5 Things You Didn't Know About The Making Of Aquarius By The 5th Dimension

The 5th Dimension was a transcended group that created the famous song we know today as Aquarius/ Let the Sunshine in but here are some things you didn't about its making!

1. Aquarius was written for the rock opera Hair, where it became an anthem for young people who grew their hair out and protested the US government.

A lost wallet led to the 5th Dimension recording "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In." After lead singer Billy Davis Jr. left his wallet in a New York City cab, a member of Hair's production team found it. He invited the singers to the Broadway show, inspiring them to record "Aquarius"; producer Bones Howe then merged the tune with the repeated words "let the sunshine in" from another Hair song "The Flesh Failures."

2. The Age of Aquarius is when the sun is in the constellation Aquarius during the springtime.

The next time that this will happen is 2448. We are currently in the age of Pisces.

3. This song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1970.

It was the second time the group won the Record of the Year, two years previously they won the award for "Up-Up and Away."

4. Many who heard this song assumed The 5th Dimension were a white group, and they took some heat for that in the Black community.

That's why it was so uplifting when they performed "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival to a predominantly Black crowd of about 50,000. This performance can be seen in the 2021 documentary Summer Of Soul with commentary from Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo. "That's one of the reasons why performing in Harlem was so important to us," said McCoo. "We wanted our people to know what we were about, and we were hoping they would receive us. We were so happy to be there."

5. Aquarius has been used in a number of pop culture movies and tv shows, appearing in places like Forrest Gump, The 40-year-old Virgin, and Seaseme Street.

This was used on both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Sesame Street turned it into "Telly's Aquarium" in 1998, where it's sung by captive fish. The Muppets used it to open season 3 Episode 316 in 1978 with a group of Muppets whose hair grows as they sing it.