Billboard #1 Hits: #222: “Wedding Bell Blues”- The 5th Dimension. November 8, 1969. #1 for 3 weeks.

• Single: “Wedding Bell Blues”- The 5th Dimension
• Record Company- Soul City Records
• Genre: Pop
• Written by Laura Nyro
• Time: 2:42
• B-side:”Lovin’ Stew”
• Album- The Age Of Aquarius
• Grade: B
• Peaked at #1 3 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100. #16 in the UK Singles Chart- #1 in Canada and New Zealand.

1969 an interesting year as far as #1 hits on the Billboard singles chart goes. Not many- in my opinion out right classics- there are a few but also no truly awful songs reaching the top either. Doesn’t compare to the monster years of 1965-68 but not a bad year. There were two acts that had more than one #1 in 1969- one was The Beatles the other- The 5th Dimension- with one of the songs of the times “Aquarius/ Let The Sun Shine In”- and “Wedding Bell Blues” near the end of the year. Written by Laura Nyro an artist who I have to admit I wasn’t turned on to until the past couple years. I knew the name and her reputation during the 60’s and 70’s as a singer/songwriter but I hadn’t really heard much of her music. She was still in her teens when she wrote it and had yet to release her first album. The 5th Dimension had recorded a couple Nyro songs in 1968 and they recorded “Wedding Bell Blues”- [ group members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. were engaged to be married} and it was a track on their The Age Of Aquarius album. A DJ in San Diego began playing it- it got a good response which led the record company to release it as a single and it became a #1 hit. McCoo and Davis married in 1969 and 51 years later remain married. They had a #1 hit of their own in 1977s with “You Don’t Have To Be A Star.”