Song:You Don't Have To Be A Star
Album:Soul Love
After they left The Fifth Dimension, the husband and wife team of Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. topped the charts in 1977 with You Don't Have To Be A Star. They had a couple of other minor hits but they only recorded three albums together in the late 70s and Marilyn went solo in the 80s. Marilyn McCoo was born Sept. 30, 1943 in Jersey City, NJ and grew up in Los Angeles. She won the Miss Bronze California beauty pageant in 1962 and met Lamonte McLemore at a Jet Magazine photo shoot. Billy Davis Jr. was born June 26, 1938 in St. Louis. Marilyn and McLemore were in The Hi-Fi's. When that group split up in 1966, McLemore brought in his St. Louis buddies Davis and Ron Townson and beauty contest winner Florence LaRue to form The Fifth Dimension. Of course they had a great run in the late 60s. Marilyn married Davis in 1969. They left The Fifth Dimension in 1975 and signed with ABC Records and producer Don Davis. Davis produced Johnny Taylor and The Dramatics at Stax and continued to work with them after Stax closed. Marilyn & Billy's first single I Hope We Get To Love In Time was a modest hit. But they struck gold when You Don't Have To Be A Star topped the Billboard Hot 100 in Jan. 1977. Their album and single were certified Gold and they won a Grammy for Best R & B Performance By a Duo or Group. You Don't Have To Be A Star was written by the team of John Dean & John Glover. Dean worked for Motown in the 60s and wrote the 1967 David Ruffin hit What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted with William Weatherspoon. When Weatherspoon left Motown to work for Holland-Dozier-Holland at Hot Wax/Invictus, Dean took Glover as his new partner and wrote songs for Don Davis acts like The Dramatics. The success of this song earned Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. a CBS variety series. They also had a top 20 hit with Your Love. The success didn't last. Their second album The Two Of Us didn't do as well and then they switched to Columbia and the 1979 album Marilyn & Billy was more Contemporary Christian than soul and didn't sell. Marilyn recorded a solo album for Warner Bros. in 1982 that had similar issues. Of course Marilyn hosted the TV show Solid Gold and has acted on the stage and on TV over the years. Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2009. They continue to tour and Davis runs their ministry. In recent years, they have recorded mostly gospel music. You can get You Don't Have To Be A Star on this budget priced 3CD various artists comp from Sony. The album I Hope We Get To Love In Time is currently out of print. Here's Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. performing You Don't Have To Be A Star on The Midnight Special New Year's Eve 1977-78.
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