Peter, Paul and Mary

Welcome, time travelers, to Rock and Roll Flashback!  In 1936 Mary Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky.  In 1937 Noel Paul Stookey was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  In 1938  Peter Yarrow was born in Manhattan, New York.  This is the story of how Peter, Paul and Mary came together in New York City and how they influenced folk music and social movements in the United States.  I'm your podcast host, Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will review the highlights of the singing career of that trio who popularized folk music in the 1960's and also played a huge role in bringing Bob Dylan's music to a wider audience.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Rock On!

Transcript

Thank you for that introduction and welcome, time travelers, to Rock and Roll Flashback!  In 1936 Mary Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky.  In 1937 Noel Paul Stookey was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  In 1938  Peter Yarrow was born in Manhattan, New York.  This is the story of how Peter, Paul and Mary came together in New York City and how they influenced folk music and social movements in the United States.  I'm your podcast host, Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will review the highlights of the singing career of that trio who popularized folk music in the 1960's and also played a huge role in bringing Bob Dylan's music to a wider audience.

Peter Yarrow began singing in public during his last year at Cornell University.  After graduation, he began performing in New York City folk clubs.  Yarrow also appeared on the CBS television show Folk Sound USA and performed at the Newport Folk Festival.  It was while at Newport that he met manager and musical impresario Albert Grossman.  Mary Travers, while still a student at Manhattan's Elisabeth Irwin High School, joined "The Song Swappers" trio.  That trio backed up folk legend Pete Seeger on three of his albums.  In addition to performing twice with Seeger at Carnegie Hall, Travers also had performed the role of a folksinger in a short-lived Broadway play called The Next President.  So Mary Travers was well connected in Greenwich Village folk circles, and she knew Albert Grossman.  Travers had also befriended singer Noel Stookey, who was performing folk music and stand-up comedy at the Gaslight Café coffeehouse in New York City's Greenwich Village.  

Albert Grossman had an idea for a new folk group for the baby-boom generation.  His idea was to combine an updated version of the Weavers with the crossover appeal of The Kingston Trio.   In 1961 Grossman suggested that Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers try harmonizing together, and they decided that their voices blended well.  To fill out their sound, Travers suggested the baritone voice of her friend Noel Stookey.  The three singers chose "Peter, Paul and Mary" as the name for their group, since Noel Stookey's middle name was Paul.  After rehearsing out of town in Boston and Miami, Grossman booked the trio into The Bitter End nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village.  The singers quickly developed a following and in late 1961 signed a contract with Warner Brothers.

The group's debut album, Peter, Paul and Mary, was released by Warner Brothers in May 1962.  It included "Lemon Tree", "500 Miles", and two Pete Seeger tunes:  "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"  The Peter, Paul & Mary LP remained in the Top 10 for ten months and in the Top 20 for two years.  The album spent seven weeks in the #1 position.  It remained a main catalog-seller for decades to come, eventually selling over two million copies and earning double platinum certification from the RIAA in the United States alone.  The "Lemon Tree" single spent 8 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #35.  The "If I Had a Hammer" single spent 12 weeks on the pop chart, peaking at #10.  

Here is Peter, Paul and Mary's version of "If I Had a Hammer".

On January 15th, 1963 the trio's second album, Moving, was released.  It eventually climbed to #2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.  The third single released from that LP, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", was a huge hit.  It was a defining song for the trio and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  "Puff" peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Easy Listening chart, and #10 on the R&B chart.  Peter Yarrow had written the music to accompany a poem that had been written by a fellow Cornell student, Leonard Lipton.  Despite rumors that the song refers to drugs, Yarrow always maintained that it is actually about the lost innocence of childhood.  The song is humorously referenced during dialog between Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro in the comedy film Meet the Parents.  

During 1962, a gospel vocal quartet named The Freedom Singers had toured colleges throughout the United States.  Their communal singing empowered and educated audiences about civil rights issues, and the civil rights movement was becoming deeply embraced by the folk music community.  Two events in the summer of 1963 solidified Peter, Paul and Mary's commitment and association with the emerging civil rights movement in the United States.  The Newport Folk Festival of July 1963 played a crucial role in revolutionizing folk music, by blending traditional acoustic sounds with contemporary themes.  That Festival paved the way for a new wave of socially conscious music.  Artists such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger graced the stage, captivating audiences with their powerful performances that resonated with the social and political climate of the era.  Peter, Paul and Mary were also part of the remarkable Festival lineup, delivering harmonious performances.  Their melodic interpretations of folk classics brought a sense of unity and hope to the audience.  For the final Newport Folk Festival performance on Friday evening, July 26th, Peter, Paul and Mary returned to the stage and performed an encore of "Blowin' in the Wind".  Amidst a deafening roar of applause they then brought to the stage Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Theo Bikel, and the Freedom Singers.  All of the singers stood in a single line facing the audience with crossed arms and clasped hands and sang "We Shall Overcome".

