Peter, Paul and Mary

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Peter, Paul and Mary
Origin New York City, New York, United States
Genre(s) Folk
Years active 1961–1970
1978–present
Label(s) Warner Bros. Records
Website http://www.peterpaulandmary.com
Members
Peter Yarrow
Noel "Paul" Stookey
Mary Travers

Peter, Paul and Mary (often PP&M) are a musical group from the United States, and were one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s. The trio is composed of Peter Yarrow, Noel "Paul" Stookey and Mary Travers.

Contents

[edit] History

The group was created and managed by Albert Grossman, who sought to create a folk "supergroup" by bringing together "a tall blonde (Travers), a funny guy (Stookey) and a good looking guy (Yarrow)". He launched the group in 1961, booking them into the The Bitter End, a coffee house and popular folk venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. They recorded their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, the following year. It included "500 Miles", "Lemon Tree" and the Pete Seeger hit tunes "If I Had a Hammer" (subtitled "(The Hammer Song)") and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". The album was listed on the Billboard Magazine Top Ten list for ten months and in the Top One Hundred for over three years.

The group made its television debut in either 1961 or 1962 on a talk show hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson, who was starting a new interviewing career in New York after having been well-known on Canadian television. Davidson has recalled the trio's performance on the show, whose title, "P.M. East - P.M. West," alluded to segments originating in New York and San Francisco. (Peter, Paul and Mary recorded their segment in New York.) It was produced by Westinghouse Broadcasting and syndicated to a handful of cities, including Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Boston and Baltimore, with the aid of 2 inch Quadruplex videotape that had been invented by Ampex a few years earlier. Efforts to locate any sound or pictures of the trio on P.M. East - P.M. West have not been successful even though Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand, who also made their television debuts on the series, have located audio of themselves. (In 1991, Streisand had to get permission from Wallace to include their 30-year-old conversation on her latest CD.) Davidson has recalled that the trio chatted amiably on the air with her and Wallace.

By 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary had recorded three albums. All three were in the Top 10 the week of President Kennedy's assassination. That year the group also released "Puff the Magic Dragon", which Yarrow and fellow Cornell student Leonard Lipton had written in 1959, and performed "If I Had a Hammer" at the 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. One of their biggest hit singles was the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind," which was not only an international #1 hit and the fastest selling single ever cut by Warner Bros. Records, but the first commercial success for Dylan. They also sang other Bob Dylan songs, such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'"; "Don't Think Twice, it's Alright"; and "When the Ship Comes In". For many years after, the group was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and other causes promoting social justice. "Leaving On A Jet Plane," which in December 1969 became their only #1 (as well as their final Top 40) hit, was written by John Denver (who already had some success with The Chad Mitchell Trio) and first appeared on their Album 1700 in 1967. "Day Is Done," a #21 hit in June 1969, was the last Hot 100 hit the trio recorded.

The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue solo careers, but found little of the success they had experienced as a group, although Stookey's "The Wedding Song (There is Love)" (written for Yarrow's marriage to Marybeth McCarthy, the niece of senator Eugene McCarthy) was a hit and has become a wedding standard since its 1971 release.

In 1978, they reunited for a concert to protest nuclear energy, and have recorded albums together and toured since. They currently play around 45 shows a year.[1]

The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

(from left) Mary Travers, Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow onstage at New York's Westbury Music Fair on August 5, 2006.
(from left) Mary Travers, Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow onstage at New York's Westbury Music Fair on August 5, 2006.

The trio became political activists for their commitment to peace in Central America and for supporting musically and personally the peace and social justice movement in America. They were awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience on September 1st, 1990. [2]

[edit] Recent tours

In 2004, Travers was diagnosed with leukemia, leading to the cancellation of the remaining tour dates for that year. She received a bone marrow transplant and is recovering. She and the rest of the trio resumed their concert tour on December 9, 2005 with a holiday performance at Carnegie Hall.

Peter, Paul and Mary received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award from Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.

The trio sang in Mitchell, South Dakota, for the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Leadership dedication concert on October 5, 2006.

The trio canceled several dates of their summer 2007 tour, as Mary took longer than expected to recover from back surgery and later had to undergo a second surgery, further postponing the tour.[3] They will make up at least one of the dates, at the Northfork Theatre (formerly Westbury Music Fair) in June 2008.

[edit] Discography

[edit] See also

[edit] Videography

  • 1986: Peter, Paul & Mary 25th Anniversary Concert
  • 1988: Peter, Paul & Mary Holiday Concert
  • 1993: Peter, Paul & Mommy, Too
  • 1996: Peter, Paul & Mary: Lifelines Live
  • 2004: Peter, Paul & Mary: Carry It On — A Musical Legacy

[edit] Song sample

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)
  1. ^ tour schedule
  2. ^ http://www.peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html
  3. ^ tour schedule

[edit] External links