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Music’s all-time power couple, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., known as “The First Couple of Pop & Soul,” deliver the songs that have shaped their multi-faceted 40-year career in UP, UP AND AWAY! A MUSICAL FABLE, Guest Starring, The Next Dimension at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA) on Saturday, October 29 at 8:00 PM. The show is a musical celebration of their own iconic music and also includes tributes to fellow music legends, including The Beatles and The 5th Dimension’s original lineup. Marilyn and Billy remarked, “The production gives us the pleasure of sharing experiences, and timeless music with audiences of every age. It is more than the story of The 5th Dimension… it is indeed a fable.” Tickets start at $45.
As original members of The 5th Dimension, MARILYN McCOO & BILLY DAVIS, JR. enjoyed acclaim and success with timeless classics such as Wedding Bell Blues; One Less Bell to Answer; Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In; and Up, Up and Away, which won four 1968 Grammy Awards, including “Best Contemporary Single.” In the 1970s, McCoo and Davis left the band to perform as a duo, topping the charts with You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show), and winning a Grammy for “Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.” The twosome’s widespread appeal prompted the popular televised Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show on CBS, the first and only series to star a Black married couple. Collectively, the couple has delivered 15 Gold and three Platinum records, winning seven Grammys.
Using their platform powerfully for “Civil Rights, which are Human Rights…Fannie Lou Hammer famously said, ‘none of us is free, until all of us are free.” Marilyn and Billy’s activism began in the segregated 1960’s and continues with the release of their latest album Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons, “a plea for social justice that everyone deserves,” on EE1 BMG, and is the couple’s first studio album in thirty years, debuting at No. One on the iTunes R&B Album chart and receiving extraordinary reviews. Music critics call Marilyn and Billy’s voices, “bionic.”
Marilyn and Billy are celebrated in Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial feature, Summer of Soul, a music documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, breaking records and going on to win an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary and a Grammy for Best Music Film.
Marilyn and Billy’s Television credits are inclusive of every decade from1960 when they performed on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” to their recent appearances on the daytime drama, “Days of Our Lives.” Their Television presence includes “Solid Gold,” “Sonny & Cher,” “Dionne Warwick,” “Andy Williams Show,” “Dolly Parton & Friends,” “Ed Sullivan,” Specials, as well as “Love Boat,” “Jamie Foxx Show,” “Night Court,” “It Takes a Thief,” “The Fall Guy,” and “Punky Brewster” to name a few.
Marilyn and Billy, who celebrated their 52nd anniversary this past July, reside in Beverly Hills. They are both avid tennis fans and can be seen regularly at the BNP Paribas tournament in Indian Wells, CA.
For tickets or more information, call (562) 916-8500 or go to cerritoscenter.com or mccoodavis.com.
