I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Peter, Paul and Mary. They are still as well known today as they were in the Sixties when they were actually recording. Why, PBS just had a special showing all their music and giving viewers the opportunity to buy a collection of their hits. And, with all this, they were only on the charts for seven years, from 1962 until 1969 and they only had one number one and it was this one, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”

Most people know that Peter, Paul and Mary were Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers. Albert Grossman, a manager who handled such acts as Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, was the person that put Peter, Paul and Mary together. That was in 1961. He had wanted a vocal trio for the burgeoning folk scene and auditioned several people before settling on the three we know today. After some rehearsal, he booked the trio into the Bitter End, a famous nightclub in Greenwich Village in New York City. They were an immediate success.

Their first album, called just Peter, Paul and Mary spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart and a total of ten months on the charts. About half of the songs on the album were written by other artists like Pete Seeger (“If I had a Hammer” #10) and Will Holt (“Lemon Tree” #38.) Peter and Paul wrote the other half of the album, but none of those were hits.

In 1963, they really hit it big with “Puff the Magic Dragon,” melody written by Peter and and words written by a fellow named Leonard Lipton, who was a student at Cornell University. It was widely believed that “Puff” is about drugs, I know when I was listening to music in 1963, that was what I thought the song was about. But, no, it’s really about the lost innocence of childhood. It peaked at number two on the charts.

Actually, this song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” is the only number one song, Peter, Paul and Mary ever had and unfortunately, it was also the last time they ever hit the charts. “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was actually written by John Denver. By 1970, the folk scene was fading out and the trio was not finding the success they had earlier in the Sixties. They broke up in 1970 and each pursued a solo career.

Peter, Paul and Mary have come together many times to do reunion concerts and today, they are seen often on Public Broadcasting. Mary passed away in 2009 of leukemia. She was 72 years old when she died. Peter is still alive and is 80 today. Paul is also alive and also is 80 years old today.

“Leaving on a Jet Plane” entered the pop charts on November 8, 1969 and spent two weeks at number one.

This is from their 25th Anniversary Reunion. They sound just as good as they ever did.