Marilyn McCoo

Marilyn McCoo was born on September 30, 1943, in Columbus, Georgia, to Mary and Waymon McCoo, both physicians, and is the granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Vivian McCoo of Eufaula, Alabama. She spent her first seven years in Columbus before relocating with her parents, two sisters, and brother to Los Angeles at age seven, where she began studying voice, piano, and dance. At fifteen, McCoo made her television debut on Art Linkletter's Talent Show and started modeling. She graduated from Susan Miller Dorsey High School and went on to earn a degree in business administration from UCLA. In 1962, she entered the Miss Bronze California beauty pageant and won the Miss Grand Talent title.

In the early and mid-1960s, McCoo sang with the Hi-Fi's, a group that frequently opened for Ray Charles. Photographer Lamonte McLemore, who had invited her to join the Hi-Fi's, later became a founding member alongside her of the 5th Dimension. Other Hi-Fi members Harry Elston and Floyd Butler went on to form the Friends of Distinction. In 1966, Billy Davis Jr. established the group that would become the 5th Dimension, originally called the Versatiles, which also included Ron Townson and Florence LaRue. McCoo, who possesses a three-octave vocal range, served as the group's lead female vocalist. Their first major hit, "Up, Up and Away," written by Jimmy Webb, was released in 1967 and won four Grammy Awards in 1968, with the song serving as the title track of the group's first hit LP. The following year, the group recorded Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic," and their medley of "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," drawn from the musical Hair, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April through May 1969 and won the Grammy for Record of the Year. Another Nyro composition, "Wedding Bell Blues," topped the Hot 100 in November 1969. By the early 1970s, McCoo had taken on lead vocals for the group's subsequent hits, including "One Less Bell to Answer," "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," and "If I Could Reach You."

McCoo and Davis departed the 5th Dimension in 1975 and began recording and performing as a duo. Signing with ABC Records, they released their debut album, I Hope We Get to Love in Time, in 1976. The album produced three charting singles: "I Hope We Get to Love in Time," which reached number 91 in March 1978; "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)," which hit number one in September 1976 and peaked at number 21 in Australia; and "Your Love," which reached number 15 in March 1977. The duo won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "You Don't Have to Be a Star." In summer 1977, McCoo and Davis became the first African American married couple to host a network television series when The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. Show aired on CBS. Their 1977 ABC album The Two of Us produced the single "Look What You've Done to My Heart," which reached number 51 in August 1977. After signing with CBS Records, they released Marilyn + Billy in 1978, though it did not yield any Hot 100 hits. The duo did not release another studio album together until October 2008, when The Many Faces of Love appeared, collecting hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

In the early 1980s, McCoo and Davis transitioned to solo careers. McCoo hosted the American music television program Solid Gold from 1981 to 1984 and returned to the show from 1986 to 1988. In 1986, she took on the recurring role of Tamara Price on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, playing a friend of the character Marlena Evans whose storyline later involved James Reynolds' character Abe Carver. McCoo departed the series in 1987. Her 1991 album The Me Nobody Knows received a Grammy nomination, and she released a Christmas album in 1996. McCoo earned her eighth Grammy for her contributions to Quincy Jones' recording of Handel's Messiah, a total that included her work with the 5th Dimension.

McCoo's stage work has included productions of Anything Goes, A...My Name is Alice, and Man of La Mancha, in addition to her Broadway appearances. Her Broadway career spanned from 1974 to 1996 and included a starring role in Show Boat, which she performed from 1995 through 1996, as well as an appearance in The Fifth Dimension with Jo Jo's Dance Factory. McCoo was born in Columbus, Georgia, and her family's early roots in New Jersey connect to Jersey City.

In 2021, McCoo and Davis released Blackbird Lennon-McCartney Icons, their first studio album in more than thirty years, issued through entrepreneur Kathy Ireland's record label EE1. During a June 29, 2021 interview about the album, Questlove referred to McCoo and Davis as "the first couple of Pop and Soul." The duo subsequently appeared in Questlove's directorial debut, Summer of Soul. McCoo has also appeared in the films My Mom's a Werewolf (1989) and Grizzly Adams and the Legend of Dark Mountain (1999), and she and Davis appeared together on The Jamie Foxx Show as the character Fancy's parents, the Monroes.

McCoo is married to Billy Davis Jr., her former 5th Dimension bandmate, and the couple celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on July 26, 2019. They co-authored the 2004 book Up, Up and Away, which recounts their shared story of love and faith. McCoo is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and serves as an emerita member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Mission. She and Davis are born-again Christians and continue to perform together.