The other significant event that summer was The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  The March on Washington was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28th, 1963 and drew approximately 350,000 people.  The purpose of the March was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.  At the March, several popular singers of the time, including Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, and Peter, Paul and Mary performed.  Peter, Paul and Mary sang "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin' in the Wind".  At this point in their career, they were not only the most politically committed, but also the most popular singing group in the United States.  On the day of this performance their single, "Blowin' in The Wind", stood at #5 in its 10th week on Billboard's Hot 100.  Their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, was at #7 on Billboard's Top LP's chart.  Their second album, Moving, stood at #4 on the Top LP's chart and had just been certified as gold the day before.  Peter, Paul and Mary were doing close to 200 concerts a year, as well as scores of benefit performances of which the March on Washington was only the most prominent.  At the event, many of the movement's leaders gave speeches.  The most notable speech came from the final speaker, The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  There King delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, in which he called for an end to legalized racism and racial segregation.  The March is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

October 1963 saw the release of Peter, Paul and Mary's third album, In the Wind.  The LP shot up to #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.  The lead-off single, "Blowin' in the Wind", written by BobDylan, sold 300,000 copies in the first week of release.  On July 13th, 1963, "Blowin' in the Wind" reached #2 on the Billboard pop chart.  The song was on the Hot 100 chart for 15 weeks, and ended up selling over one million copies.  It also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart.  The second single from the album, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", another song by Dylan, peaked at #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #9 on the Pop Singles chart.   At the 1964 Grammy Awards, Peter, Paul and Mary's recording of "Blowin' in the Wind" won the Best Folk Recording and Best Performance by a Vocal Group.

Here is Peter, Paul and Mary's version of "Blowin' in the Wind".

Peter, Paul and Mary also sang other Dylan songs, such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "When the Ship Comes In".  Their success with Dylan's previously mentioned "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" helped Dylan's album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, rise into the top 30.   Peter, Paul, and  Mary's renditions of his songs certainly helped Dylan gain mainstream recognition and introduced his songwriting to a broader public.

A live album, In Concert, was released in 1964, and it reached #4 on the Billboard 200 chart.  Successful albums that followed included 1965's A Song Will Rise which reached #8, 1965's See What Tomorrow Brings which hit #11, and 1966's The Peter, Paul and Mary Album, which reached #22 on the Billboard Pop albums chart.

On August 4th, 1967 their seventh album, called Album 1700, was released.   It produced the band's most successful and final hit, a recording of the John Denver song "Leaving on a Jet Plane".  The album peaked at #15 on Billboard magazine's Top LP chart, sold over a million copies, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Folk Performance category.   In December 1969 "Leaving on a Jet Plane" became their only #1 single.  "Leaving on a Jet Plane" spent 17 weeks on the chart and was the group's sixth million-selling gold single.  Album 1700  also contained their #9 hit single, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music", which spent 11 weeks on the chart.  

After Democrat Eugene McCarthy's strong showing in the March 12th, 1968 New Hampshire presidential primary, Peter, Paul and Mary recorded "Eugene McCarthy For President (If You Love Your Country)".  That song endorsing McCarthy was released without a record label.  I was an innocent college freshman when their eighth studio album, Late Again, was released in August 1968.  I happened to purchase the Late Again LP and no doubt helped it reach #14 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart.  The same week that this album was released, group members Mary Travers and Peter Yarrow were part of an anti-war demonstration in Grant Park during the late August Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.  The two were among demonstrators who were beaten and teargassed.  Late Again featured one Billboard Hot 100 single, "Too Much of Nothing", which was written by Bob Dylan, but it only reached #35 on the pop charts.

Peter, Paul and Mommy, Peter, Paul and Mary's first children's album was released by Warner Brothers on May 25th, 1969.  The album reached #12 on Billboard's Top LPs chart.  The single "Day is Done" reached #7 on the Easy Listening chart and #21 on the Pop Singles chart.  "Day Is Done" was the last Hot 100 hit the trio recorded.  At the Grammy Awards of 1970, Peter, Paul and Mommy won the Grammy for Best Recording for Children.

In 1970 Peter, Paul and Mary broke up to pursue solo careers.  Also that year, Yarrow was convicted of sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.  Years later, he received a presidential pardon from President Jimmy Carter.   In 1972, the trio reunited for Together for McGovern, a concert at Madison Square Garden to support Democrat George McGovern's presidential campaign, and again in 1978 for a concert to protest nuclear energy.  This concert was followed by a 1978 summer reunion tour, which was so popular that the group decided to reunite more or less permanently in 1981.  They continued to record albums and tour, playing around 45 shows a year, until Mary Travers death at age 72 in 2009.  Peter Yarrow died in 2025 at age 86.  

Peter, Paul and Mary received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award on September 1st, 1990.  In 1996 they were the subject of the PBS Great Performances special LifeLines Live.  LifeLines Live was a highly acclaimed celebration of folk music, with the trio's musical mentors, contemporaries, and a new generation of singer-songwriters.  For that special they were nominated for a 1996 Emmy.  In 1999 the group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.  In 2006 the trio received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  In 2009 Peter, Paul and Mary were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Peter, Paul and Mary would continue to influence folk music for decades.  Coming together in the 1960's at a time when a spirit of activism was in the air, their harmonious vocals and socially conscious music reclaimed folk music’s potency as a social, cultural, and political force.  Peter, Paul and Mary's message of humanity, hope, and activism remains as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.

Thank you for listening to another episode of Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm your host, Jumpin' John McDermott, and I will close out this podcast with Peter, Paul and Mary's version of their only #1 pop hit, "Leaving on a Jet Plane".  So, fellow time travelers, may your path be smooth and your music always be rockin'!  And until next time...Rock On!