(April 21, 2026) – In the spring of 1976, fresh off her No. 1 hit “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?),” Diana Ross looked poised for another smooth ride up the charts. Her follow-up, “I Thought It Took a Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love),” debuted at a lofty No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated March 20—a promising start given that nearly every single debuting as high during the preceding years made the top 40.
But in just two weeks, that momentum vanished. The ballad stalled at No. 47 while yet another Diana tune entered the chart.
That song, “Love Hangover,” emerged from one of the most fascinating cover battles (that wasn’t really a battle) of the disco era. Diana’s was one of two “Love Hangover” singles that debuted on the Hot 100 chart simultaneously in early April. The other was by the 5th Dimension. It was exactly 50 years ago this week that the two competing singles’ fates were sealed.
On the chart dated April 24, Diana’s “Love Hangover” leaped into the top 40, on its way to becoming the Motown legend’s fourth No. 1 single (and second in five months). On that same chart, the 5th Dimension’s version climbed to No. 80 where it peaked. The following week it was nowhere to be found. It was the last time 5th Dimension ever reached the Hot 100.
This was a bicentennial beatdown about as lopsided as they came, with Motown’s enduring superstar taking down a seemingly powerless quintet who’d just been shipped to a different (and struggling) label, and who’d lost their two premier vocalists and, apparently, their mojo.
The 5th Dimension, owners of several big earlier hits including two No. 1s, hadn’t scored a top ten single in almost four years. Former lead singers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. had just left the group for independent careers. Their last album together—1975’s Earthbound—never took off and failed to generate any chart hits. The only similarity to Diana’s situation was that their label, ABC Records, had also just released an earlier 5D single—“Walk Your Feet in the Sunshine”—before jumping into the “Love Hangover” battle.
History has always held that Motown Records only released Diana’s “Love Hangover” as a single after learning of ABC’s plans to do the same with 5th Dimension. In fact, while both songs made their Hot 100 debuts the same week, the 5th Dimension’s version was apparently released days before Diana’s. But the story behind the scenes of whose version came first is far more nuanced.
A Real Chicken and Egg Scenario
Diana’s “Love Hangover” was from a self-titled album whose recording dated back to 1975. Upon the album’s release in early February, discotheques across the country immediately jumped on “Love Hangover,” a track whose 7:48 runtime supported long uninterrupted dance segments (and DJ breaks). Diana’s was a most scintillating take with the diva using her familiar timbre to coo about her euphoria from an apparent night of passion, a feeling for which she wanted no cure or remedy.
The song began as a slow, sultry number before bursting into a disco frenzy—its final five minutes driven by an unrelenting hi-hat at 115 beats-per-minute. It was during that long coda that we hear Ms. Ross injecting her playful sounding vamps, sometimes channeling Billie Holiday, other times laughing, all the time fully rejecting anything approaching a cure for her “Love Hangover.”
The song was receiving top ten club play — rising to No. 6 on Radio & Records Disco File chart by early March — several weeks before anyone thought to issue a single of it.
It was then that ABC Records, fresh off the flop that was “Walk Your Feet in the Sunshine,” decided it needed a spark for their recently acquired 5D investment.
That spark came in the form of 5th Dimension’s version of “Love Hangover,” similar in structure to Diana’s with original member Florence LaRue handling the lead vocals. She was joined in harmony by fellow founders Ron Townson and Lamonte McLemore plus new members Danny Beard and either Eloise Laws or Marjorie Barnes (it was Barnes who appeared in ads and performed the song with the group on a 1976 episode of American Bandstand).
With 5th Dimension’s cover of the Pam Sawyer/Marilyn McLeod-written tune now on the market in single format, it was their version being promoted to radio while Diana’s lit up dance floors. That’s apparently when Motown’s brass decided there was an even bigger threat to Ross returning to the top of the charts than having two of her singles in release at the same time: having a second “Love Hangover” confusing fans across the country.
Motown acted fast, assigning a catalog number and pressing thousands of copies of their “Love Hangover” while Ross’ previous single was just starting its climb.
The Battle Was On
Both record labels ran full-page ads in the major trade publications announcing their singles’ arrivals. Motown touted “Love Hangover” as a “rush release” and paired it with “I Thought It Took a Little Time” as a dual threat, calling them “the two most explosive singles on radio.” ABC Records heralded 5th Dimension’s “Love Hangover” as representing “two firsts” for the group. Clearly leaning into the semantics, theirs was the first “single” version of the disco tune and the first single from the newly reorganized 5D.
Indeed, there was more at stake for the “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” singers than there was for Ms. Ross, whose career was still flourishing even if her No. 1 hits weren’t coming as fast as they had been with her former group the Supremes. Ross would eventually earn a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance for her No. 1 “Love Hangover,” losing to Natalie Cole. Diana would go on to score future No. 1s and several more top tens in the 1980s. In March 2020, a remix of her “Love Hangover” made history as the last No. 1 single on Billboard’s Dance Club Play chart, which has since been on indefinite hiatus.
The 5th Dimension, on the other hand, was at a career crossroads. Just six months after the quintet’s “Love Hangover” flopped, former members McCoo & Davis scored a No. 1 hit with “You Don’t Have To Be a Star (To Be In My Show).” Two years later, ABC Records went out of business. It would be three years (after 1975’s Earthbound) before 5D would release a new album—ironically on the Motown label (1978’s Star Dancing). That disco/soul-leaning album and its 1979 follow-up High on Sunshine both failed to chart, prompting Motown to drop them.
Fortunately, 5th Dimension is still active and touring, with Ms. LaRue now holding the record as the longest-tenured female member of any group at 60 years and counting.
The Verdict
Maybe Motown always planned to release Diana’s “Love Hangover” after “I Thought It Took a Little Time,” especially given the song’s early dominance in discos. But the timing is telling. Once word spread that 5th Dimension had recorded and were releasing their own version, Motown’s brass accelerated Diana’s release.
And while history tends to frame this as an unfair cover battle, the reality is more nuanced: Ross’ version was already moving dance floors weeks earlier, was recorded in 1975, and was building momentum before 5th Dimension ever entered the picture.
In that sense, Motown’s “rush release” may not have been merely reactive—but also a reclamation.
Whatever the case, 50 years later fans can decide not only which they like better, but which one really started the party: Diana’s familiar delivery or the Florence LaRue-led harmonies of the 5th Dimension.
Here are audio clips of both to help you decide.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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