- like a few other groups and singers, I liked their 70's stuff best, even though they were probably considered at their peak in '68, '69. They had some big hits iin the early '70's, then their hit production gradually went down over the next 3-4 years, but it was those lesser hits that I really liked.
The Girls Song - good song - you've probably heard this song, but don't know it by name
One Less Bell Too Answer - ok in it's time but I don't need to hear it any more
Blowing Away - not bad
Change Is Gonna Come-People Gotta Be Free - don't care for it
The Declaration - this is totally hokey but I love it - they make it so darn catchy - the female lead sounds like she had a couple too many and got her inspiration from watching School House Rock
Puppet Man - heard it by Tom Jones, but not by them
Save The Country - good
On the Beach - heard it once or twice when it came out, kind of mediocre
Love's Line's - good, prototypical 5th Dimension song
Light Sings - good
Never My Love-good
Together Let's Find Love - don't remember it too well
Last Night I didn't get to Sleep - perhaps their classic of the 70's
If I Could Reach You - good
Living Together, Growing Together - never heard it until I picked up the 45 recently - has kind of an early 70's utopian quality about it - nice catchy little song
Ashes To Ashes - just might be my favorite 5thD song of the 70's - it did get some play on the radio- supposedly it represents the point in their careerr when things began to unravel, but I've never tired of this one, and certainly could have become a much bigger hit
Flashback - suprisingly it only reached #82 but it seemed like a much bigger hit
One more thing - as far I know there were two female singers in the group- Marilyn McCoo of course, and the other gal, whose name escapes me. I know what Marilyn sounds like, but to me that's all I hear is Marilyn - I can never seem to distinguish the other womans voice, although she obviously is featured in the Girls Song.
"Mr. M" <m@n.com> wrote in message news:522ju3tnl7i1dkr6l76mhsep2vbh2n9egi@4ax.com...
- like a few other groups and singers, I liked their 70's stuff best,
even though they were probably considered at their peak in '68, '69.
They had some big hits iin the early '70's, then their hit production
gradually went down over the next 3-4 years, but it was those lesser
hits that I really liked.
The Girls Song - good song - you've probably heard this song, but
don't know it by name
One Less Bell Too Answer - ok in it's time but I don't need to hear it
any more
Blowing Away - not bad
Change Is Gonna Come-People Gotta Be Free - don't care for it
The Declaration - this is totally hokey but I love it - they make it
so darn catchy - the female lead sounds like she had a couple too many
and got her inspiration from watching School House Rock
Puppet Man - heard it by Tom Jones, but not by them
Save The Country - good
On the Beach - heard it once or twice when it came out, kind of
mediocre
Love's Line's - good, prototypical 5th Dimension song
Light Sings - good
Never My Love-good
Together Let's Find Love - don't remember it too well
Last Night I didn't get to Sleep - perhaps their classic of the 70's
If I Could Reach You - good
Living Together, Growing Together - never heard it until I picked up
the 45 recently - has kind of an early 70's utopian quality about it
- nice catchy little song
Ashes To Ashes - just might be my favorite 5thD song of the 70's - it
did get some play on the radio- supposedly it represents the point in
their careerr when things began to unravel, but I've never tired of
this one, and certainly could have become a much bigger hit
Flashback - suprisingly it only reached #82 but it seemed like a much
bigger hit
One more thing - as far I know there were two female singers in the
group- Marilyn McCoo of course, and the other gal, whose name escapes
me. I know what Marilyn sounds like, but to me that's all I hear is
Marilyn - I can never seem to distinguish the other womans voice,
although she obviously is featured in the Girls Song.
any 5th Dimension fans?
I have the "Greatest Hits on Earth" album, but some of the ones you mention are on the side I don't listen to
Back when I used to listen to the radio in the 90s some station played "If I Could Reach You," which I think is terrific. So I picked up the album that's on, but I haven't listened to it yet.
"Mr. M" <m@n.com> wrote in message news:522ju3tnl7i1dkr6l76mhsep2vbh2n9egi@4ax.com...
- like a few other groups and singers, I liked their 70's stuff best,
even though they were probably considered at their peak in '68, '69.
They had some big hits iin the early '70's, then their hit production
gradually went down over the next 3-4 years, but it was those lesser
hits that I really liked.
you might want to check out their version of "Love Hangover". unfortunately for them, it was released the same week as Diana Ross' version (which went to #1).
"Mr. M" <m@n.com> wrote in message news:522ju3tnl7i1dkr6l76mhsep2vbh2n9egi@4ax.com...
