At their best, the Fifth Dimension were one of the best non-Motown pop vocal groups of the 1960’s and ’70’s. They were best known for working with swell songwriters such as Jim Webb and Laura Nyro. I went looking for a representative album cover and found two.
First, the group’s debut album Up, Up and Away, complete with hippy dippy Fillmore poster style graphics:
We’ll take you to a Stoned Soul Picnic after the break. If you behave, we might even drink some Sweet Blindness...
I lied about that, y’all. Hope you’ll forgive me and not subject me to a Cersei style walk of shame. That reminded me of a bad particularly bad and moralistic day on Twitter. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the sweet soul stylings of the Fifth Dimension.
Earthbound was the last album featuring the original group and I’d never seen the cover until the other day. It’s rootsy, man. It mostly consists of Jim Webb songs. It’s pretty darn good in a surprisingly uncommercial way as you’ll learn below.
Here’s the title track of their debut album. Interestingly enough, it was arranged by Mel Torme’s partner in musical crime Marty Paich:
Earthbound features a Macca song, one of Jagger-Richards’ artier tunes, and a plethora of heavyweight musicians including Fred Tackett, Larry Coryell, Jeff Porcaro, and Jesse Ed Davis. Parts of it are surprisingly funky for the Fifth Dimension. Good Gawd, y’all:
