1969 was a good year for the Fifth Dimension. Their earlier hit “Aquarius”/”Let the Sunshine In” was a number one hit. They then released the Neil Sedaka song “Working on a Groovy Thing” in mid-1969 and it peaked at number 20. Then they discovered Laura Nyro’s song “Wedding Bell Blues.” Nyro had been writing songs for several years, and the Fifth Dimension had had success with two other Nyro songs, “Stoned Soul Picnic” (#3) and “Sweet Blindness” (#13.)

They recorded “Wedding Bell Blues” almost as a joke as they never meant to release it as a single. Their producer Bones Howe thought Marilyn McCoo should sing lead on the song since she and Billy Davis Jr. were engaged at the time (they would marry on July 26, 1969) Marilyn was not used to being a lead singer and it took some creative editing to get the final song that we hear today.

It’s obvious that the “Bill” that Marilyn is singing to is Billy Davis Jr. What’s amazing is that Laura Nyro wrote the song using the name “Bill.” Maybe that’s what attracted the group to the song in the first place.

The song is basically a woman who is in love with a man named Bill and Bill seemed reluctant to pop the question. So, she sings “Am I ever going to have a wedding day?” This is another case of a song being included on an album with no intention of being released as a single and the radio stations discovering it, playing it and it becoming a big hit. It was a hit almost by accident.

This was the last time the Fifth Dimension would appear at the top of the charts. McCoo and Davis, now married, left the group in 1975 and did some solo work and then recorded “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” which went to number one in 1976. It’s amazing that McCoo and David are still married to this day. If they stay together, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2019. Various people came in and out the group over the years, but there has been some version of the Fifth Dimension since the beginning. My wife and I saw them in Elko, Nevada about ten years ago and I’m not sure to this day if any of the original members were present at that time.

Four of the five original members are still alive, their ages in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Only Ronald Townson is gone. He died on August 2, 2001 at his home in Las Vegas of renal failure after a four year battle with kidney disease.

“Wedding Bell Blues” entered the pop charts on October 4, 1969 and stayed at number one for three weeks.