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.