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5th Dimension Co-Founder LaMonte McLemore Dies at 90

by Best Classic Bands Staff

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The 5th Dimension with LaMonte McLemore in front. (Photo: John Engstead; used with permission)

LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of the popular singing group The 5th Dimension, died Tuesday morning, Feb. 3, 2026, at his home in Las Vegas, surrounded by his wife of 30 years and family. He was 90. McLemore died from natural causes following a stroke suffered several years ago.

With The 5th Dimension (Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue and Ron Townson), McLemore helped bring a polished, genre-blending sound to American pop and soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, scoring era-defining hits including “Up, Up and Away” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” The group won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year twice—first for “Up, Up and Away” (1968) and again for “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” (1970). Both recordings were later inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

Related: Top radio hits of 1969

The “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” medley topped the Hot 100 for six weeks in the spring of 1969, becoming one of the signature recordings of its generation. Other mega-hits included the #1 “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoned Soul Picnic,” amid seven Gold albums and six Platinum RIAA-certified singles. In 1991, the Original 5th Dimension received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Born Sept. 17, 1935, in St. Louis, Missouri, McLemore served in the United States Navy, where he trained and worked as an aerial photographer—an early chapter in what became a lifelong parallel career behind the lens. He later pursued professional baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system, one of the first African Americans to participate, before settling in Southern California and turning his attention to music and photography full time.

The members of singing group the Versatiles were brought to the attention of singer Johnny Rivers in 1967. He signed them to his Soul City Records label and they changed their name to the 5th Dimension. Known for his warm bass vocals and easygoing presence, McLemore helped anchor the group’s sophisticated harmonies and modern pop sensibility, which broadened the palette of soul and R&B on mainstream radio. They appeared on major television variety shows of the era and toured internationally, including a 1973 State Department cultural tour that brought American pop music behind the Iron Curtain.

Various 5th Dimension hit compilations are available here.

The group’s surviving members paid tribute. McCoo and Davis wrote, “All of us who knew and loved him will definitely miss his energy and wonderful sense of humor.”

“Proverbs 17:22 states that a joyful heart is good medicine…,” said LaRue. “Well, Lamonte really knew my prescription! His cheerfulness and laughter often brought strength and refreshment to me in difficult times. We were more like brother and sister than singing partners. I didn’t realize the depth of my love for Lamonte until he was no longer here. His absence has shown me the magnitude of what he meant to me and that love will stay in my heart forever.”

Townson died in 2001.

Outside the recording studio, McLemore built a distinguished reputation as a photographer, with work spanning entertainment, sports, and editorial portraiture. His images captured many of the defining figures of 20th-century popular culture, and he contributed photography to Jet magazine over the course of multiple decades.

In 2014, McLemore co-authored with Robert-Allan Arno the autobiography From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension: A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography, and Music, reflecting on a career that moved effortlessly between the stage and the camera.