# Who were Zager and Evans (a musical group)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2000, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409 "2000-11-30T18:34:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/1 "2000-11-30T18:34:29Z")
I know they had one hit sometime around 1966, called _In The Year 2525_, which has been prominently featured in thread elsewhere as the worst rock’n’roll song of all time. I always kind of liked the song, don’t know why. But who were Z. and E.? British or American? What pop or rock genre did they come out of, and whither did they go? Did either of them do anything after that one song? ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/2 "2000-11-30T18:52:19Z")
They are from Lincoln, Nebraska. “In the year 2525” in 1969 was about it. Their last album “Food for the mind” was in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/3 "2000-11-30T19:04:32Z")
It’s funny how golden-throated one-hit 1960’s rock acts seem to have come from the Midwest. The Outsiders, of _Time Won’t Let Me_ fame were from Wisconsin, I think. The vocal style of both groups seem to be similar. I have fond kidhood memories of building plastic model Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury spacecraft while hearing _2525_ over the radio. We thought the future was unlimited in those days, and even that song seemed to imply that the only problems would be adjusting to the wealth of labor-saving gadgetry that was sure to appear. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/4 "2000-11-30T21:25:06Z")
While their sole hit was science-fictiony, most of their songs were folk or story songs, like “Fred,” about a misanthrope who finds a suitable home in the army during Vietnam; “Mr Turnkey,” about a prisoner lamenting his sentence for having committed a rape; and “Carry Lynn Javes,” a song of lost love. (I know this because I have most of their album.)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/5 "2000-11-30T23:34:53Z")
You can have your very own Zager & Evans [In the Year 2525](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ebaytag1=ebayreg&ht=1&query=zager+evans&ebaytag1code=0&SortProperty=MetaHighestPriceSort) 45rpm vinyl record for about a buck on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/6 "2000-12-01T07:37:58Z")
A whole buck!? I bought that album during the 70’s. It was without a doubt the worst record I ever owned. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/7 "2000-12-02T01:07:27Z")
For more information on Denny Zager and Rick Evans, check their entry in AMG (All Music Guide) which is one of the great web resources. > **[AllMusic | Record Reviews, Streaming Songs, Genres & Bands](https://www.allmusic.com/)** > > AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2000, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/8 "2000-12-04T16:48:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Timothy Campbell \* > \*\*A whole buck!? > > I bought that album during the 70’s. It was without a doubt the worst record I ever owned. \*\* I know exactly what you mean. I bought a retrospective album by The Outsiders, because I liked that one song I’d mentioned above, and I couldn’t listen to the rest of the album. I don’t mean that it was horrible, exactly, just that there was nothing else on the record that was worth the trouble of getting it out of its folder, putting away whatever other record was sitting on the turntable, etc… ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2000, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/9 "2000-12-04T17:26:34Z")
1. The sub-title is ‘Exordium & Terminus’ (!) 2. According to Zager, ‘‘We were looking for uptempo material because most of the stuff we did was ballads. ‘In the Year 2525’ (written in half an hour in 1964 by Evans) was pulled out of the hat and we said, ‘let`s put it on stage.’ I didn’t go nutty over the song because it really wasn’t the style I wanted to do.’’ 3. During the song’s second week at the top, Time ran a story on Zager and Evans. Of ‘In the Year 2525’, the article suggested: ‘‘This futuristic ballad sounds as though it were composed by a computer at the Rand Corporation.’’ From ‘‘The Billboard Book of Number One Hits’’ ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2000, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/10 "2000-12-04T17:42:04Z")
They never had another single make the Hot 100. Denny Zager explained that he had made up his mind while ITY2525 was a hit that it wasn’t the type of song he wanted to be known for, and had already decided to quit the duo before the record fell off the chart. Rick is living in Lake Tahoe where he continues to write songs and appear in clubs. Denny has returned to private life. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/11 "2000-12-05T14:05:50Z")
Thank you all, thank you. Yet again the protean blob of learning that is the SDMB community proves itself!! ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/12 "2000-12-05T16:03:16Z")
Tit for tat. Do me a favor and elucidate your sig. Remember that **all** Dopers are not as Stooge-fanatic as you and I. Now, for clarity’s sake, you should have run the whole gamut, like in the Stooge short. IIRC, Curley, the cheese connoisseur par excellence, successively requests Roquefort, Camembert, and - the _coup de grâce_ - Limburger every time Moe offers him plain cheese to bring him back to his senses. Now the _tour de force_ would be for you to compress all of this in a couple of lines. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-zager-and-evans-a-musical-group/43409/13 "2000-12-05T21:54:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by omni-not \* > \*\*Tit for tat. Do me a favor and elucidate your sig. Remember that **all** Dopers are not as Stooge-fanatic as you and I. Now, for clarity’s sake, you should have run the whole gamut, like in the Stooge short. IIRC, Curley, the cheese connoisseur par excellence, successively requests Roquefort, Camembert, and - the _coup de grâce_ - Limburger every time Moe offers him plain cheese to bring him back to his senses. > > Now the _tour de force_ would be for you to compress all of this in a couple of lines. \*\* Actually I will be revising my sig as soon but I’m not sure at this point what route that’s going to take.