Fifty years ago, the song “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” sung by the 5th Dimension, accomplished quite a feat by achieving the No. 1 position on the Billboard charts, and occupying the top spot for six weeks in a row.
The single reigned at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for six weeks and won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Group.
On the Billboard Hot 100 list (1958-2018), it ranked No. 73.
The track, released in 1969, spent six weeks atop the charts and was eventually certified platinum.
More recently, Billboard listed it as the 66th greatest song of all time.
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The song, actually a medley of two songs, was written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni with the music written by Galt MacDermott.
The medley was constructed of two songs from the musical Hair. The first song was "Aquarius", and the second was "The Flesh Failures: Let the Sunshine In".
The 5th Dimension in 1969. Back row: Townson and McLemore. Front row: LaRue, Davis, and McCoo.
Bill Holman wrote the instrumental backing, played by session musicians of the Wrecking Crew. The actual recording of the song was unusual in that one part was recorded in Los Angeles and the other in Las Vegas, before being mixed together.
When the song hit No. vocal group The Fifth Dimension lent their soul-funk sound to the song in their mega-hit 1969 medley Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, off the Soul City album “The Age of Aquarius,” recorded in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and produced by Bones Howe with session musicians the Wrecking Crew (the same combination who recorded CSHF inductee I Saw Her Again Last Night).
Read also: Aquarius Monthly Forecast
The lyrics of "Aquarius" were based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the "Age of Aquarius", an age of love, light, and humanity, moving out of the "Age of Pisces".
The Age of Aquarius was once a buzzword of the 1960s counter-culture, popularized by the group the 5th Dimension and the Broadway musical “Hair.”
In the magic summer of 1969, between two historic outdoor music festivals, Denver Pop Festival and Woodstock, Aquarius lit up the radio.
The Age of Aquarius is not New Age hocus pocus or a conspiracy theory.
According to Astrologists the Age of Aquarius begins now (2021), not back in the 60s before many were born.
Read also: Understanding Aquarius
The signs? The easier interpretation is the Age of Aquarius symbolizes the start of a new era and also points to a newfound sense of hope, a strong desire for collective change, some of which we have already experienced in the Covid-19 pandemic, including the protests against racial violence in the United States.
Billy Davis Jr., the lead singer of the 5th Dimension, left his wallet in a New York City cab.
The man who found it was involved in the production of the musical “Hair.” He invited the group to see the show, in which they heard a segment of music entitled “Aquarius.”
The 5th Dimension's lead singer Billy Davis Jr. left his wallet in a New York City cab; the man who found the wallet was involved in the production of Hair and invited the group to see the show.
Enthused with the song, they contacted music producer and engineer Bones Howe, who took two segments of music from “Hair” and “jam[med] them together like two trains,” Howe was quoted as saying.
The group called their producer Bones Howe in California: "After they'd seen it I received a phone call in which they were all talking over one another, saying 'We've got to cut this song "Aquarius"'.
Returning to California, Howe supervised the first recording session.
The instrumental track was set to tape at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood by Wrecking Crew members Hal Blaine on drums, Joe Osborn on bass, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Tommy Tedesco and Dennis Budimir on guitars and Tony Terran on trumpet.
It also featured strings, winds, and brass instrumentations.
However, the vocals were recorded separately in Las Vegas, where the 5th Dimension was performing at the time, using only two microphones for the five singers.
During the group’s high period, 1967-73, it had a total of 20 Top-40 hits.
Their music, published on many labels, includes the genres of R&B, pop, soul, sunshine pop and psychedelic soul.
Aquarius was everywhere in 1968-1969: on the London “Hair” original cast recording, MacDermot’s “Hair Pieces” album, and recordings by Cilla Black, Dick Hyman, the Electronic Concept Orchestra, and Zen.
In Europe Aquarius has been sung in Czech (Helena Vondrackova) and in German (Spencer Davis, Donna Summer, Marianne Mendt).
