| "In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 RCA release | ||||
| Single byZager and Evans | ||||
| from the album2525 (Exordium & Terminus) | ||||
| B-side | "Little Kids" | |||
| Released | 1969 (Truth label) April 1969 (RCA label)[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1969,Odessa, Texas | |||
| Genre | Folk rock[2] | |||
| Length | 3:10 (Truth label) 3:15 (RCA label) | |||
| Label | Truth;RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriter | Rick Evans | |||
| Producer | Zager and Evans | |||
| Zager and Evans singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative release | ||||
 Artwork for the German vinyl single | ||||
"In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" is a1969 hit song by the American pop-rock duo ofZager and Evans. A "one-hit wonder", it reached No. 1 on theBillboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969.[3] It peaked at No. 1 in theUK Singles Chart for three weeks in August and September that year.[4] The song was written and composed by Rick Evans in 1964 and released on Truth Records in 1968.[5] It was picked up by RCA Records.
Their follow-up single on RCA Victor, "Mr. Turnkey", reached No. 48 in the Canadian pop charts and number 41 in the Canadian AC chart.[6][7] Another single, "Listen to the People", charted at No. 100 and No. 96 in Canada.[8]
"In the Year 2525" is a song about the journey of mankind over a 10,000-year span: 2525, 3535, 4545, 5555, 6565, 7510, 8510, and 9595. It predicts that humanity's thoughts, relationships and bodies will be negatively impacted by technological advances and ends with mankind's extinction.[9]
The song was produced byTommy Allsup. Allsup played lead guitar as a member ofBuddy Holly's bandThe Crickets. While touring in 1959 withBuddy Holly,Ritchie Valens, andJ.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, he serendipitously lost a fateful coin toss with Valens for a seat on the plane that crashed, killing Valens, Holly, Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson on February 3, 1959 (The day the music died).
The song was recorded in 1968, at a studio in a cow pasture inOdessa, Texas.[10]
The record had regional success so RCA Records picked it up for a national release. RCA producerEthel Gabriel was tasked with enhancing the sound and arrangement. The track went to number 1 on the U.S. charts within three weeks of release.[12]
Famously, the song made Zager and Evans the ultimateone-hit wonders; for many years, the Nebraska duo were the only artist to hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic—and never had another hit onBillboard's chart nor in Britain. (The Canadian groupMagic! went to number one in both the US and the UK with "Rude" in 2014, but have not had a hit record outside of Canada since.)
The song has beencovered at least 60 times in seven languages, including a Jewish parody recorded byCountry Yossi, and an Italian cover byCaterina Caselli titled "Nel 2023".[13] Zager and Evans themselves also recorded an Italian version of the song, instead called "Nell'Anno 2033".[14][15]
Zager and Evans themselves referred to "2525" in one of their later songs, "Yeah 3²" (1970): "I'm gonna call it "In The Year 2525", or something like that/And if it sells, then I'll do well, gonna pay this woman back".
It was included in aClear Channel memorandum, distributed byClear Channel Communications to every radio station owned by the company, which contained 165 songs considered to be "lyrically questionable" following theSeptember 11, 2001, attacks.[16]
Two lines of the song are sung by the inmate Murphy in the 1992 filmAlien 3 immediately prior to his death.
Brief snippets are played in "The Time Is Now", the second-season finale of the TV showMillennium, which depicts an apocalyptic event.
The song was rewritten and used as the introductory theme for the 2000 TV seriesCleopatra 2525.
In 2010, it was parodied as "In the Year 252525" in the seventh episode ofFuturama's sixth season, "The Late Philip J. Fry", as Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Bender travel forwards through time to find a period in which thebackwards time machine has been invented.[17]
The song acts as an aesthetic theme to the filmGentlemen Broncos.[18]
The BBC Radio series2525, a sketch show set in that year, featured a cover of the song with its first lyric as its introductory theme.[citation needed][19]
The first few verses of the song are used as the opening theme while the credits roll in the 2006 filmTunnel Rats.
Zager once said that aTime magazine cover from 1969 featured him and Evans with the caption "EvenThe Beatles would be jealous". However, no cover of the duo is included inTime's magazine history for 1969.[20][21]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
All-time charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[40] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
...the #1 song in America was a massively goofy folk-rock sci-fi novelty song about the dangers of technology.
