Zager and Evans
Encyclopedia
Zager & Evans were a Lincoln, Nebraska
rock
-pop
duo
of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager
and Rick Evans
, who met at Nebraska Wesleyan University
. Fellow Nebraska artists Dave Trupp and Mark Dalton backed up the duo on drums and bass respectively. Early Benders drummer Danny Schindler played with Zager and Evans in the seminal Nebraska band, "The Eccentrics" until his tour of Vietnam in 1965. The band also included Paul Maher on drums, until he left the band (replaced by Dave Trupp), prior to Zager and Evans recording their hit song "In The Year 2525." Trupp and Dalton were the rhythm section in the popular "Liberation Blues Band" and also did some playing with Evans on other demo material prior to recording 2525 in 1968.
Zager & Evans are known for their popular "In the Year 2525
" written by Evans with music by Zager. The song warned of the dangers of technology, portraying a future in which the human race
would at length be destroyed by its own technological and medical innovations and Divine wrath. The last stanza of the song indicates a continuing cycle of birth
, death
and rebirth
of mankind.
"In the Year 2525" hit number one on the Hot 100 in 1969. It claimed the #1 spot for six weeks. It also topped the charts in the UK
. It was number one on July 20, 1969 in the US
, the date of the first manned moon landing by astronauts Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin
. It continued to top the charts while the Woodstock Festival was going on - forever cementing "2525" in the minds of a generation. It was nominated for a special Hugo Award
that same year. It sold over four million copies by 1970, and was awarded a gold disc
by the R.I.A.A. in July 1969.
The song was originally written in 1964 and recorded and released in 1968 on the Truth Records label. After radio stations in Lincoln and Omaha turned the record into a regional "break-out" hit record, RCA Records signed the duo and rereleased the song nationwide. They also immediately recorded a follow-up album of the same name, again using Trupp and Dalton as the primary rhythm section. Sales of the original hit recording (including singles sales, album usage and compilation inclusions) now total over 10 million units worldwide. The B-side
of the original single was "Little Kids".
RCA thought they were onto the "The Next Big Thing", but follow-up singles, such as "Mr. Turnkey" (a song about a rapist who nails his own wrist to the jail wall as punishment for his crime) went largely unnoticed by the public. "In the Year 2525" was their only Hot 100 entry.
In Australia, "In The Year 2525" reached #2, with "Mr. Turnkey / Cary Lynn Javes" (double A-side) reaching #86 and "Help One Man Today" reaching #94 on the RCA label. They also had records released on White Whale Records
and Vanguard Records
.
Zager and Evans no longer perform as a duo, but they both remain in the music industry and remain friends. Zager now builds custom guitars at Zager EZ-Play Guitars, and Evans has continued his career as a performer and songwriter.
"In the Year 2525
" has been covered by the industrial
band Laibach
on their album NATO
as well as the gothic rock
band Fields of the Nephilim
and new romantics Visage
. In addition to these two bands, Project Pitchfork
also covered it in the early 1990s on their album Dhyani. Ian Brown
has also made a cover in his 2009 My Way
album. Futurama
made a parody called 'In the Year 252525.'
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
duo
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager
Denny Zager
Denny Zager was a member of the duo, Zager and Evans. The group is most famous for the number 1 single, "In the Year 2525," released in 1969....
and Rick Evans
Rick Evans
Rick Evans is a chart-topping American singer and guitarist.From 1962 he played with the Eccentrics, a group which also included Denny Zager. The group split in 1965. By 1968 Evans and Zager worked as a duo together and had a number one hit with "In the Year 2525," written by Evans, allegedly in...
, who met at Nebraska Wesleyan University
Nebraska Wesleyan University
Nebraska Wesleyan University is a private, coeducational university located in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2007, it has 1,600 full-time students and 300 faculty and staff. The school teaches in the tradition of a liberal arts college education....
. Fellow Nebraska artists Dave Trupp and Mark Dalton backed up the duo on drums and bass respectively. Early Benders drummer Danny Schindler played with Zager and Evans in the seminal Nebraska band, "The Eccentrics" until his tour of Vietnam in 1965. The band also included Paul Maher on drums, until he left the band (replaced by Dave Trupp), prior to Zager and Evans recording their hit song "In The Year 2525." Trupp and Dalton were the rhythm section in the popular "Liberation Blues Band" and also did some playing with Evans on other demo material prior to recording 2525 in 1968.
