Leaving on a Jet Plane

Flicking through TV channels this afternoon I came across Vintage TV with a show based on music of the 60s.

After a few tracks by such eminent artists as The Four Tops, the Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and James Brown, they came to playing the wonderful “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul and Mary.

The John Denver penned song became the trios biggest hit reaching no.1 in many countries in the world (though only getting to no.2 here in the UK).

Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers were created as an entity in 1961 by manager Albert Grossman who auditioned many singers based in the New York folk scene.

Leaving on a Jet Plane (performed by the trio in 1986)

They went on to have hits with such memorable tunes as Puff the Magic Dragon, If I Had a Hammer, The Times They are A-Changin’ and Bog Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind to name but a few.

Yarrow and Stookey continue to this day as solo artists, however Mary Travers passed away in 2009 from complications after a marrow transplant related to leukaemia.