The three-octave voice that went from the 5th Dimension to Solid Gold

Marilyn McCoo was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to two physicians, and spent her first seven years in Columbus, Georgia, before the family moved to Los Angeles. There she began voice, piano and dance lessons, and at fifteen made her television debut on Art Linkletter's Talent Show. She studied business administration at UCLA, and in 1962 she won the “Miss Grand Talent” title at the Miss Bronze California pageant. Her voice, which has a three-octave range, was already her calling card.

In the early and mid-1960s she sang with the Hi-Fi's, a group that often opened for Ray Charles. Photographer Lamonte McLemore, who had invited her to join, later followed her into the 5th Dimension, which Billy Davis Jr. established in 1966. The group had its first big hit in 1967 with Jimmy Webb's “Up, Up and Away”, which won four Grammy Awards. The medley “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” reached number one in the spring of 1969 and won Record of the Year, and “Wedding Bell Blues” topped the chart in November of the same year. As the 1970s began, McCoo took the lead on hits such as “One Less Bell to Answer” and “If I Could Reach You”.

In 1975 she and Davis left the group and began working as a duo. Their 1976 debut album, I Hope We Get to Love in Time, produced “You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)”, a US number one that earned them the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Their later albums were less successful, and the early 1980s found McCoo going solo with a nightclub and concert act.

Television then gave her a second career. She hosted the music show Solid Gold from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1988, and in 1986 she played Tamara Price on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.