Wednesday, November 08, 2006

This Day In Music History: The Fifth Dimension and Wedding Bell Blues

This day in music history, November 8, 1969, the #1 hit in the country was Wedding Bell Blues by The Fifth Dimension. The song was recorded as a joke as two members of the group, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., were engaged. The first line of the song starts off with “Bill, I love you so, I always will.” Producer Bones Howe had Marilyn sing lead on the song. The song was written by Laura Nyro. Bones Howe was a fan of Miss Nyro. She had preformed at the Monterey Pop Festival and had a top 30 hit with Wedding Bell Blues in 1967. Her performance at the Monterey Pop Festival was not well received and she moved back in with her parents in New York. Dave Geffen got in touch with her and offered to manger her. He got her a recording contract with Columbia Records and she recorded the album Eli and the 13th Confession. Bones heard the album after Geffen gave him a copy. He told Bones if he wanted to record any of the songs that he would have to wait to see which song was released as the single from Laura’s album. The song they picked as the single was Eli’s Coming and Bones had The Fifth Dimension record Stoned Soul Picnic and Sweet Blindness. Eli’s Coming was eventually a hit for the group Three Dog Night.

Wedding Bell Blues was the second #1 hit for the group. Their first was Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In. The follow up was Workin’ on a Groovy Thing. However, at that time radio stations were starting to play the album cut Wedding Bell Blues. Al Bennett was the head of the record company and refused to release it as a single for a long time. He didn’t think it would be a hit. When it hit #1 for three weeks he was given the Tin Ear award.

When the group first formed they called themselves the Versatiles. They were signed to Johnny Rivers Soul City Records. Rivers said the name was out of date. When they came up with the then more modern name of The Fifth Dimension everyone liked it. They had a few minor hits but the song that brought them fame was Up, Up and Away. Surprisingly, while this song was very popular and heard on radio and TV, it was never a #1 song on the Billboard charts. Up Up and Away won four Grammy awards in 1967. Those awards included Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

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