Even though it’s evening, music lovers inside Holmdel, NJ’s PNC Bank Arts Center amphitheater this Thursday, September 26, 2024 are excited to “let the sunshine in” with a Garden State Arts Foundation concert entitled Cousin Brucie Presents Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Darlene Love, and The Soundtrack of our Lives with Deborah Rennard and Al Sapienza.
Vice President of the GSAF Board of Trustees Ron Gravino welcomes the crowd to this free Fall event. He thanks the sponsors of the show — including PNC Bank and Live Nation Entertainment — along with GSAF executive director Cookie Santiago and Bob O’Brien and the many GSAF volunteers for their help with this and other GSAF programs.
Following a short video featuring actor/singers Deborah Rennard (Dallas) and Al Sapienza (The Sopranos), MusicRadio 77-WABC DJ Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow takes the stage.
Cousin Brucie greets the crowd and introduces Rennard and Sapienza’s musical duo, The Soundtrack of our Lives. The pair open today’s show with their rendition of the Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Accompanied by a quartet of musicians on piano, guitar, bass, and drums, Rennard’s sweet soprano and Sapienzo’s smooth baritone serenade the audience as the couple sings while gazing into each other’s eyes.
Rennard gets the crowd clapping and swaying to the music as Sapienza croons Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” with style, energy, and dynamics. Rennard sings harmony to Sapienza’s vocal as the crowd adds the popular “So good, so good, so good” refrain to the arrangement.
The crowd cheers, and Sapienza and Rennard thank the audience before Rennard says, “Here’s another great ’60s song,” and invites music lovers to sing along on her interpretation of “Downtown.” On this sparkling performance, Rennard’s vocal channels Petula Clark as the audience joins her in singing the catchy “Downtown” refrain.
Sapienza announces, “Here’s a song from 1965,” as the duo launches into a haunting rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” Adding, “Here’s another great one from a Jersey band, The Looking Glass,” Sapienza and Rennard perform a bouncy version of “Brandy.”
Rennard renders a heartfelt rendition of Barbra Streisand’s “People,” and Sapienza gives a soulful and powerful interpretation of Neil Diamond’s “Holly Holy” which brings avid cheers from the crowd.
Holding hands, the couple sings directly to one another on “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera before Sapienza and Rennard conclude their set with a upbeat rendition of The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” which has audience members happily moving to the groove in their seats.
The crowd cheers as Cousin Brucie’s theme song plays and he returns to take a moment to recognize Gravino and the Garden State Arts Foundation for presenting 40 years of free concerts to the residents of New Jersey.
Stating, “She started as a backup singer and we’ve fallen in love with her over and over again,” Cousin Brucie introduces a short video about Darlene Love which focuses on her 60-year music career. At the video’s conclusion, Love, 83, takes the stage to enthusiastic applause.
Backed by an eight-piece band and two backup singers, Love opens her set with Steven Van Zandt’s “Among the Believers.”
Smiling as she dances and claps across the stage, Darlene’s powerhouse alto sizzles on this rocking number which also features a wailing tenor sax solo and tight backup vocals.
Following her rendition of Elvis Costello’s retro-sounding rocker, “Forbidden Nights,” Love greets the audience announcing, “How are you guys doing? Enjoy yourself!” before sailing into a rousing medley of gospel tunes including “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Down by the Riverside,” and a spiritual rendering of “Oh, Happy Day.”
Continuing with a medley of her own hits, music lovers clap along as Love sings “He’s a rebel and he’ll never ever be any good” on a rip-roaring rendition of The Crystals’ 1962 #1 hit, “He’s a Rebel.”
After segueing into her ‘50s-style rocker, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” Darlene croons to all the lovers in the crowd on “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry,” and belts out her breezy 1963 hit, “Wait ’Til My Bobby Gets Home.” Lastly, to conclude the medley, Love invites the audience to sing along with her and her background singers on The Crystals’ 1963 smash, “Da Doo Ron Ron.”
Love talks about being recognized for her work by Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen. Concertgoers tap their toes and nod their heads as Darlene gives a dynamic rendition of one of her favorite Springsteen tunes, “Hungry Heart.”
