Billy Davis, Jr. — His Greatest Solos!

Dateline June 26:  Billy Davis, Jr. is truly an American treasure. The multi-Grammy winning soul stylist, with roots as lead singer of The Original 5th Dimension, along with his beautiful wife of soon-to-be 51 years, Marilyn McCoo, has an instantly recognizable voice like no other. Fellow-5th mate Florence LaRue declares, “No one sounds like Billy…he can break your heart!” And his best comrade, 5th-founder LaMonte McLemore punctuates his own memoir (“From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension’) acknowledging, “Billy’s lead on ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ says it all.” Mac adds, “Not to mention his ‘havin’ church’ on our biggest hit ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.'” Yes, the man who implored the world to “Sing along with The 5th Dimension” invited us to share in his own harmonic journey….that of an incomparable legacy artist, a stellar showman, and an inspiring faith-based figure.

Marilyn reminds, “Billy always says, ‘What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.'” Heralded by the likes of Jimmy Webb (“Up-Up and Away”), Eddie Levert (The O’Jays) and Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire), Billy humbly sums up his talents best of all, “That’s not me…it’s God working through me!”

Happy Birthday Billy, we love you and celebrate you with these memorable 15 solos to savor at this link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaK9iR0FOkJGaF5VqOKcXiTsZZc38Pdpz

Robert-Allan Arno & The Fans
Forever 5th Dimension

copyright 2020, The Soul of The Voice, Ltd., all rights reserved

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We Remember Artist, Kenneth “Kenny” Green

Posted on June 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

Dateline June 24:  On the occasion of his birthday, FOREVER 5th DIMENSION honors the beloved artist Kenneth Green who we recently lost due to complications of Covid-19. The remembrance posted on LaMonte McLemore’s page a few weeks ago, expresses our sentiments so well:

LaMonte by Kenny Greene

Portrait of LaMonte McLemore by Kenneth Green

Today’s post is in memory of New York City artist, singer and special fan & friend of The 5th Dimension, Mr. Kenneth Green who we just learned passed away from complications of Covid-19 last month. According to my biographer, Robert-Allan Arno, Kenny got his original inspiration to be a sketch artist and portrait painter from our 5th Dimension: PORTRAIT album– with those amazing drawings by the renowned Leroy Neiman. Robert commissioned Kenny to paint my portrait and then come surprise me at my NYC book event 5 years ago, the onstage talk show & signing for my memoir “From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension” held at the charming Ashford & Simpson’s Sugar Bar. Here is the portrait–unsigned version–Kenny did of me, then us happily posing together with it signed…it is timeless just like Kenny’s eternally sweet and talented spirit and the warm memory of knowing him.

Kenneth Mac

Kenneth Green, LaMonte McLemore holding Kenny’s signed artwork, and Robert-Allan Arno

My lovely wife Mieko adds, “We remember Mr. Green fondly and are so sorry to learn of his passing. His portrait of LaMonte sits proudly in our Las Vegas home.” ~~♥ Mieko & LaMonte McLemore

For their 40th wedding anniversary, Kenny also portrayed Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr…something FOREVER 5th DIMENSION was so pleased to use in our social media…Keneth Green MarBill

“Earth hath no sorrow that heaven can not heal”….we will always remember the magical artistic muse of, and endearing, caring soul that is Kenneth Green. —Robert-Allan Arno

Kenneth Green Me

Arno by Green

 

Kenneth Greene

In Loving Memory of Kenneth Green

 

 

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The Declaration

Posted on June 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

Kathie Lee 2

Over the past 12 weeks, I’ve had the great honor & pleasure, as his biographer, to present with LaMonte McLemore on his Facebook page, “LaMonte’s Music Mondays.” Our goal was to bring joy during these unpresented times, but we found ourselves helping to bring revelation, as evidenced in today’s entry…one Mac and I are most proud to feature. I’m so pleased to share it here too, at FOREVER 5th DIMENSION. –Robert-Allan Arno

Welcome Back to “LaMonte’s Music Mondays” for June 8. Hosted by multi-Grammy winning LaMonte McLemore, founding member of The 5th Dimension, and his biographer Robert-Allan Arno…

LaMonte: First, my wife and I want to thank each and everyone of my fans and friends for the outpouring of birthday greetings for my mother’s 106th birthday this past week, we read them all—over 400! And thank you, Robert for the moving social media you did for this event.

