“The ‘first couple’ of pop and soul.” That’s how music producer Questlove described Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., the Grammy Award-winning husband and wife vocalist who co-founded The 5th Dimension. The powerhouse duo celebrates 53 years of marriage and as many decades of pop hits since the 1960s, including “Up, Up and Away” and “The Age of Aquarius (Let the Sunshine In).”
McCoo and Davis take the stage at the Rialto Center for the Arts on Jan. 21 to share a repertoire of classic favorites and newer editions. The couple joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk more about the enduring career that brought them here.
Interview highlights:
On loyalty to their audience and playing the hits:
“We learned a long time ago that… anytime we do a performance, that the audience is expecting to hear certain songs that represent the music of their lives, and we want to make sure that we don’t disappoint them,” said McCoo. “Through the years, we’ve tried different ideas and different directions, and we’ve found out that, boy, if you don’t give the audience some of those songs that really are important to them, how they fell in love, what they were doing at that time in their lives…they’re not going to be too happy.”
On conceiving a new album of Beatles covers, with their meanings reframed:
“We were doing our previous show, and we had a Beatles medley in the middle of the show, and our young producer, his name is Nick Mendoza. He was at the show, and he heard us singing these Beatles songs. And this was all during the time of the protests, and the things were going on around the country,” David recounted. “He knew that ‘Blackbird’ was sort of a civil rights message, especially that was written by the Beatles, and he asked us, ‘Well, how do you guys feel about what’s going on out in society today? …Young people want to know how you guys feel,’ and we told him that we felt that what the young people were doing was right. And he suggested that we would do something behind ‘Blackbird’ to make a statement… That’s how this album came about.”
“Rosa Parks was riding a bus, and she refused to give up her seat. But she had a ‘ticket to ride.’ She was supposed to ride that bus… and she didn’t care. She didn’t care if she was going to get thrown off. She wasn’t going to move her seat. It just kind of went together with the song.”
Remembering the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an event to rival Woodstock:
“One of the most amazing experiences was seeing that audience, seeing the people in Harlem coming to the concert. It was a free concert, and they were there. The parents brought their children. The children were excited to hear the music… it was such an exciting moment,” said McCoo. “We remember when one of Questlove’s people contacted us to ask us about the experience and how we felt about it, and we said it was so amazing. There was an energy and excitement of the audience that was there, that they were coming to see something that was going to be very special. And to see artists that they admired, Motown artists and artists just from all around, that they were going to get a chance to hear.”
“A lot of these people had never seen these artists, and couldn’t really afford to go and see them, you know? So this was a free concert, so they showed up. They were anxious to see them. They brought their families,” said Davis. “There were a lot of Blacks, there were a lot of Latinos, because they all stayed together there in Harlem. It was just a beautiful time together.”
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. will perform at the Rialto Center for the Arts on Jan. 21. Tickets and more information are available here.
