{"id":484,"date":"2016-06-12T20:04:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T00:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=484"},"modified":"2016-06-12T20:04:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T00:04:46","slug":"marilyn-mccoo-and-billy-davis-jr-give-a-solid-gold-performance-in-atlantic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/marilyn-mccoo-and-billy-davis-jr-give-a-solid-gold-performance-in-atlantic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. give a solid gold performance in Atlantic City"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Billy<\/a>

Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo performed all their hits June 11 at the Tropicana in Atlantic City.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo admit that when one of their songs comes on the radio, they turn it up because they want to hear themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that we\u2019re listening for mistakes,\u201d said Davis. \u201cDid he hit that note? He\u2019s flat, what happened there? Even years later, we\u2019re always critiquing. We\u2019re always listening for something instead of just listening to be listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

If their show June 11 in Atlantic City is any indication, then they\u2019re the only ones who can detect any of those hiccups. But for those of us who aren\u2019t Marilyn McCoo or Billy Davis Jr., Saturday night\u2019s performance wasn\u2019t only flawless, it was spectacular.<\/p>\n

Let me state right up front that if you\u2019re looking for an unbiased review of the show, this isn\u2019t the place. The following will be completely biased based on personal interaction during telephone interviews with Billy and Marilyn and from seeing them perform live for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. are quite simply . . . outstanding in every aspect. Their voices, individually and together, are as good, if not better, than they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The 5th Dimension and later as a duo. Their stage presence – storytelling, showmanship, musicianship – are as entertaining and enjoyable as ever. They have surrounded themselves with a group of superb singers whom they call The Next Dimension and a group of highly talented musicians who give a freshness to their classic sound.<\/p>\n

And to top it off, when one gets a chance to meet them in person, like The Blonde Accountant and I did Saturday night after the show, they are warm, friendly as as down to earth as any fan could hope.<\/p>\n

They are the real deal, both professionally and personally. (See, I told you this was not going to be an unbiased review.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the privilege and pleasure to interview Marilyn and Billy on two occasions: The first was for a chapter in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues Volume II: Dropping the Needle\u201d on the music and the making of their debut album as a duo, \u201cI Hope We Get to Love in Time\u201d from 1976. That album featured their hit single \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have to Be A Star (To Be in My Show).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

The second interview was just recently, for an advance story on the Saturday show and about The 5th Dimension\u2019s 1969 album \u201cThe Age of Aquarius,\u201d which will be featured in a future volume of The Vinyl Dialogues series.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s show included all the hits. I\u2019ve always been big on personally sitting in the audience and hearing my favorite artists sing their hits live, those songs that made up the soundtrack of my life. And Billy and Marilyn obliged by opening the show with \u201cUp, Up and Away\u201d and closing it with \u201cAquarius\/Let the Sunshine In.\u201d In between, we were treated to other favorites like \u201cStoned Soul Picnic\u201d and \u201cWedding Bell Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura Nyro recorded and released \u2018Wedding Bell Blues.\u2019 And she wrote it about a guy named Bill in her life,\u201d said McCoo of the Nyro version that was first recorded in 1966. \u201cThe song was a hit in California, but it didn\u2019t do as well across the country. So when we were listening to material for our album (\u201cAge of Aquarius\u201d), Bones (5th Dimension producer Bones Howe) had suggested that I record it because Billy and I were going together at the time. He thought it would be a lark. So we said, \u2018Why not? Sure,\u2019 having no idea that it would ever be a single.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly – at least to me – was that the songs that first brought the audience members out of their seats were not those by The 5th Dimension or by Billy and Marilyn as a duo, but covers of other artists\u2019 songs.<\/p>\n

\"signedalbum\"<\/a>Marilyn knocked it out of the park with a solo on \u201cNever My Love,\u201d which was a hit for The Association in 1967; and Billy followed that up with a rousing solo on \u201cMcArthur Park,\u201d written by Jimmy Webb (who also wrote \u201cUp, Up and Away\u201d). That\u2019s the \u201csomeone left the cake out in the rain song,\u201d and I have to admit, it\u2019s never been a favorite of mine. But the performances on those two songs convinced me – as if I need any more convincing at this point – that Billy and Marilyn could sing names out of a phone book and make it sound spectacular.<\/p>\n

The show also featured a musical tribute to the Beatles that combined a video about the civil rights movement that was especially poignant and pertinent in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

As guests of Marilyn and Billy for the show, The Blonde Accountant and I got the chance to hang around afterwards and meet them. And they were delightful. It was the perfect end to the evening, and we got a chance to get an autograph and have our pictures taken with them. Since I had previously written about the \u201cI Hope We Get to Love in Time\u201d album, that\u2019s the one I got signed.<\/p>\n

\"billymarilyn1\"<\/a>The concert was a sellout, and rightfully so. Billy and Marilyn hadn\u2019t performed in Atlantic City in several years and their return to the East Coast was welcomed by the fans.<\/p>\n

Our summer concert schedule is in full swing. We\u2019ve already seen Boz Scaggs, Art Garfunkel and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. And we\u2019ve got tickets for Peter Frampton, Bob Dylan, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen to fill out the rest of the summer.<\/p>\n

But I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if at the end of the year, when I look back on the shows we\u2019ve seen, that the performance by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. in Atlantic City Saturday night isn\u2019t right at the top of the list.<\/p>\n

They are just that good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo admit that when one of their songs comes on the radio, they turn it up because they want to hear themselves. \u201cThe problem is that we\u2019re listening for mistakes,\u201d said Davis. \u201cDid he hit that note? He\u2019s flat, what happened there? Even years later, we\u2019re always critiquing. We\u2019re always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29,37,161,257],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-atlantic-city","tag-billy-davis-jr","tag-marilyn-mccoo","tag-the-5th-dimension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}