One hit wonders Zager and Evans’ 1969 chartbuster, “In the Year 2525,” seems as good a song as any to pull out on such a hot August day here in thee Summer of Hate.

An apocalyptic warning about the dangers of technology, the Second Coming and other foreboding stuff, the song as recorded in 1968, in a session the duo paid $500 for. After being released independently via a regional label, the record caught on with a Texas radio station that hipped RCA-Victor to tune, who then picked it up for nation distribution. It stayed at the #1 spot for six weeks in 1969 and was the top song the week of the moon landing.

Zager and Evans never had another hit record. The follow-up to “In the Year 2525” was called “Mr. Turnkey” and told the story of a rapist who nails his own wrist to the wall as punishment for his crimes. What a nutty idea for a pop song! “Mr. Turnkey” failed to chart.

After 9/11, “In the Year 2525” was famously banned from airplay by Clear Channel. As we get closer to the year, expect to hear this song with ever increasing frequency.
 

Are you sure that isn’t Kurt Russell on the cover?

A good friend of mine played drums on that cut. Best shuffle drummer in the midwest by a mile. Way too musical to stick with a couple of folkie hacks like Z & E. Here’s his FB post from 8/9/10:

David Trupp THERE WAS AN ARTICLE IN THE OMAHA WORLD -HERALD THAT DENNY ZAGER IS SELLING THE GUITAR THAT HE USED TO RECORD ‘‘IN THE YEAR 2525’‘......IS EVERYONE SITTING DOWN?......HE WANTS 252,500.00 DOLLARS…..THIS IS AN EMBARRESSMENT TO EVERYONE INVOLVED…..HOW ABOUT DONATING THE GUITAR OR GIVING IT TO A STUDENT OR A POOR PERSON THAT WANTS TO PLAY…..THIS IS INSANE….I`M TRULY EMBARRESSED…...

Might be the worst song of the ‘60s. And from my home town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YmnG2pzVgQ

Wouldn’t $25.25 be a more reasonable asking price?

I remember that being such a dreary song, both lyrically and sound-wise. We had to talk about it in a music class in grade school and dissect it in terms of poetry.
Wonder if there were any notable parodies, covers or response songs (the only one I can think of is by Laibach) or if they themselves did any cash-in follow up singles that sounded like it?

This song is amazing!

I was living in Kodiak, Alaska in the late 70’s, and Kasey Kasem did a segment on “one-hit wonders - where are they now?”. Well, at that very moment they were playing a stint at the Mecca Lounge in the downtown mall in beautiful rainy Kodiak!

OK - back to your bongs, people.

I don’t recall rotation-overkill with 1984-themed songs when 1984 came around, but then we didnt have the overshare media of today. But your post is timely as one of the latest Futurama (most of the time very sussed out music selections) episodes just did their version of “In the year 2525”, which luckily was much shorter and therefore more enjoyable. I recall that original version and even then it lacked a good change in the strucure and one less verse, among other things.

This was number one in the States the day those men did that thing on the moon. The full name of the song is “Exordium and Terminus”. Nice name for a pop song.

only 515 years to go…I dont expect it to enter song rotation with much frequency for about 500yrs

Ian Brown’s cover is much more enjoyable.