ALBUM: Zager & Evans (1970)
MVC Rating: 1.5/$$$
‘In the Year 2525’ was big on the radio in 1969. The sweeping end of the world epic sounded like nothing else.
In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may find …
Turn it up, we are all going to die.
While some liked to make fun of the song, it was/is wildly popular. Some even called it prophetic. So what happened to Zager & Evans? One-hit wonders. I was curious, especially after finding and buying their follow-up album in a thrift shop. It had their follow-up single to 2525, a little ditty called ‘Mr. Turnkey.’
Therein lies a clue as to why they never burned up the charts again. The song was about a rapist who nails his hand to the wall in jail. As blogger Ira Brooker, tongue in cheek, noted:
Sadly, pop audiences inexplicably failed to embrace rape and self-mutilation and Zager and Evans quickly faded into obscurity.
But their hit, 2525, first recorded on a small regional label in Nebraska lives on.
In the year 7510, if God’s a-coming, he ought to make it by then, maybe he’ll look around himself and say ‘Guess it’s time for the judgment day.
Oh oh whoa oh.