The cover of a Peter, Paul and Mary archival concert album released in 2019; Peter Yarrow is at right
Peter Yarrow, the singer and songwriter who, with Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers, was a member of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, which was immensely popular throughout the 1960s, died today (January 7, 2025), at his home in Manhattan while in hospice care. His death at age 86, following a lengthy battle with bladder cancer, was announced by his children, Bethany and Christopher Yarrow.
Travers died 15 years earlier, in 2009, at age 72. Stookey, the trio’s sole surviving member, is 87. He visited Yarrow on Dec. 6 and read a portion of his upcoming autobiography to his longtime friend and bandmate.
The trio was formed in 1961 by manager Albert Grossman, who at times also managed Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Band and others. Peter, Paul and Mary received a warm embrace in New York City’s Greenwich Village and their self-titled debut album in 1962 for Warner Bros. Records topped the Billboard albums chart for seven weeks, thanks in part to a pair of cover songs, “Lemon Tree” and “If I Had a Hammer,” with the latter reaching #10 and earning a pair of Grammy Awards in folk music categories. A quick follow-up album, 1963’s Moving, reached #2, led by their single, “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” with lyrics by Yarrow based on a poem by Leonard Lipton, a fellow student at Cornell University. In subsequent years, there was much speculation that the song referred to marijuana use but Yarrow always vehemently denied it, sticking with his long-held story that it was about the loss of innocence in children.
That same year, Peter, Paul and Mary released a third album, In the Wind, which returned them to the top of the sales chart. A pair of cover songs written by Dylan, a solemn reading of “Blowin’ in the Wind” (#2) and a more joyous version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (#9), were substantial hit singles and their last to reach the top 10 for three years. (Their version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” won them another pair of Grammys, including one for Best Performance by a Vocal Group. Ironically, Dylan’s own recording of the song, also released as a single in 1963, never charted.)
In 1964, the trio’s first live album reached #4 but songs from several follow-up studio albums failed to reach a wide audience as Top 40 radio began to embrace hits from the British Invasion. Several years later, recognizing that the audience for popular music had transitioned from folk to pop and rock, the group recorded Album 1700. The single, “I Dig Rock and Roll Music,” co-written by Stookey, mimics the vocal style of several contemporaries, while name-checking them in the process: the Mamas and the Papas, Donovan and the Beatles, respectively, in its three verses. It went on to become a significant hit, reaching #9 on the Hot 100.
The trio failed to capitalize on the return to the top of the singles chart with new releases from a follow-up album. Overlooked though, from the Album 1700 release, was a song written by their friend, John Denver, whose debut studio album was also produced by Milton Okun.
The tune, “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” was issued in September 1969, more than two years after the Peter, Paul and Mary version was recorded with Travers’ lovely lead vocal. It reached #1 at the end of the decade, becoming their signature song.
Despite that pinnacle, the trio chose to break up in 1970 for solo careers. It was at that time that Yarrow was convicted and served prison time for taking “improper liberties” with a teenage girl at his hotel room. (He was granted a presidential pardon by Jimmy Carter in 1981.) By mid-decade, he co-produced the debut album for Mary MacGregor. Its title track, which he co-wrote, “Torn Between Two Lovers,” about a love triangle, reached #1 on the Hot 100.
Peter, Paul and Mary reunited several times throughout that decade for benefit concerts and even a ’78 reunion tour. They continued with a reduced schedule for years.
In the days leading up to his death, Yarrow’s children had encouraged fans to share stories and messages about their father. Bethany Yarrow noted, “My dad…is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and appreciation. It is the most precious gift we could collectively give him,” adding, “Each day is a gift.”
Yarrow was born on May 31, 1938, in New York City.
Many of Peter, Paul and Mary’s music collections are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
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