8. Wedding Bell Blues (5th Dimension)

Laura Nyro wrote this song when she was just 18, and released it on her first album in 1967. The song finds the singer letting her boyfriend (Bill) know that although she loves him, she's becoming frustrated waiting for him to propose to her (Beyonce updated this theme with her hit "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It))."

So, was there really a "Bill"? Alan Merrill would know - the son of Jazz singer Helen Merrill, he grew up with Laura, and they thought of each other as cousins, since her uncle married Alan's aunt. Alan, who became a Rock Star in England with his band The Arrows, explains:
Around 1958 or so my mom was dating a married man named Bill Carter, a b-film actor. He was married to Trink Wiman, heiress to the John Deere fortune. My mom and Bill co-owned a jazz club named The Night Owl (not the Greenwich Village rock venue) and were having a very passionate and public relationship. The club was quite possibly funded by Ms. Wiman's money. The affair was so serious in fact that Trink had private detectives invade our apartment at 1040 Park Avenue in '59, I was there and remember it. The ensuing newspaper scandal was the reason we left to reside in Europe for many years.

This was big family gossip of course, and Laura listened to it as a child and later wrote about it. My mother could never marry Bill, and didn't. Her timing was bad. Seeing a married man was a big deal in the '50s, but that the wife was such a wealthy heiress upped the ante. The affair ultimately cost Carter his marriage in 1960, with Wiman divorcing him, I guess Carter blamed my mom for his losing his grip on Wiman's fortune, and their relationship soured. He met and married actress Elaine Stewart, that is after breaking up with my mom in Europe sometime around in 1961 while I was in boarding school. My mother seethes at the mention of his name now and refuses to discuss him, although she did confirm the story of the affair (and Laura admitting to her that it was the inspiration for the song) when interviewed in Michele Kort's book about Laura's life - Soul Picnic.

My mom was not amused at Laura's incisive lyric, but in fact Laura was an investigative journalist as an artist and got the story spot-on in the song. A zinger from my mom's perspective, but a big winner in terms of sale for Laura!

Laura Nyro, who died from cancer in 1997, was a popular singer, but other artists had far more success with her songs. This song, along with "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat & Tears and "Eli's Coming" by 3 Dog Night, were all Laura Nyro compositions in the US Top 10 at the same time for a few weeks in the fall of 1969. Alan Merrill told us: "I watched Laura write all of her first songs. I'd go, 'You can't speed up like that, you'll never have a hit. You can't slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up.' And she just smiled at me, like, 'I know what I'm doing.' I said, 'Listen to the Byrds and the Beatles, they don't slow down and speed up.' A year or two later I was looking at the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 songs on the Billboard charts and Laura had written them all!" (Merrill was a member of The Arrows and co-wrote the song "I Love Rock And Roll."

The 5th Dimension had hits in 1968 with Nyro's songs "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Sweet Blindness." The group's producer Bones Howe was good friends with Nyro and loved her songs, so he encouraged them to record another one for their Age Of Aquarius album. The song was exceptionally fitting for the group, as members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. were engaged at the time, but had not set a wedding date. This played well on television appearances, as Marilyn would sing to "Bill" and Davis would put on that look guys get when they're being hassled about getting married. McCoo and Davis did get married later in 1969, and remained together.

"Wedding Bell Blues" became a common phrase in pop culture after this song became a hit. The title has been used for several books, a 1996 movie, and episodes of television shows.

"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was the first single released from the album and the first #1 hit for The 5th Dimension. "Wedding Bell Blues" was released next, and also topped the charts.