Robert: The essence of “Mama June” symbolizes so much, may I share your lovely wife Mieko’s quote: “Mama June has seen all and still observes the current events of the day. She is a lady of grace, beauty and inclusivity who does not ‘look the other way,’ and that makes her incredibly special.”

CARD EDIT 2LaMonte: That’s my mama, and I get emotional…so I’m glad Mieko expressed that for both of us! (laughs)

Robert: And how wonderful that TV news host Kelly Wright featured your song, “Cease Fire (Enough is Enough)” on his broadcast this past weekend.

LaMonte: Thank you Kelly and also Dr. Julio Hanson who sings my song and helps represent it in the media so well, too. “Cease Fire” is more relevant than ever with all that is going on. I narrate the beginning of the song saying: “There is a weapon of mass destruction and it’s easy to find…just look in the mirror, because it’s us mankind.” We must look at ourselves objectively, halt our judgements, halt the violence…and choose compassion. We are marching in the streets, thousand upon thousands for this…

J100Robert: As we stand for justice and that #BlackLivesMatter…for equality and unity.

LaMonte: Right on! Seems my dream for a “Billion Man March,” and my song accompanying it, is near!

Robert: Which leads us to this week’s song choice by The 5th Dimensiondeclaration 2: “The Declaration.”

LaMonte: We usually feature this for 4th of July weekend, but we can’t wait, it is too timely.

Robert: You found the song, essentially a musical interpretation, using the preamble of the Declaration of Independence as the lyrics.

LaMonte: It was in a play I had seen; I was always bringing things to our producer Bones Howe…Robert you remember these things better than I… (laughs)

Robert: Ha, the play was “Bread, Beans and Things.”

portrait

LaMonte: Dynamite! And Bones placed it as part of The Independence Medley before “A Change is Gonna Come” and “People Gotta Be Free.” It was our version of protest music, the side 2 of our PORTRAIT album.

Robert: Yes, which even started with “Save the Country” before the medley. I had written at the FOREVER 5th DIMENSION blog that “The Declaration” was a precursor to the vibe of Broadway’s “Hamilton.”

LaMonte: I’ll say The 5th Dimension was often ahead of our time, sometimes in ways people didn’t even realize! (laughs)

Robert: Interesting that “The Declaration” (which was released as a single) was banned on Armed Forces Radio, it is that revolutionary of a statement.

LaMonte: Most fans know we performed it at the White House, and at first it was met with silence before resounding applause, even government dignitaries didn’t know what to make of it!

Robert: But the young fans did, so many had reported that they learned to recite “The Declaration of Independence” for school because of The 5th Dimension. I recall our beloved Ron Townson telling me how proud he was of this fact.

LaMonte: Yes, the members of The Original 5th Dimension—Florence, Marilyn & Billy, and I—we still hear about this. I’ll confess, I learned to recite the Declaration of Independence, myself by singing our own musical version! (laughs)

Robert: The performance on record, and on TV in this clip certainly speaks volumes.

LaMonte: It was one of the few times The 5th Dimension was not smiling…

Robert: Its message carried such weight.

LaMonte: Fans and friends, please watch as well as listen to the words of “The Declaration” …yes, it’s more important than ever.

DEC PHOTO

Watch The 5th Dimension perform “The Declaration” with “People Gotta Be Free” here: https://youtu.be/oOUxNAexRzs

Listen to “Cease Fire,” written by LaMonte McLemore, here: https://youtu.be/JuKzxJTl3Tg

LaMonte McLemore’s historic memoir as told to Robert-Allan Arno, “From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension” is available at Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/Hobo-Flats-5th-Dimension-Photography/dp/0692307362

Inspiring 5th

(“LaMonte’s Music Mondays, copyright 2020 by McLemore and Arno, all rights reserved)

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Save the People, Save the Country…

Posted on May 31, 2020 | Leave a comment

Inspiring 5th

From LaMonte McLemore’s Facebook page:

During these troubling times of national concern, we can not think of a better song to share by The 5th Dimension with Billy in the lead: “A Change is Gonna Come” (w/ “People Gotta Be Free.”) This is one of LaMonte’s all-time favorite musical moments, its feeling ends his memoir “From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension” on a hopeful note. As we pray for the eternal memory of Mr. George Floyd, his family, and for rightful justice, let us stand in unity for good…for change…for the true freedom of a brighter day.– Mieko & LaMonte McLemore with Robert-Allan Arno

From Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.’s social media:

