LaMonte McLemore, Founding Singer With the 5th Dimension, Dies at 90
LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of the 5th Dimension, died on Feb. 3 at his home in Las Vegas. He was 90. Robert-Allan Arno, who co-wrote Mr. McLemore’s 2014 memoir, announced the death and said Mr. McLemore’s health had declined after a stroke in 2019; no specific cause was cited.
The 5th Dimension — whose singers included Ron Townson, Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo — scored a string of hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including “Up, Up and Away” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” From 1967 to 1973 the group placed 20 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, with seven Top 10s and two No.
1s, “Aquarius” and “Wedding Bell Blues.” The group blended pop, R&B, jazz and easy-listening elements into what its members called “champagne soul,” drawing wide audiences even as critics sometimes questioned whether the sound was sufficiently rooted in R&B. Mr.
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