- like a few other groups and singers, I liked their 70's stuff best,
even though they were probably considered at their peak in '68, '69.
They had some big hits iin the early '70's, then their hit production
gradually went down over the next 3-4 years, but it was those lesser
hits that I really liked.
<snip>
any 5th Dimension fans?
My favorites are when they sounded like the black Mamas & Papas and Marilyn McCoo "solo" tunes. "Sweet Blindness", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Blowin' Away", "Last Night...", "If I Could Reach You", "One Less Bell To Answer", etc.
Marylin McCoo has one of the sexiest singing voices EVER.
In article <522ju3tnl7i1dkr6l76mhsep2vbh2n9egi@4ax.com>, Mr. M <m@n.com> wrote:
Puppet Man - heard it by Tom Jones, but not by them
I remember they performed this when they guested on an episode of the old Robert Wagner series "It Takes a Thief." The angle was they were recording it in the studio, then at the end of the song these three weird chords were played that would cause a valuable vase (or something) to shatter. IIRC they even had their actual producer, Bones Howe, also "producing" them in that episode.
If you like this group it really is worth upgrading from GHOE to "Up Up and Way - The Definitive Collection."
-- _--_ / `--''> ,,, "I need TV, but I got T.Rex!" | / I I |||||||||[:::] \ oo ,-._> ''' Super Seventies RockSite! `--' http://www.superseventies.com/
This is a funny thing. As a young music fan I loved the songs of the Fifth Dimension that I heard over the radio. I especially loved those that had the songs wherein that beautiful female voice was dominant like "If I could reach you", "LAst Night I couldn't get to sleep", and of course "Wedding Bell Blues". I would strain my ears to locate that beautiful voice in their other songs, even the later ones which didn't become major hits for them like the "Best of My Love" and "Soul and Inspiration" covers. Later on I discovered "Love's Angles Lines Rhymes" and "the GIrl's song", ooh I really loved that one. What is funny was that I never knew it was MARILYN MCCOO providing that well-loved voice although it felt very familiar to me!!! The reason for this is that I only knew Miss Mccoo from the Marilyn and Billy duo years (I just love all their songs from the late 70s) and I didn't really bother to check out who the members of the Fifth Dimension were!!!
So I praise you tube for my rediscovery of this great great group and all of a sudden I belatedly became a Marilyn Mccoo fan!!! Bless those uploaders and sharers of these great vids!
I'm 40 years old,maybe young for this BAND, and of course 'Aquarius' and 'paper cup' really stuck out at me,but i also remember singing their songs at morning assembly-time in elementary school in the early seventies,like 'Save The Country'wich i discovered from the musical 'GodSpell'as well as 'Up Up And Away'. They struck me so nostalgically that i ran out to see what was left of them in the record stores and found myself a tasty 25 song collection. I was quite tiny then but i do recall many, many more of their other songs in a hazy but familiar way,with that big swooping strings and horns phil spector sound of the sixties, and they were probably still playing the rarer hits way into the mid seventies.'Girl's Song'had a lonely sounding beginning and ending,like the end of a summer, a movie, or a romance,i cued in on those melancholly chords,and i still get goose bumps when i hear it.'Last night i didn't get to sleep at all' was another example of that painful, love crush sound of soul/pop. 'Blowin away'and Let's go down by the river,drink my daddy's wine'were just good old fashioned fun'dingy' hippy rebellion of the time but 'Paper Cup' was just cute ,so cute and well orchestrated that Brian Wilson could've been a little envious.'Aquarius' made me uncomfortable i remamber as a three year old,probably cause of the other wordly cosmic lyrics and minor chords that housed it's melody but i understood it later to be very fun,specially the sing a long r&b ending.They were very talented singers, the guys and gals had excellent r&b vocals,and being a musician myself, in 2007 i recorded my own version of 'carpet man' up here in Winnipeg,on my home studio still keeping it's rockin E chord structure and all it's sweeping harmonies,it was my tribute to them and it was a 'sad' lyric,unfortunately as a single i can't release it without permission from them ,but it does well live with a crowd,though nobody quite remembers it, except here,i really enjoyed everyones comments. It was A combination of melancholly and REAL upbeatness that made them unique, may the FIFTH DIMENSION GO ON FOREVER! reply if you like
"If I Could Reach You" is far and away my favorite tune by the Fifth Dimension. It's so hauntingly beautiful. It became a hit in late '72, while I was in 8th grade. I could never get it out of my mind, and it's with me to this day. The tune also brings back memories of that era, the early '70s. I cherish those years.
