| Peter, Paul and Mary | |
|---|---|
Peter, Paul and Mary at New York's NYCB Theater at Westbury in 2006. Left to right: Travers, Stookey and Yarrow. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City, United States |
| Genres | Folk, folk-rock |
| Years active | 1961–1970, 1978–2009 |
| Labels | Warner Bros. |
| Website | peterpaulandmary.com |
| Members | |
| Peter Yarrow Noel Paul Stookey Mary Travers |
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Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers. After the death of Mary Travers in 2009, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform as a duo under their individual names.[1]
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Mary Travers has said she was influenced by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and the Weavers.[2] In the documentary Peter, Paul & Mary: Carry It On — A Musical Legacy members of the Weavers discuss how Peter, Paul and Mary took over the torch of the social commentary of folk music in the 1960s.
Manager Albert Grossman created Peter, Paul and Mary in 1961, after auditioning several singers in the New York folk scene. After rehearsing them out of town in Boston and Miami, Grossman booked them into The Bitter End, a coffee house and popular folk music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. They recorded their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, the following year. It included "Lemon Tree", "500 Miles", 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 in the Billboard Magazine Top Ten for 10 months, including seven weeks in the #1 position. It remained a main catalog-seller for decades to come, eventually selling over two million copies, earning Double Platinum certification from the RIAA in the United States alone.
In 1963 the group also released "Puff the Magic Dragon", with music by Yarrow and words based on a poem that had been written by a fellow student at Cornell, Leonard Lipton. Despite urban myths that insist the song is filled with drug references, it is actually about the lost innocence of childhood.[3] On January 14, 1964 they performed on the Jack Benny television program, with the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' In the Wind".
That year the group 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". They also sang other Bob Dylan songs, such as: "The Times They Are a-Changin'"; "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and "When the Ship Comes In." Their success with Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" aided Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album into the Top 30. (It had been released four months earlier.) [4]
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" became their only #1 hit (as well as their final Top 40 Pop hit) in December 1969, and was written by the group's friend John Denver. It was the group's only million-selling Gold single. The track first appeared on their million-selling Platinum certified Album 1700 in 1967 (which also contained their #9 hit "I Dig Rock and Roll Music"). "Day Is Done", a #21 hit in June 1969, was the last Hot 100 hit that the trio recorded.
The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue solo careers. Travers recorded five solo LPs and did concerts and lectures across the nation. She also produced, wrote, and starred in a BBC-TV series. Stookey formed a Christian music group called the Body Works Band. Yarrow co-wrote and produced Mary MacGregor’s “Torn Between Two Lovers” (#1, 1977) and earned an Emmy for three animated TV specials based on “Puff the Magic Dragon.”[5]
Stookey wrote "The Wedding Song (There is Love)" for Yarrow's marriage to Marybeth McCarthy, the niece of senator Eugene McCarthy, according to Stookey during an interview on the DVD "Carry It On," released in 2004 by Rhino Records.
In 1972, they reunited for a concert at Madison Square Garden to support George McGovern's presidential campaign, and again in 1978, for a concert to protest against nuclear energy. This concert was followed by a summer reunion tour, which proved to be so popular that the group decided to reunite more or less permanently in 1981. They continued to record albums together and tour, playing around 45 shows a year, until the 2009 death of Mary Travers.[6]
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
The trio were prolific political activists for their involvement in the peace movement and other causes. They were awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience on September 1, 1990.[7]
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. 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.[6]
Travers was unable to perform on the trio's tour in mid-2009 because of her leukemia, but Peter and Paul performed the scheduled dates as a duo, calling the show "Peter & Paul Celebrate Mary and 5 Decades of Friendship."
The Peter, Paul and Mary trio came to an end on September 16, 2009, when Mary Travers died at age 72 of complications from chemotherapy, following treatment for leukemia.[8] It was the same year (2009) they were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In 2010, Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, the surviving members of Peter, Paul and Mary, requested that the National Organization for Marriage stop using their recording of "This Land is Your Land" at their rallies, stating in a letter that the organization's philosophy was "directly contrary to the advocacy position" held by the group.[9]
Peter Yarrow mentions in the documentary Peter, Paul & Mary: Carry It On — A Musical Legacy that they always tried to put at least one song on each album for children. The group is shown on the documentary singing a concert for children.
