Co-writer of the group’s most enduring song, Puff the Magic Dragon, Yarrow and bandmates Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No 1 albums and won five Grammys. They also gave the career of fellow folk artist Bob Dylan a major boost by having hits with two of his songs, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Blowin’ in the Wind. The trio performed Blowin’ in the Wind at the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
Born May 31, 1938, in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper middle class family he said placed high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
After graduating with a psychology degree Yarrow found his true calling in folk music. He met impresario Albert Grossman, who would go on to manage Dylan, Janis Joplin and others and who at the time was looking to put together a group that would rival the Kingston Trio. Peter, Paul and Mary was the result, and the group swept all before it until breaking up in 1970. They reformed in 1981 and the trio continued touring until Travers’ death in 2009 — the same year Peter, Paul and Mary were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Peter Yarrow died on January 7 aged 86. — APL/Agencies
