Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary Dies

Peter Yarrow, who was a part of Peter, Paul & Mary and helped popularize folks music within the early ’60s, has died. He was 86.

Based on The New York Instances, Yarrow died in his Manhattan dwelling on Tuesday. His demise was confirmed to the paper by his publicist, who famous Yarrow had been battling bladder most cancers for the previous 4 years. (His daughter had been posting updates about his well being lately.)

Yarrow – together with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers – shaped Peter, Paul & Mary in New York Metropolis within the early ’60s and located fame as a part of the Greenwich Village folks scene that helped give start to Bob Dylan across the identical time.

READ MORE: Bob Dylan Albums Ranked

The trio was one of many first acts to have a success with one among Dylan’s songs; their 1963 cowl of “Blowin’ within the Wind” reached No. 2 and received a pair of Grammys for Pop Vocal Group and People Report.

Though Peter, Paul & Mary typically shared lead vocals on their songs, Yarrow took the highlight on a couple of of the trio’s hit singles, together with “Puff the Magic Dragon,” which he cowrote.

Yarrow was born on Could 31, 1938, in Brooklyn. Along with his work with Peter, Paul & Mary, he had a solo profession within the early ’70s that yielded a pair of songs that hovered outdoors of the Prime 100. He additionally cowrote “Torn Between Two Lovers,” a No. 1 single for Mary MacGregor in 1977.

He was additionally an activist spanning many years and topics, protesting the Vietnam Battle within the ’60s and advocating for anti-bullying packages in colleges in more moderen years.

In 1970 he was convicted of taking “improper liberties” with a 14-year-old woman and served three months in jail. “I don’t search to reduce or excuse what I’ve finished and I can’t adequately specific my apologies and sorrow for the ache and damage I’ve precipitated,” Yarrow informed The New York Instances in later years. He was pardoned for the crime in 1981 by President Jimmy Carter.

Peter, Paul & Mary broke up within the early ’70s following the costs in opposition to Yarrow.  All three members pursued solo careers.

What Songs Did Peter, Paul and Mary Sing?

All through the Nineteen Sixties, Peter, Paul & Mary scored greater than a dozen Prime 40 hits, together with the Prime 10 “If I Had a Hammer” in 1962 (additionally a Grammy winner for Pop Vocal Group and People Report), “Puff the Magic Dragon,” Dylan’s “Do not Suppose Twice, It is All Proper” and their solely No. 1, 1969’s “Leaving on a Jet Airplane,” written by one other rising artist they supported, John Denver.

Peter, Paul & Mary additionally had two No. 1 albums: a self-titled debut in 1962 and Within the Wind from 1963. Their 1969 LP, Peter, Paul and Mommy, received a Grammy for Kids’s Album.

Travers died in 2009 at age 72 of leukemia; Stookey, who was born in 1937, remains to be alive.

Stookey issued an announcement (per The New York Instances) calling Yarrow his “artistic, irrepressible, spontaneous and musical youthful brother” and that he “grew to be thankful for, and to like, the mature-beyond-his-years knowledge and galvanizing steerage he shared with me like an older brother. … Maybe Peter was each of the brothers I by no means had and I shall deeply miss each of him.”