Puff, the Magic Dragon was made into three animated specials, each featuring songs by Peter Yarrow. (The first features Yarrow himself as Jackie's father in voice and appearance alike.)
Christmas Dinner was made into an animated short by Will Vinton in 1980, titled "A Christmas Gift". It was included in Will Vinton's Festival of Claymation.
In the New Christy Minstrels version of the song "Everybody Loves Saturday Night" (1963), Randy Sparks calls out the words: "Peter, Paul and Mary, Puccini Style", which was an Italian verse of the song in an operatic style.
In the Alan Sherman song "The Rebel" (1966), done live in Las Vegas, there is a line that he recites in regarding to the word "HECK!!", "I'll swear to Peter, Paul and Mary, I'll Use it".
"Early in the Morning" was used in the series Mad Men, at the end of the episode "A Night to Remember".
| Year | Title | Chart Positions[10][11] | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US AC | |||
| 1962 | "Lemon Tree" B-side: "Early In The Morning" |
35 | 12 | Peter, Paul and Mary |
| 1962 | "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" B-side: "Gone The Rainbow" (from Moving) |
10 | - | |
| 1963 | "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" B-side: "Pretty Mary" (NOTE: Puff (The Magic Dragon) also charted on the Rhythm & Blues Charts, reaching #10 R&B.) |
2 | 1 | Moving |
| 1963 | "Big Boat" B-side: "Tiny Sparrow" |
93 | - | |
| 1963 | "Settle Down (Goin' Down That Highway)" B-side: "500 Miles" (from Peter, Paul and Mary) |
56 | 14 | |
| 1963 | "Blowin' in the Wind" B-side: "Flora" (from Moving) |
2 | 1 | In the Wind |
| 1963 | "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" B-side: "Autumn To May" (from Peter, Paul and Mary) |
9 | 2 | |
| 1963 | "Stewball" B-side: "The Cruel War" (from Peter, Paul and Mary) |
35 | 17 | |
| 1963 | "A Soalin'" B-side: "Hush-A-Bye" (from In The Wind) |
- | - | Moving |
| 1964 | "Tell it on the Mountain" B-side: "Old Coat" (from Moving) |
33 | 7 | In the Wind |
| 1964 | "Oh Rock My Soul (Part 1)" B-side: "Oh Rock My Soul (Part 2) |
93 | - | Non-album single |
| 1965 | "For Lovin' Me" B-side: "Monday Morning" |
30 | 5 | A Song Will Rise |
| 1965 | "When The Ship Comes In" B-side: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (non-album track) |
91 | 23 | |
| 1965 | "Early Mornin' Rain" B-side: "The Rising Of The Moon" |
91 | 13 | See What Tomorrow Brings |
| 1966 | "Cruel War" B-side: "Mon Vrai Destin" |
52 | 4 | The Peter, Paul and Mary Album |
| 1966 | "Hurry Sundown" B-side: "Sometime Lovin'" |
123 | 37 | |
| 1966 | "The Other Side Of This Life" B-side: "Sometime Lovin'" |
100 | 33 | |
| 1966 | "For Baby (For Bobbie)" B-side: "Hurry Sundown" |
- | - | |
| 1967 | "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" B-side: "The Great Mandella (The Wheel Of Life)" |
9 | - | Album 1700 |
| 1967 | "Too Much of Nothing" B-side: "The House Song" (from Album 1700) |
35 | - | Late Again |
| 1968 | "Love City (Postcard from Duluth)" B-side: "Yesterday's Tomorrow" |
113 | - | |
| 1969 | "Day is Done" (studio version) B-side: "Make Believe Town (from Peter, Paul and Mommy)" |
21 | 7 | Peter, Paul and Mommy |
| 1969 | "Leaving on a Jet Plane" B-side: "The House Song" |
1 | 1 | Album 1700 |
| 1969 | "The Marvelous Toy" B-side: "Christmas Dinner" |
- | - | Peter, Paul and Mommy |