'' advertisement (March 1, 1969). The medley was constructed of two songs from the musical
Hair. The first song was "Aquarius", and the second was "The Flesh Failures: Let the Sunshine In". The lyrics of "Aquarius" were based on the
astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the "
Age of Aquarius", an age of love, light, and humanity, moving out of the "
Age of Pisces". The circumstances for the change are given as: "When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars." Astrologer
Neil Spencer denounced this line as "astrological gibberish", noting that Jupiter forms an
astrological aspect with Mars several times a year and the Moon is in the 7th House for two hours every day. The 5th Dimension's lead singer
Billy Davis Jr. left his wallet in a New York City cab; the man who found the wallet was involved in the production of
Hair and invited the group to see the show. The group called their producer
Bones Howe in California: "After they'd seen it I received a phone call in which they were all talking over one another, saying 'We've got to cut this song "Aquarius". It's the best thing ever.'" Returning to California, Howe supervised the first recording session. The instrumental track was set to tape at
Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood by
Wrecking Crew members
Hal Blaine on drums,
Joe Osborn on bass,
Larry Knechtel on keyboards,
Tommy Tedesco and
Dennis Budimir on guitars and
Tony Terran on trumpet. It also featured strings, winds, and brass instrumentations. However, the vocals were recorded separately in Las Vegas, where the 5th Dimension was performing at the time, using only two microphones for the five singers. Davis' solo during "Let the Sunshine In" was improvised during the session; songwriter
Jimmy Webb, who happened into the studio during the recording, remarked to Howe: "My God, that's a number one record." The
American Film Institute's
100 Years...100 Songs list, published in 2004, ranked "Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" as number 33. ==Charts==