Fifth Dimension – "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (1969)

Mystic crystal revelation

And the mind’s true liberation

Aquarius!

A year after today’s featured recording was released, my high school jazz band performed an instrumental arrangement of it to close our spring concert.

My high school had a big-ass grand piano, and the lid was opened wide when I played it that night.  I was a pretty accomplished student pianist by the time I was a senior, but the thing I did best was play the piano LOUD.

I never played louder than when I played the second part of the “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” medley that night.  I banged the piano keys as hard as I could – after all, I was trying to be heard over four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, and a drummer.

A big-ass concert grand piano

I also ripped off full-length glissando after full-length glissando.  By the time the band got to the last chord, my knuckles were raw and bleeding from all those glissandos.

I’ve played the piano in public dozens of times, but I was never more jacked up during a performance than I was when we played “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” that night.

Is that why I decided to include the Fifth Dimension’s recording of that medley in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME?  Well, it’s certainly a reason – although it’s not the only reason.

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Berry Gordy – the man who built Motown Records into the most profitable African-American-owned business in the United States – didn’t make many mistakes.  But he slipped up on occasion.  

For example, he didn’t think Marvin Gaye’s recording of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” – which was only the best Motown record ever made – was worthy of being released as a single.

And when the head of Motown’s Los Angeles recommended that Gordy sign the Fifth Dimension, he passed on the group.  

B-i-g mistake, Berry! 

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“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” held the #1 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100” for six consecutive weeks in 1969, and was the best-selling single of that year.  Not surprisingly, it won the Grammy for “Record of the Year.” 

The Fifth Dimension had also won the “Record of the Year“ Grammy two years earlier for “Up, Up and Away” – which is the song I think of first when I think of the Fifth Dimension.  (Somehow “Up, Up and Away” only made it to #7 on the Billboard charts – that’s very surprising.)

Between 1967 and 1973, a total of 20 of the group’s singles made the top forty.  They not only had another #1 hit (“Wedding Bell Blues”), but also had a #2 (“One Less Bell to Answer”) and a #3 (“Stoned Soul Picnic”).

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I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Fifth Dimension when I was a teenager back in the sixties.  I heard their records on the radio hundreds (if not thousands) of times, but never seriously considered buying one of their albums.

As a teenager, I didn’t appreciate the craftsmanship and professionalism of recording artists like the Fifth Dimension when I heard it – now that I’m an adult, I get it. 

The three male and two female singers who were the group’s original members sang beautifully, but that was only one of the reasons their recordings were so good.

The Fifth Dimension with
Bones Howe and Jimmy Webb

Their producer, “Bones” Howe, was savvy enough to hire members of the legendary “Wrecking Crew” group of studio musicians to back up the group’s vocals.  (Those vocals were arranged by Bob Alcivar, who had worked with Howe when Howe produced the Association’s equally impeccable records.)

And the group had excellent taste when it came to choosing material.  They recorded songs by a number of first-rate songwriters, including Jimmy Webb (“Up, Up and Away”), Burt Bacharach and Hal David (“One Less Bell to Answer”), and especially Laura Nyro.

Sadly, Laura Nyro’s own recordings of “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Sweet Blindness,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” and “Save the Country” never cracked the top forty.  But the Fifth Dimension’s covers of them made it to #3, #13, and #1, and #27, respectively. 

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The Fifth Dimension told Bones Howe that they wanted to record “Aquarius” after seeing the musical Hair on Broadway. 

Howe was skeptical at first.  But after seeing the show himself, he decided to create a medley by combing “Aquarius” – which was the first song in Hair – with part of the musical’s final number, “The Flesh Failures (“Let the Sunshine In).”  The transition from the first part of the medley to the second part is anything but smooth – the songs are in dramatically different tempos – but Howe decided to just “jam them together.”

Songwriter Jimmy Webb walked into the studio when the Fifth Dimension were recording the vocals.  “My God, that’s a number one record,” he told Howe after listening for a few moments.

(You da man, Jimmy Webb!)

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Click here to listen to the Fifth Dimension’s recording of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.