Our hearts go out to the family of George Floyd for their loss. Such a senseless act of police brutality. When will this stop? We are all here for one another. We as Americans can’t survive without each other. It’s time for all of us to stand up to injustice.–Marilyn & Billy

Experience “A Change Is Gonna Come” with “People Gotta be Free” here:

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Light Sings: 2019 in Review

Posted on December 31, 2019 | Leave a comment
Billy Center
2019 marked the 50th anniversary of The 5th Dimension’s greatest hit single, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”…we got to chat about the medley’s timelessness at the prestigious “Culture Sonar” in an interview with LaMonte McLemore and myself. And how cool to end the year with Rewound Radio voting the “mash-up” #15 in their all-time Top 77 countdown! AAAMarBill RARE50 was also magical for Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. as the First Couple of Pop n’ Soul celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July. Marilyn, Billy and I got to “croon” about the romantic milestone and their 7-time Grammy winning favorite hits, too, also at “Culture Sonar.”
Florence good oneThe ever vivacious 6-time Grammy winning Florence LaRue and The 5th Dimension brought their “Champagne Soul” myriad hits all through the country, in concert, selling out every venue where they performed! Florence, Patrice, Leonard, Floyd and Sidney are already racking up important appearances for 2020.  See their exciting developing schedule  here: http://5thdimensionlive.com/calendar/

UDOKA MARBILL PHOTOMERGE

50 Years of Love: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. by Ephraim Udoka, Exclusive Artiste All Rights Reserved

Still touring to raves, Marilyn & Billy had a featured song on the “Thank you, Mr. Rogers” CD. And in early November, Marilyn made a poignant , heralded return as Tamara Price on “Days of Our Lives”…Billy appeared too.  For MarBill’s 50th anniversary, I had personally commissioned African artist, Ephraim David Udoka to do a rendering of the couple today, juxtaposed with their earlier selves. It was thrilling to have the talented Udoka study the work of McCoo & Davis and then see the duo’s metamorphosis through his young yet ingenious eyes. Marilyn & Billy’s response to the framed piece received as their special gift was enthusiastic, as follows:

“Wow Robert, what an amazing piece of art, and done by an incredibly gifted artist from Nigeria!! Thank you, thank you!! We love the theme–capturing the two of us in the beginning and now, 50 years later–so perfect for our 50th anniversary (and my birthday!). Thank you for the thought and love you poured into the concept, commissioning the execution of it, and now its ultimate delivery. We couldn’t wait to see what was inside! It’s such a special way for our 50 years together to be celebrated and so unique; there is nothing else like it!! Please tell Ephraim, too, that we love the photos you included of him in the creative process and then holding the final result. Ephraim’s handsome face has a wonderful look of satisfaction. With our Love, Marilyn & Billy”

A 1 UDOKA

Nigerian Artist, Ephraim Udoka poses with his MarBill!

Modeling in LAIn June, LaMonte celebrated the 105th birthday of his cherished mom, “Mama June.” On Sept 29th, a few hours after he and I confabbed as his social media/press coordinator, about saluting Marilyn’s birthday the following day on his Facebook page, I and subsequently global fans learned that Mac had suffered a mild stroke. I am pleased to report that his recovery has been “sparkling.” He and his lovely wife Mieko are constantly out and about in their hometown of Las Vegas and his trademark rich bass offered a resounding:”Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Rev. Arno!” (his nickname for me) just the other day on the phone!  As Mac says, “The best is yet to come!”  Look for a new coffee table book on the photos of icon Jayne Kennedy, as historically photographed by LaMonte coming in early 2020.
LIGHT SINGSThis year we even un-vaulted a tune by The Original 5th circa ’70: “A Pocketful of Seeds.” And thank you fans, friends and “5th Family” from all over the world, for stopping by these soon-to-be dozen years at our information central, FOREVER 5th DIMENSION. We love and appreciate our favorite stars: Florence, LaMonte and Marilyn & Billy…and we thank YOU most certainly, for your continued support! Indeed, we know you agree…The 5th Dimension…is forever!  Light Sings!
AUG PHOTO FINAL 33  —Robert-Allan Arno 
(Please see “Recent Posts” at right to find the 2019 blog entries & accompanying links to all the aforementioned)

Visit our stars on the web…

Florence & The 5th Dimension:  http://5thdimensionlive.com/

Marilyn & Billy at their Facebook Official or: http://mccoodavis.com

LaMonte on Facebook and Linked-In

VERY RARE BATHING
Forever 5th Dimension, a production of The Soul of The Voice, Ltd., copyright 2008-2019, all rights reserved