Zager & Evans are known for their popular "In the Year 2525
In the Year 2525
"In the Year 2525 " is a hit song from 1969 by American pop-rock duo Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969. The song was written by Rick Evans in 1964 and originally released on a small regional record label in 1968...
" written by Evans with music by Zager. The song warned of the dangers of technology, portraying a future in which the human race
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
would at length be destroyed by its own technological and medical innovations and Divine wrath. The last stanza of the song indicates a continuing cycle of birth
Birth
Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...
, death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
and rebirth
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of mankind.
"In the Year 2525" hit number one on the Hot 100 in 1969. It claimed the #1 spot for six weeks. It also topped the charts in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was number one on July 20, 1969 in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the date of the first manned moon landing by astronauts Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
and Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
. It continued to top the charts while the Woodstock Festival was going on - forever cementing "2525" in the minds of a generation. It was nominated for a special Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
that same year. It sold over four million copies by 1970, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the R.I.A.A. in July 1969.
The song was originally written in 1964 and recorded and released in 1968 on the Truth Records label. After radio stations in Lincoln and Omaha turned the record into a regional "break-out" hit record, RCA Records signed the duo and rereleased the song nationwide. They also immediately recorded a follow-up album of the same name, again using Trupp and Dalton as the primary rhythm section. Sales of the original hit recording (including singles sales, album usage and compilation inclusions) now total over 10 million units worldwide. The B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the original single was "Little Kids".
RCA thought they were onto the "The Next Big Thing", but follow-up singles, such as "Mr. Turnkey" (a song about a rapist who nails his own wrist to the jail wall as punishment for his crime) went largely unnoticed by the public. "In the Year 2525" was their only Hot 100 entry.
In Australia, "In The Year 2525" reached #2, with "Mr. Turnkey / Cary Lynn Javes" (double A-side) reaching #86 and "Help One Man Today" reaching #94 on the RCA label. They also had records released on White Whale Records
White Whale Records
White Whale Records was an American record label, founded in 1965 by Ted Feigin and Lee Lassiff in Los Angeles, California, and probably best known as the record label of The Turtles....
and Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
.
Zager and Evans no longer perform as a duo, but they both remain in the music industry and remain friends. Zager now builds custom guitars at Zager EZ-Play Guitars, and Evans has continued his career as a performer and songwriter.
"In the Year 2525
In the Year 2525
"In the Year 2525 " is a hit song from 1969 by American pop-rock duo Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969. The song was written by Rick Evans in 1964 and originally released on a small regional record label in 1968...
" has been covered by the industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
band Laibach
Laibach (band)
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with industrial, martial, and neo-classical musical styles. Laibach formed June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia . Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984...
on their album NATO
NATO (album)
NATO, released October 10, 1994, is an album by Slovenian industrial group Laibach, named after NATO. It is a selection of cover versions with the theme of war.Covers include Edwin Starr's "War" 1970 and Europe's "The Final Countdown".-Track listing:...
as well as the gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
band Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim are an English gothic rock band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1984. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Carl McCoy, saxophonist Gary Whisker, Tony Pettitt on bass, guitarist Paul Wright and drummer Alexander "Nod" Wright...
and new romantics Visage
Visage
Visage are a British New Wave rock band. Formed in 1978, the band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their 1980 hit "Fade to Grey".-New Wave years :...
. In addition to these two bands, Project Pitchfork
Project Pitchfork
Project Pitchfork is an electronic musical group from Hamburg, Germany.-History:Project Pitchfork was formed by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber. Having agreed to work together, they then picked the project's name by picking a word at random from the dictionary. The demo K.N.K.A. was recorded...
also covered it in the early 1990s on their album Dhyani. Ian Brown
Ian Brown
Ian George Brown is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses, which broke up in 1996 but are confirmed to reunite in 2012. Since the break-up of the Stone Roses he has pursued a solo career...
has also made a cover in his 2009 My Way
My Way (Ian Brown album)
My Way is the sixth solo album by British artist Ian Brown. The album was released on September 28, 2009. The album's lead single "Stellify" was released on September 21, 2009...
album. Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
made a parody called 'In the Year 252525.'