Billboard #1 Hits: #217: “In The Year 2525”- Zager and Evans. July 12, 1969. #1 for 6 weeks.
- Single: “In The Year 2525”- Zager and Evans
- Record Company- RCA Victor
- Genre: Rock
- Written by Rick Evans
- Time: 3:10
- B-side: “Little Kids”
- Album- 2525
- Grade: B
- Peaked at #1 6 weeks in Billboard Hot 100. #1 on UK Singles Chart, #1 in Canada and New Zealand.
“In The Year 2525” by Zager and Evans- a classic case of a one-hit wonder. They never had another hit- and their song was a song for the times. It was #1 on the charts- as the astronauts of Apollo 11 landed and walked on the Moon July 20, 1969. The 6 weeks it spent at #1 the most of any #1 hit for the year of 1969. The song was recorded mainly in a studio located in a cow pasture in Odessa, Texas. Zager and Evans both natives of Nebraska had met at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1962.
Sometimes the timing needs to be right- this song was written 5 years earlier in 1964 and had been released on a small label in 1968 without any notice. Over the years it has been covered dozens of times in a number of languages. The moronic Clear Channel Communications listed it as a song lyrically questionable after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Zager and Evans remain the only artists to have a #1 hit in both the United States on the Billboard Chart and #1 in the UK- and never have another chart hit to their credit.
slicethelife 
I’ve loved that tune from the very first time I heard it – and still do. I would say it’s one of the most memorable one-hit wonder songs.
and a song that fit in perfectly with the times it was released in…what better song to be #1 when we landed on the Moon!
I bought this on a 45, which we listened to and wore out. It was/is such an interesting message.