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Found Gem by The Original 5th Dimension: “A Pocketful of Seeds”

Posted on December 15, 2019 | Leave a comment
rare-box-shot-e1576466364453.jpgMany of you know the fan favorite tune from The 5th Dimension‘s “Love’s Lines, Angles & Rhymes” album, “The Singer” co-written by LaMonte McLemore and Elliot Willensky. “Mac” proudly writes in his memoir, “From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension,” about this “poetry to song” achievement executed so profoundly with Billy Davis, Jr. in the lead with complex group back-ups. LaMonte noted that Frank Sinatra even considered recording the homage to one “who finds the perfect meaning, in all the dreams that dance across his mind.”
The late Elliot Willensky is also responsible for the Michael Jackson hit, “Got To Be There,” and more. His brother, Steven Willensky was so kind to recently draw our attention to this excavated film clip of The Original 5th Dimension circa 1970 singing one of Elliot’s tunes about the environment and love for fellow man titled, “A Pocketful of Seeds.” It’s from the Bell Telephone produced special “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.” The anthemic powerhouse features that un-matchable, quintessential 5th Dimension blend–arranged by the renowned Rene DeKnight–with mini solos from Marilyn, Florence, Ronald and Billy tying it up with his classic improv.
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FULL IMAGE MARBILLUpon seeing this rare gem, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. commented to FOREVER 5th DIMENSION:
It was an early piece.  We know that from the style of harmony and “bop bop bahs” that we sang from time to time in those earlier songs.  What a special way to remember Rene DeKnight, who taught us so much: music, harmonies, what quality performances required, and professionalism if we were going to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities coming our way.  Thank you, Robert once again, for digging up special memories from our past.
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And so, as a holiday season gift of sorts, we invite you to savor the experience that is “A Pocketful of Seeds” at this link: 
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Bonus! From the same TV special, The 5th Dimension with “If I Had a Hammer”– Golden Gate bridge in the background!:
–Robert-Allan Arno
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Our cherished fans add to the festivities with these kind remarks:

Susan Aglio Wow… what gems! Thank you for sharing, Robert!

Robyn Pippins  Loved the video, Robert!

Blake Morant  Fantastic, Brother Robert-Allan Arno. I remain hopeful that you’ll continue to unearth these rare 5th Dimension gems.

Ty Stephens That’s a Christmas gift!! Thank you, Robert!!!

Douglas C. Charles Now if we could just get a hold of that “lost” recording of “Crazy Spaces!”

Jane Marsh Thanks for sharing Robert! Enjoyed it very much. Loved the one at the Golden Gate Bridge too. 🙂

Andy Gard Wow! It’s extraordinary to be able to hear an undiscovered 5th Dimension song for the first time all these years later, just days away from 2020. Thanks for making this possible, Robert!

Martha E. Vink I love these! So upbeat, with a message we continue to need today. Wouldn’t it have been great to have those on an album! Thanks for sharing Robert-Allan!

 

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Vote Now…Rewound Radio’s Top 77 of All-time!

Posted on December 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

Photo of 5th Dimension

Our friends at Rewound Radio, one of the Internet’s top “Oldies” formats are always so kind to The 5th Dimension legacy…this past year on his Saturday afternoon show, Program Director Allan Sniffen heartily saluted Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.’s 50th wedding anniversary as well as sent good wishes to LaMonte McLemore for a speedy recovery.

As is yearly tradition, we encourage fans of The 5th Dimension and of Rewound to vote for the Top 77 of all time…it’s fun and easy to do…be creative, vote anyway you wish…your personal Top 10!!  Here’s the link, results to be unveiled the week between Christmas & New Year!!:

Vote at: https://www.musicradio77.com/voting2019.html

Listen to Rewound Radio at: http://www.rewoundradio.com

12/9: Voting is now officially closed…thank you for your participation fans & friends…remember to hear the exciting results on Rewound between Christmas & New Year!

 

 

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Marilyn & Billy Star in “A Solid Gold Christmas”

Posted on December 3, 2019 | Leave a comment

It’s always a festive occasion when the 1st Couple of Pop n’ Soul, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. bring their Christmas magic to the masses…and what venue better than the intimately popular Catalina Jazz Club! For our west coast fans or those who travel to see them…get your tix now…it promises to be a “soul-ed out” holiday event!

CATALINA

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