In the Year 2525

"In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" is a 1969 hit song by the American pop-rock duo of Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969. It peaked at number one in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in August and September that year. The song was written and composed by Rick Evans in 1964 and originally released on a small regional record label (Truth Records) in 1968. Zager and Evans disbanded in 1971.

Summary

"In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" opens with the words "In the year 2525, If man is still alive, If woman can survive, They may find...". Subsequent verses pick up the story at 1010-year intervals from 2525 to 6565. Disturbing predictions are given for each selected year. In the year 3535, for example, all of a person's actions, words and thoughts will be preprogrammed into a daily pill. Then the pattern as well as the music changes, going up a half step in the key of the song, after two stanzas, first from A-flat minor, to A minor, and, then, finally, to B flat minor, and verses for the years 7510, 8510 and 9595 follow.

Zager and Evans

Zager and Evans was a US duo Denny Zager (born 1944, Wymore, Nebraska) and Rick Evans (born 1943, Lincoln, Nebraska) rock-pop duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager and Rick Evans. They are best known for their 1969 hit single "In the Year 2525".

History

Zager and Evans met at Nebraska Wesleyan University, in 1962 and they were joined by drummer Danny Schindler (later of the Benders) in the seminal Nebraska band the Eccentrics, until Schindler's tour of Vietnam in 1965. Evans also left in 1965, and the pair reunited in 1968.

As Zager and Evans, the duo were backed by Mark Dalton, also a Nebraska native, on bass. Their first drummer, Paul Maher, was later replaced by another Nebraskan, Dave Trupp. Trupp and Dalton were also the rhythm section in the popular Liberation Blues Band and backed Evans on some solo demo material prior to Zager and Evans's recording of "In the Year 2525" in 1968.

"In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" was written by Richard (Rick) S. Evans. It was registered with the performing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. The song warned of the dangers of technology, portraying a future in which the human race was destroyed by its own technological and medical innovations. The last stanza of the song suggests mankind undergoes a continuing cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Evans

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