John Denver Wrote This Wistful Song In 1966 — Peter, Paul And Mary Made It No. 1 Three Years Later

While the aching "Leaving on a Jet Plane" is among the best John Denver songs that aren't "Take Me Home, Country Roads," he couldn't get the mid-'60s folk song to the top of the charts himself. But one of the most important bands of the 1960s did at the very end of the decade. 

Denver really nailed that unique folk-rock with country leanings and pop appeal sound in 1966 when he composed "Leaving on a Jet Plane." The piece explores the visceral, relatable pain of saying goodbye to loved ones before some kind of trip, and Denver gave it the appropriately emotional name of "Babe I Hate to Go," after the final line in the chorus. Denver included the song on his self-released album "John Denver Sings."

When RCA signed Denver to a deal and put out his 1969 LP "Rhymes and Reasons," he re-recorded "Babe I Hate to Go," but with a different name. Milt Okun, his favored producer, had convinced Denver to pick a more memorable line from the refrain, and so "Babe I Hate to Go" became "Leaving on a Jet Plane." Before the calendar would turn over to 1970, a cover of that song would hit No. 1.

In 1969, about when John Denver remade "Leaving on a Jet Plane," producer Milt Okun also oversaw another recording of the song by one of the decade's most prominent folk acts, Peter, Paul and Mary. Member Mary Travers had heard Denver's original and was so moved that she proposed that the trio sing it for its upcoming LP "Album 1700." As the year wore on, RCA issued Denver's version as a promotional single, and Warner Bros. Records released "Album 1700," but not intending to issue Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" as a single at all. 

So many radio stations started playing the latter interpretation of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" out of curiosity that it became an airplay hit, which persuaded Warner Bros. to mass-produce vinyl records containing the tune. Denver's recording didn't make the Hot 100 at all, while Peter, Paul and Mary's topped it. The influential combo's last 45 and first No. 1 hit ever, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," spent the week of December 20, 1969 at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Denver, ironically a musician who was tragically killed in a plane crash, returned to "Leaving on a Jet Plane" once more. Essentially covering a cover of his own song made popular by someone else, Denver put together a third take on the song for his 1973 greatest hits album.