Music In the early and mid-1960s, McCoo was a member of the Hi-Fi's, who often opened for
Ray Charles. She had been invited to join the group by photographer
Lamonte McLemore, who later joined McCoo in the 5th Dimension. Other Hi-Fi members included Harry Elston and Floyd Butler, who later formed
the Friends of Distinction. She met
Billy Davis Jr. in 1966 when he established the 5th Dimension, then called the Versatiles, which also included
Ron Townson and
Florence LaRue. The group's first big
hit was with 1967's "
Up, Up and Away", written by
Jimmy Webb. The song won four 1968
Grammy Awards They became the first African American married couple to host a network
television series,
The Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. Show, on CBS in summer 1977. The duo released their next album on ABC in 1977, titled
The Two Of Us. The album spawned the single "Look What You've Done To My Heart" (No. 51, August 1977). The pair signed with CBS Records and released their next album, 1978's
Marilyn + Billy, although it did not include any Hot 100 hits. This would be the duo's last album until thirty years later; in October 2008 the pair released
The Many Faces of Love, a collection of hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s. After breaking from the 5th Dimension to perform as a duo and subsequently releasing three albums, McCoo and Davis Jr. next decided to go solo professionally in the early 1980s. McCoo began hosting the popular American music television show
Solid Gold from 1981 to 1984 and returned from 1986 to 1988. She also embarked on a
nightclub and
concert act and went on to play the role of Tamara Price on the soap opera
Days of Our Lives in 1986, as a friend of the character
Marlena Evans. Price later became involved with
James Reynolds' character
Abe Carver. McCoo left the series in 1987. McCoo's 1991 album,
The Me Nobody Knows, was nominated for a Grammy. She also released a Christmas album in 1996. McCoo won her eighth Grammy (which also included work with the 5th Dimension) for her contributions to Quincy Jones' ''Handel's Messiah''. In 2021, McCoo and Davis released
Blackbird Lennon-McCartney Icons, their first studio album in over 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 Quest's directorial debut,
Summer of Soul. Acting McCoo has acted in several
movies, including
Grizzly Adams and the Legend of Dark Mountain (1999), ''
My Mom's a Werewolf (1989) and several television movies, often playing herself. She has appeared on stage in productions of Anything Goes, A...My Name is Alice, Man of La Mancha, and the Broadway production of Show Boat in 1995 through 1996. McCoo appeared together with Davis on The Jamie Foxx Show'' as Fancy's parents, the Monroes. McCoo also guest-starred on a Canadian game show in the 1990s, called
Acting Crazy. == Personal life ==