Today’s classic song with Hal Blaine on drums of the day is “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension. This hit single won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year—the fifth such honor for Mr. Blaine.
“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” was actually a medley of two songs from the Broadway musical, Hair: “Aquarius” and “The Flesh Failures,” both written by composer Galt McDermot and lyricists James Rado and Gerome Ragni. The story behind how the group came to record the medley was told by producer Bones Howe in an interview with Sound on Sound magazine:
“The 5th Dimension were in New York, performing at the Americana Hotel, and after Billy [Davis] left his wallet in a cab one day the guy who found it just happened to be one of the people involved with the show Hair. When he called Billy, he said ‘Come to the show. All of you guys can have free tickets,’ and 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.’
“I was aware of the album, and I said, ‘Well, you know, there have been some other people who have cut this song and it hasn’t been a hit…’ ‘Oh no, the way we’ll do it, it’ll be a hit. It’ll be a hit!’ So I said ‘Look, I’ve gotta come to New York so we can record the vocals for the rest of the songs on the Stoned Soul Picnic album. When I’m there, why don’t I see the show? Then we can talk about ‘Aquarius’.’
“Beforehand, I listened to the cast album, and I thought ‘This isn’t a complete song. It’s an introduction.’ There was so much talk about that show at the time because people were naked on stage, and ‘Aquarius’ was just part of the opening routine. Well, I went to see the show, and about four-fifths of the way through there was a song called ‘The Flesh Failures,’ which was a typical ’60s downer—you know, the world is falling apart, we’re all killing each other with poison, and so on. A total environmental downer. But at the end of the song there were three bars just repeating ‘Let the sunshine in, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in,’ over and over and over again… It was very rousing and went over huge with everyone there, and I turned to my wife Melodie and said ‘That’s it! That’s the other song! We can put the two of them together!’“
The challenge was how to merge the uptempo “Aquarius” with the mid-tempo, gospel-flavored “Let the Sunshine In”—in two different keys. Here’s how Bones approached it:
“When I went into the studio I cut the track in two pieces. I said ‘OK, guys, here’s what’s gonna happen: when we start the second part, we’re going to start with Hal playing straight eights on the big tom-tom and the snare drum together, so it goes ‘gung-gung-gung-gung-gung-gung-gung.’ And when we get to the end of the first part and finish the section where the girls are singing, what I want you to do, Hal, is play a fill and then just go ‘gung-gung-gung-gung-gung-gung-gung’ and I’ll cut you off.’
“That’s what we did, and I jammed them together like two trains, exactly as I said I would. I just made an edit—bang!—editing from one set of eighth notes to the other set of eighth notes, and we went into ‘Let the Sunshine In’ and nobody cared that it was in a completely different key. For me it was a case of ‘OK, you’ve made this bed and now you’ve got to sleep in it. You figure it out and make it work.'”
That’s how you make a record that sells 3 million copies. The group released “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” in March of 1969 and it shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for six weeks. (It also hit #1 on the Cash Box Top 100 and Billboard’s Easy Listening charts.) The track won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group. And to think it all started with vocalist Billy Davis leaving his wallet in a New York City taxicab.
When you listen to the record, you realize how important Hal’s contribution was, not just in seamlessly bridging the two sections but also by setting two different but equally driving grooves. (And, yes, that’s a variation of the “Be My Baby” beat you hear Hal playing in the first half of the track.) He really cooks on this one, especially behind Billy Davis’ gospel-inspired vocal improvisations at the end.
In case you were wondering, here’s what Bones Howe—who produced hundreds of hit records with Hal and the Wrecking Crew—had to say about Hal Blaine’s drumming on this and other tracks:
“As a drummer myself, I always loved the feel of the way that Hal played. He played rock & roll with authority. Some people have that feel and some people don’t, and no matter how precise they are and how good their technique is, they just don’t have that feel for the music. Well, Hal always had this great feel for the music. OK, so he played a little loud and he pushed the time a little bit—whatever. It was his style, and his style worked for the kind of music that he played. I never thought he was much of a jazz drummer, quite frankly—I heard him play a couple of times and I didn’t think he knew how to lock in with the rhythm section, but with rock & roll he was just wonderful. The fills that he played were fantastic, and he wasn’t afraid to try things. He would ask me ‘What do I do in these two bars?’ and I’d always say ‘I want you to make me see stars.’ And he would do that.”
That’s what Hal did—he made us see stars.
