LaMonte McLemore (born September 17, 1939) – A Love Like Ours (1970)

A beautiful love jam co-written by the 5th Dimension singer/songwriter who originally created the group.

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5th Dimension founding member LaMonte “Mac” McLemore is the singer/songwriter with mellow bass vocals who originally put the group together. He has also been a professional photographer for decades, with his work appearing in Jet, Ebony, Playboy, Harper’s Bazaar, and People magazines.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, McLemore developed a love of photography at an early age. As he wrote years later, “As a kid, playing cowboys and Indians, I'd have a cap pistol in one holster, and a camera in the other.” When he was ten years old, he asked for a photo developing set for Christmas.

McLemore played baseball, and after high school tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals twice without success, the first Black player to try out for that team. He then joined the Navy, where he eventually served as an aerial photographer and played baseball for the Navy special services in San Francisco. He was signed to a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ minor league team as a pitcher, but broke his arm in a car accident and had to quit the team. In 1958, McLemore co-founded the photography studio Halmont Graphics with noted Los Angeles photographer and designer Cliff Hall.

He became the first Black photographer hired by Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and with a few other partners started the fashion magazine Elegant. While on a photo shoot in L.A. during the early 60s, he met model/singer/UCLA business major Marilyn McCoo. Together with Elegant ad salesmen Harry Elston and Floyd Butler, in 1963 they formed a vocal quartet called the Hi-Fis, and played nightclubs around the city. McLemore met Ray Charles at another photo shoot, and the Hi-Fi’s toured with him during 1964.

The eventually changed their name to The Vocals, and Charles produced a single for them, “Lonesome Mood.” The recorded version featured vocals by McLemore, McCoo, Elston, Fritz Baskett, and Larry Summers, backed by Charles’ band. By the time they performed the track on the L.A.-based musical variety show Shindig! in June, 1965, McLemore and McCoo had left the group. The remaining members were Elston, Butler, Summers, Baskett, and Barbara Lewis who had already had several hits of her own as a solo artist. Elston and Butler later formed the Friends Of Distinction.

After leaving the Hi-Fi’s, McLemore decided to form a new group around himself and McCoo called the Versatiles. Shooting the 1965 Miss Bronze California beauty contest, McLemore met contestant Florence LaRue, whose singing won the talent competition. McCoo had won the entire contest the previous year. He invited LaRue to join them, and also recruited two of his old friends from St. Louis, choir singers Ronald Townson and Billy Davis Jr. Townson led his own 25-member gospel choir that he organized after graduating from Lincoln University, where he had conducted the school and church choirs. Davis owned a cocktail lounge in St. Louis, and sang with various R&B groups.

They started rehearsing as the Versatiles in late 1965 and McLemore traveled to Detroit with a demo tape to play for Berry Gordy at Motown. Gordy was impressed but didn’t hear hits, so he asked McLemore to come back with more songs.

Motown’s director of West Coast operations Marc Gordon was in the process of leaving the label when he heard the Versatiles, and decided to manage them. He co-wrote and produced their only single under that name, the upbeat jam “You’re Good Enough For Me” (featuring Davis on lead vocals) b/w “Bye Bye Baby,” released on Bronco Records in 1966.

Gordon introduced them to Johnny Rivers, who was launching Soul City Records. Rivers signed them, and convinced the group to change their name to the 5th Dimension. Both songs on their debut single “I'll Be Lovin' You Forever” b/w the superb “Train, Keep On Movin’,” were written by Willie Hutch, co-produced by Hutch and Gordon, and arranged by Gene Page. It was released in November, 1966 and did not chart.

But their next single was a hit. “Go Where You Wanna Go” was written by John Phillips and originally released as the first single by the Mamas & the Papas off their debut LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966) before being withdrawn and replaced by “California Dreamin’.” The 5th Dimension’s version was issued in January, 1967 and reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Their debut LP Up, Up and Away came out that spring in May, 1967. The album’s third single was its title track, written by Jimmy Webb. “Up, Up and Away” hit #7 on the Hot 100 and went platinum, catapulting the group to superstardom. It won a total of six Grammys that year and in 1999 was included at #43 on BMI’s list of “Top 100 Songs of the Century.”

For their fifth album Portrait, released in April, 1970, McLemore and arranger Bob Alcivar co-wrote the gorgeous love song “A Love Like Ours.” It also featured McLemore on lead vocals, and was produced by “Bones” Howe. As on most of their classic albums, the track’s backing band was the collective of L.A. session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, featuring Joe Osborn on bass, drummer Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco on rhythm guitar, and Larry Knechtel on keyboards.

Other highlights from Portrait included its superb opening cut “Puppet Man,” (which the group performed on an episode of It Takes A Thief, starring a young Robert Wagner), “Save The Country,” written by Laura Nyro after the assassination of RFK, and “The Declaration,” which remains the only known instance of the Declaration of Independence being set to music.

The 5th Dimension released a dozen albums in total between 1967-79. McCoo and Davis married in 1969 and eventually left the group to go solo in 1975.

McLemore continued performing with the 5th Dimension until 2006. Even after retiring, he has continued to make music. In 2016, he recorded and released the powerful message song “Cease Fire” along with featured vocalist Julio Hanson.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Mac for bringing so much joy to people everywhere through the 5th Dimension's music.  Without his vision, our world would have one less dimension and a lot less soul.

Happy 84th Birthday to a living legend.

Further info:

“The Fifth Dimension: The Age of Aquarius At 50,” by Robert-Allan Arno, Culture Sonar, June 2, 2019.

#soul #FifthDimension #LaMonteMcLemore