Marilyn McCoo

A former winner of the Miss Bronze California beauty contest, Marilyn McCoo started out her singing career in the early 1960s touring with the band The Hi-Fis which included several appearances with Ray Charles. McCoo went on to form the band The Versatiles with Lamonte Lamore, a photographer McCoo met during her beauty pageant days. Also in the band were future husband Billy Davis Jr., Ron Townson and fellow Miss Bronze California winner Florence LaRue. Initially mentored by Barry White, The Versatiles signed to the Soul City label and were reborn under the name 5th Dimension. After making it into the Billboard top 20 in 1967 with the Mamas And Papas song Go Where You Wanna Go, the group hit the big time with a six-week spell at number one with the track Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In from the musical Hair. More success followed but in the mid '70s McCoo and Davis left the band and in 1976 recorded I Hpe We Get To Love In Time, their debut album as a duo. The album and its follow up, The Two Of Us, enjoyed significant commercial success and McCoo went on to become one of the most familiar and popular faces in the US pop and soul scene, eventually hosting the TV pop show Solid Gold. McCoo and husband Davis continue to make appearances both as a duo and as part of 5th Dimension.