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Peter, Paul and Mary

History

Early Years (1961–69)

The group was created and managed by Albert Grossman, who sought to create a folk "supergroup" by bringing together "a tall blonde (Mary Travers), a funny guy (Paul Stookey), and a good-looking guy (Peter Yarrow)". He launched the group in 1961, booking them into 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 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.

The group made its television debut in either 1961 or 1962 on the PM East/PM West talk show hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson. By 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary had recorded three albums. All three were in the Top Ten the week of President Kennedy's assassination.

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 student Leonard Lipton. Despite urban myths that insist the song is filled with drugs references, it is actually about the lost innocence of childhood.

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 manager, Albert Grossman, was also Dylan's manager. Their recordings of Dylan's songs helped people appreciate his music who had hitherto been put off by his nasal whine. 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.)

"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.

Breakup (1970–78)

The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue solo careers, but found little of the success which 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.

Reunions (1978–2009)

In 1978, they reunited for a concert to protest about nuclear energy, and continued to record albums together and tour, playing around 45 shows a year, until the 2009 death of Mary Travers.
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

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 1, 1990.

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.
Mary Travers was unable to perform on the trio's tour during the summer of 2009 due to her leukemia but Peter and Paul performed the scheduled dates as a duo.

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.