In 1979, MacDermot adapted “Hair” for the big screen. Aquarius, sung by Renn Woods, led off the soundtrack album.
Galt MacDermot (born Montreal 1928), the son of a Canadian diplomat, studied music in South Africa where he developed an interest in complex rhythm.
Settling in New York City in the mid-1960s, he won his first Grammy in 1961 for the song African Waltz.
He is also known for “Two Gentlemen of Verona” and for writing film scores and chamber and orchestral music.
Listening to The 5th Dimension, the popular R&B group from the ‘60s and ‘70s, it’s impossible not to recognize the band’s beautiful sense of depth and the member’s lush harmonies.
One of the band’s biggest hits was the medley, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”
Florence LaRue shared how the song came about: “One of the gentlemen in the 5th Dimension lost his wallet. We were in New York City at the Americana Hotel, performing and another gentleman found his wallet and brought it to the Americana and returned it. So, we invited him to the show and he invited us to his show. That gentleman was the producer of [the musical] Hair! And we suggested it to our producer. He said, “No, I don’t think it’s such a good idea. Because, first of all, the cast album’s out and it’s not really selling a lot.” But he came back to us and said, “Let’s record ‘Aquarius’ with ‘Let the Sunshine In’-they’re actually two different songs-and that’s how it came about."
LaRue continued, "People ask us why we recorded it. We were not into astrology at all. We recorded it because it talked of hope and fun and harmony and it was just an uplifting song. That’s why we recorded it.”
Florence LaRue noted, “We had no idea it would become an anthem of the time. We had no idea at all how big it would be.”
When asked what it was like to feel that, LaRue responded, "It was really a wonderful feeling. But I must tell you, one day I was riding down Sunset Boulevard and “Up, Up and Away, My Beautiful Balloon” came on the radio and I rolled it down, yelling, “That’s us!”
Reflecting on the hit, Florence LaRue said, "You know, I’ve been singing that song for 50 years and I never tire of it because what I like about it is that it’s about harmony and understanding. Peace. I think of peace in the world among the races, among the nationalities. It just makes me feel good that there’s hope. There is hope. Now, with COVID and all the things going on in the world, so many people are just so despondent and so unhappy and frightened."
The lyrics of the song were rooted in astrology. Though astrologers differed on the year this new age would begin, the song proclaimed that a new “Age of Aquarius” was at hand sometime after the 20th century.
This age was to be characterized by love, light and humane, kind relationships, unlike the current “Age of Pisces.”
A selection of the lyrics:
“When the moon is in the Seventh House“
“And Jupiter aligns with Mars“
“Then peace will guide the planets“
“And love will steer the stars“
“This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius …”
“Harmony and understanding“
“Sympathy and trust abounding“
“No more falsehoods or derisions“
“Golden living dreams of visions“
“Mystic crystal revelation“
“And the mind's true liberation“
“Aquarius, Aquarius …”
The single version ran for 4 minutes, 49 seconds and finished with lead singer Billy Davis pumping out words of exhortation, “open up your heart” and “you got to feel it,” while the rest of the group sang “let the sunshine in” in bursts of three for a total of eleven times to end the song.
“Age of Aquarius was just a great song,” The Fifth Dimension’s Billy Davis summarized.
In the divisive and discordant Sixties, this song was so popular, I believe, because it offered the hope that larger cosmic forces were mysteriously at work to bring peace and harmony to an America - and a world - marked by chaos.
People cared about "Hair" because it dared to be different.
Opening on Broadway in May 1968, after a trailblazing six-week run off-Broadway the prior autumn, "Hair" was the first of the mainstream rock musicals, which broke ground with its frank references to sex and drugs and an Act One final scene in which the cast appeared fully naked.
Reflecting a more youthful world view, and spreading positive vibes imparting the belief that the impending societal changes were going to make the world a better place, "'Hair' became a Broadway smash and cultural phenomenon that spawned a million-selling original cast recording and a No. 1 song on the pop charts for the 5th Dimension, notes television's History Channel.