Darlene invites backup singers Layonne Holmes and Keesha Gumbs center stage to perform a highlight number of her set, Walter Hawkins’ “Marvelous,” where soaring vocal harmonies ring out on this divine gospel number.
The crowd stands and applauds, and Love concludes her portion of the program with one of her favorite songs, “River Deep, Mountain High.” Music lovers sing and dance along to the sound of Love before she thanks the audience, waves goodnight, bows, and exits the stage. Reacting to Love and Co.’s performance, Cousin Brucie exclaims, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” as concertgoers continue to stand and cheer.
Following a short intermission, a five-piece backup band along with three background vocalists appear on stage to perform The Mamas and the Papas’ “Go Where You Wanna Go.” After a video plays on screen showing Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. singing Wings’ “Silly Love Songs,” McCoo, 80, and Davis, Jr., 86, take the stage and continue to sing “Silly Love Songs” in harmony with power and style to fervent audience applause.
McCoo, Davis, Jr., and their trio of backup singers — André Carthen, Cynthia Bass, and Cydney Davis — soar on a five-part vocal arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s 1967 hit for The 5th Dimension, “Up, Up and Away.”
Explaining that their next song, which was composed by Laura Nyro, gave The 5th Dimension their first million-seller, the vocalists launch into 1968’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” where Davis, Jr. soulfully sings with the quintet, “Surry down to a stoned soul picnic.”
McCoo announces, “We’ve been married 55 years!” before crooning from the heart, “Bill/I love you so/I always will,” on the 1969 Laura Nyro-composed 5th Dimension hit, “Wedding Bell Blues.”
McCoo and Davis, Jr,. trade off singing lead as they perform their 1976 smash, “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show),” their familiar voices blending as one on the song’s famous “You don’t have to be a star, baby/To be in my show” chorus.
As video clips appear onscreen, McCoo and Davis, Jr. sing the upbeat theme to the Solid Gold TV show. McCoo talks about her love of torch songs, acknowledging, “All my life I wanted to sing torch songs and I got to record one of the best all-time torch songs written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.” Emoting with power and feeling, McCoo gives a dynamic rendition of her 1969 5th Dimension hit, “One Less Bell to Answer,” as music lovers in the crowd hum along.
Davis, Jr. exclaims, “When you have a relationship that’s as strong as ours, you don’t want to go anywhere!” as he rockets into a stellar rendition of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” for Marilyn.
McCoo follows up with a poignant interpretation of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” as images of black heroes including Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and others appear onscreen to the right and left of her.
Davis, Jr. follows up with a slow gospel-inspired rendition of The Beatles’ “Help,” and after introducing their backup musicians and singers, the pair concludes their selection of Beatles’ songs with “And I Love Her,” where they hold hands and look into each other’s eyes as they sing to one another before changing the final lyric from “and I love her” to “and I love you.”
Shifting gears, McCoo and Davis, Jr. get the crowd moving to the groove of Ashford and Simpson’s “Solid,” where Davis, Jr. sings with soul and conviction on the infectious “Solid/Solid as a rock/That’s what this love is/That’s what we’ve got” refrain.
After announcing, “Thank you for making this next song the biggest hit of our career!” to conclude tonight’s show, McCoo, Davis, Jr., and Co. perform The 5th Dimension’s 1969 smash from the musical, Hair, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”
Music lovers stand, clap, and sing along on the song’s well-known “Let the sunshine in” chorus. After Davis, Jr. says, “God bless you!” and McCoo and Davis, Jr. take a bow and exit the stage to avid applause, Cousin Brucie concludes the evening by declaring, “This was a special night!”
To learn more about Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., please go to mccoodavis.com. For more info on Darlene Love, please click on darleneloveworld.com. For more information on The Soundtrack of Our Lives starring Al Sapienza and Deborah Rennard, please click on facebook.com/SapienzaRennard. For info on future Garden State Arts Foundation events at the PNC Bank Arts Center, please navigate to gsafoundation.org.
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