For this Number One Flashback, we are going back to 1969 when the song that topped the chart during this week was "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)" by the 5th Dimension. This was a melody of two songs from the 1967 stage musical, "Hair" that was written by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot. This "Champagne Soul" group (which featured Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ron Townson) had seen the show and loved it and wanted to record the song, "Aquarius". Their producer, Bones Howe however didn't feel there was enough there to do just that one song. So he came up with the idea of combining the record with another tune from the show, "Let The Sunshine In".
This song became an instant success reaching the number one spot in the U.S. for six weeks and sold over a million copies. "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" would win the 5th Dimension two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group.
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