History
This song was one of the most popular songs of 1969 worldwide, and in the United States it reached the number one position on both the Billboard Hot 100 (for six weeks in April and May) and the Billboard magazine Adult Contemporaries Chart. It also reached the top of the sales charts in Canada and elsewhere.
The recording won both the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group for the Grammy Awards of 1970, after being published on the album The Age of Aquarius by The 5th Dimension, and also being released as a seven-inch vinyl single record.
The lyrics of this song were based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the "Age of Aquarius", an age of love, light, and humanity, unlike the current "Age of Pisces". This change was presumed to occur at the end of the 20th century; however, major astrologers differ extremely widely as to when. Their proposed dates range from 2062 (Dane Rudhyar), 2150 (Neil Mann), and 2595 (Hermann Haupt), to 2680 (Shephard Simpson).
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" was ranked thirty-third on the 2004 AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.
Read more about this topic: Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It’s nice to be a part of history but people should get it right. I may not be perfect, but I’m bloody close.”
—John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten)
“English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)