The 5th Dimension: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In

I know what they say, but I remember the 1960s and the picture we have of it now as a musical wonderland is only half the story.

Simon Titley used to say that if you picked a Sixties chart at random Ken Dodd was generally at number 1. And what I remember from the era is the songs from the shows.

Seemingly by law, every request programme played Harry Secombe singing If I Ruled the World and Stanley Holloway singing I'm Getting Married in the Morning.

And if you went to a friend's house their parents would have, not Ogden's Nut Gone Flake or The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, but the cast recordings of Oliver! or My Fair Lady.

There was more fun to be had at one friend's house as his parents had the cast recording from Hair, which we used to play.

Hair was the hippy musical that made into the mainstream. Its West End production, which opened 50 years ago this week, was delayed until theatre censorship had been abolished in Britain. Wikipedia reveals that the London cast contained someone who is now a Liberal Democrat peer.

The 5th Dimension had a worldwide hit with these songs from Hair. Being good Christian folk, they were not naturually part of the counterculture, but that's show business.

Now listen to The 5th Dimension singing Wedding Bell Blues.