Billy Davis Jr.

Billy Davis Jr born June 26 1938 is an American singer and musician best known as a member of the 5th Dimension Along with his wife Marilyn McCoo he had hit records during 1976 and 1977 with I Hope We Get to Love in Time Your Love and You Dont Have to Be a Star To Be in My Show Davis and McCoo were married in 1969 They became the first AfricanAmerican married couple to host a network television series titled The Marilyn McCoo Billy Davis Jr Show on CBS in the summer of 1977 the year You Dont Have to Be a Star To Be in My Show won a Grammy Award Billy Davis Jr was born in St Louis Missouri Davis joined The 5th Dimension then called The Versatiles in 1966 The groups first big hit was with 1967s Up Up and Away written by Jimmy Webb The song won four 1968 Grammy Awards and was the title track to the 5th Dimensions first hit LP A year later the group recorded the song Stoned Soul Picnic A medley of AquariusLet the Sunshine In from the musical Hair reached No 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in April to May 1969 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year The groups recording of Wedding Bell Blues topped the US Hot 100 in November 1969 Davis sang the male lead on the groups singles Worst That Could Happen A Change Is Gonna ComePeople Got to Be Free and Ill Be Lovin You Forever In 1975 Davis and McCoo left the 5th Dimension and began to perform as a duo Landing a contract with ABC Records they recorded their 1976 debut album I Hope We Get to Love in Time The first single was the title track which was a moderate hit The followup You Dont Have to Be a Star To Be in My Show was an even bigger hit reaching No 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 1977 Davis and McCoo were awarded a gold single and a gold album as well as a Grammy Award for Best RB Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals They released one more album on ABC in 1978 produced by Frank Wilson and containing the ballad My Reason to Be The pair signed with CBS Records the following year and released their last album as a duo until October 2008 when they released The Many Faces of Love a collection of hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s The album Marilyn and Billy featured the song Saving All My Love for You later turned into a number one hit by Whitney Houston It also contained the disco single Shine On Silver Moon The pair decided to go solo professionally in the early 1980s In 1982 Davis recorded the gospel album Let Me Have a Dream with Rev James Cleveland Davis followed that project with a guest appearance on a jazzpop album by Scott Scheer In 2020 Davis and McCoo released a new album called Blackbird LennonMcCartney Icons for first time in 30 years Entrepreneur Kathy Ireland released the album through her record label EE1 The duo said it was a civil rights movement which became a human rights movement with a goal to encourage people to come together during trying times During an interview about the album on June 29 2021 Questlove called McCoo and Davis the first couple of Pop and Soul They would later appear in Quests directorial debut Summer of Soul Source Article Billy Davis Jr from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30