The recent death of Mary Travers, the “Mary” in Peter, Paul, and Mary, has renewed interest in the famous folk group and their music. According to Kip Lornell in the NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to American Folk Music, at their height, just before the arrival of the Beatles to America, Peter, Paul, and Mary were the most popular band in America.
Yet the origins of Peter, Paul, and Mary are rather humble, three separate entertainers struggling on their own, put together by an astute manager looking for a big hit and seeing promise before the trio sang even a single note.
The Idea of Peter, Paul, and Mary
Peter, Paul, and Mary began with three independent folk singers, and a manager with a large amount of foresight. According to her website, Mary Travers was a Greenwich Village native who had long been part of the folk music crowd, with her previous group, The Song Swappers.
Peter Yarrow was also from New York City, and after graduating from Cornell University, he headed to the Village to start his music career. Noel Paul Stookey, however, was a stand up comic from Maryland. He did sing, but was more of an all around entertainer than a pure musician, say Ronald Lankford in his book, Folk Music USA.
But it was Albert Grossman, a manager and important member of the Folk Music Revival, who first put the three together. According to Lankford, Gorssman’s idea was to form a group like the Kingston Trio, but replacing one of the men with a woman (like Ronnie Gilbert from the Weavers) and one man with a comedian (like Lou Gottlieb from the Limeliters). The trio of Yarrow, Travers, and Stookey fit his design perfectly.
According to peterpaulandmary.com, “the three artists decided to throw their lots together after blending their voices for the first time in Stookey's Lower East Side apartment.”
Peter, Paul, and "Mary Had a Little Lamb?"
Lankford says that while Yarrow and Travers were well versed in a folk repertoire, Stookey was raised on R & B music and only knew a few. Because they only had a few songs in common, the three decided on trying out their harmonies on “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
“When Yarrow, Stookey, and Travers hit the first notes of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” it seemed as though the gates of heaven had been thrown asunder and the angels broke out the trumpets,” says Lankford. Peter, Paul, and Mary went on to make their debut at the famed club, The Bitter End, in late 1961.
Peter, Paul, and Mary would go on to be one of the most popular groups in the sixties, and among the most famous folk groups of all time. Albert Grossman would find success as well. Grossman would go on to manage such acts as Bob Dylan, Odetta, Janis Joplin, Gordon Lightfoot, and The Band.
And all of it began in a small apartment on the Lower East Side, with a simple nursery rhyme.
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