Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame has passed … he was 86. (FH Correspondent Shelley Sweet-Tufano warned us a few weeks ago that Peter had postponed and then cancelled all of his upcoming gigs … so this should have served as a forewarning that all was not well.)
In the early ‘60’s, PP&M were giants in the folk genre, earning several hits on the pop charts in the process: “Lemon Tree,” #35, 1962; “If I Had A Hammer,” #10, 1962; “Puff, The Magic Dragon,” which Yarrow co-wrote, #2, 1963; “Blowin’ In The Wind,” #2, 1963; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” #9, 1963; “Stewball,” #34, 1963; “Tell It On The Mountain,” #31, 1964; “For Lovin’ Me,” #2, 1965 ... all of these made The National Top 40.
They then scored two big comeback hits: “I Dig Rock And Roll Music” (#9, 1967) and “Leaving On A Jet Plane” (their only #1 record, in 1969.) “Day Is Done” (also co-written by Yarrow) made The Top 20 in 1969.
The trio also scored very well on the album chart, taking two of
their LPs to #1 in Billboard Magazine.
They were early supporters of a young singer/songwriter named Bob Dylan
and recorded several of his songs, two of which are listed above. Along the way, they also won five Grammy Awards.
Mary Travers died in 2009 but Peter and Paul (Stookey) have continued to entertain audiences for most of the last two decades.
(Shelley has given them a couple of good reviews recently):
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2023/08/another-concert-review.html
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2024/07/peter-paul-and-shelley.html
In addition to his career as a performer, Yarrow also worked as a social activist, quite often staging benefits for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … but his career was not completely untainted …
In March of 1970, he was arrested in Washington, DC, for “taking immoral liberties” with a 14 year old girl. Yarrow plead guilty and was sentenced to three months in jail. He served a month of that sentence in prison.
Perhaps most ironically, the folk trio had just won a Grammy Award two weeks earlier for Best Recording For Children for their album “Peter, Paul And Mommy” … and Yarrow would go on to write several childrens’ books.) Years later, Yarrow was pardoned by US President Jimmy Carter (who also just recently passed) in what would be his last day in office.
In 1969, he married Mary Beth McCarthy, Presidential Candidate Eugene McCarthy’s niece. The couple met the year before while both were campaigning for her uncle in Willmar, Minnesota. They eventually divorced … but then remarried years later.
