Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known for his work in the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, whose career was later overshadowed by a conviction for molesting a 14-year-old girl, has died at the age of 86.
According to a representative, Yarrow died on Tuesday, January 7th, following a prolonged battle with bladder cancer.
Yarrow began performing while a student at Cornell University in New York. After graduating, he became immersed in the city’s fledging folk scene, eventually crossing paths with music manager Albert Grossman, who pitched him on the idea of forming a new age folk group. Yarrow was soon paired with Mary Travers and Noel Stookey to form Peter, Paul & Mary, and the trio released their eponymous debut album through Warner Brothers in 1962. Featuring songs including “Lemon Tree,” “500 Miles,” and a cover of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer,” the album proved a mammoth hit, spending seven weeks at No. 1 and going on to be certified double platinum.
The following year saw Peter, Paul & Mary build on their popularity with their single “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” as well as a cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind” by a then-relatively unknown songwriter named Bob Dylan, who was also managed by Grossman. Peter, Paul & Mary’s interpretation of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” as well as several other Dylan covers, helped spark interest in Dylan’s sophomore album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’. Also in 1963, Peter, Paul & Mary appeared on stage during Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, where they performed “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
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Peter, Paul & Mary continued to release music throughout the 1960s, and earned their first and only No. 1 single with the John Denver-penned “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
In 1970, shortly after the group disbanded to pursue solo careers, Yarrow was convicted of molesting a Barbara Winter. A year earlier, Winter, then 14 years old, and her 17-year-old sister, visited Yarrow’s hotel room seeking an autograph. Winter said that Yarrow answered the door naked and proceeded to masturbate in front of the girls. Yarrow served three months in prison for the conviction and was later granted a presidential pardon by Jimmy Carter.
Peter, Paul & Mary initially reunited in 1972 in support of George McGovern’s presidential campaign, and permanently reassembled beginning in the 1980s. They released music and toured consistently up until Travers’ death in 2009.